Why do most Belarusians speak Russian while most Polish Belarusians speak Belarusian?

3 Comments

1. Eugene says:

   July 27, 2010 at 6:01 pm

   I call BS!
   Belarusian,has a great mutual intelligability with standard Russian,so there is no way to ban it,without banning regular Russian.
2. Erik Van Thienen says:

   July 27, 2010 at 6:01 pm

   Because of Stalin.

   "[After WWII] Joseph Stalin implemented a policy of Sovietization to isolate the Byelorussian SSR from Western influences. This policy involved sending Russians from various parts of the Soviet Union and placing them in key positions in the Byelorussian SSR government. The official use of the Belarusian language and other cultural aspects were limited by Moscow. After Stalin died in 1953, successor Nikita Khrushchev continued this program, stating, "The sooner we all start speaking Russian, the faster we shall build communism"."
3. caitlin says:

   January 16, 2011 at 12:24 pm

   because belarus, ukraine, poland etc. were once part of russia