Visiting Belarusians in Poland
Oleg SUPRUNYUK, "Brest Courier", No 16, April 20, 2006
There is a saying that the citizens of Brest use, which goes “Poland begins there, beyond the river". But getting there, to the neighbours, and more importantly, to those who also call themselves Belarusians, is possible (even more easier for some) by wood paths too. This is one of the reasons why Belovezhskaya Pushcha is considered a single entity, despite being split by the state border.
Adventures of getting abroad
The story about Pushcha and its wood paths will follow a bit later because the author of this article decided to reach his destination by railway. At that moment it seemed to me the railway was so to speak a less extreme way than the wood paths. I would have never expected, however to go through so many adventures on this way. I probably looked really unusual among the ordinary passengers of the "Vysoko-Litivsk - Czeremcha" train so, at the beginning the frontier guards became interested in me, then the customs officers and finally a man, whom I suspected of being a member of a famous "competent" service. This kind of interest was shown to me for an hour and a half (during which the train and all its passengers had to patiently wait!), and it turned into a thorough personal examination. The examination was not limited to undressing. I had to take my footwear off and demonstrate my socks [were empty]… This procedure is probably considered a strategic standard for persons suspected to meet contraband or drug trafficking. After nothing suspicious was found in my personal items, their attention was drawn by a notebook, a recorder with audio-cassettes and a local newspaper. Having looked through some items, the "competent" man confused me with the question "Isn’t the Brest Courier here yet?" After getting the negative answer, he surprised me with the next question "Why the newspaper was not sold in the Kamenetz district". I had to explained that this doesn’t depend on the editing office alone, which would be glad to distribute the newspaper as before, but…
They didn’t want to just release me after such careful examination and, therefore, a protocol made under the solemn figure No 1 established that one of the audio-cassettes (it kept a record of the voices of any "suspicious" persons, in opinion of the examinations) was to be left at the border. Only after the protocol they wished me "a nice trip".
We elect the authority ourselves
Forgive me my readers for deciding unilaterally to describe in details the beginning of the journey. It is clear that few fellow journalists were "lucky" to get away from story like this one. I especially asked journalists of metropolitan and regional editing offices about this matter. It seems to me that this case at the border station demonstrates quite brightly the general tendency of the last time - any source of information found in a travel bag causes much more questions at the customs examination than a "superfluous" piece of sausage or a bottle of vodka.
I remembered this once more in Poland, when Slavomir Ivanyuk from the state archive of the city of Bialystok told me how local Belarusians, by means of printed word, called to votes the inhabitants of the Podlasie region during the 1989 elections campaign, the first free elections in the modern history of the state. Frankly a lot of things were done at a primitive level back then (it is easy to say this now in the era of Internet and new technologies), but those leaflets reached their purpose in times when state mass-media dominated everything.
With elections in Poland there is a different story. It looks strange for us but after the reform of the self-management system, local elections are of the greatest importance for the inhabitants of the neighbouring country. The explanation is simple enough - people vote not only for deputies, but also for the persons who lead the executive authority. In this context "vertical administrative system" exerted by top leaders on local chiefs does not exist. If we add that Polish local and district authorities - which correspond in a way to Belarusian village and district soviets - have much more power and financial means to put their plans into practice, then we understand why interest in local elections is so great. It is also necessary to note that taxes and revenues of each local authority are absolutely transparent and have an appropriate legislative base. This does not mean at all that the system of local self-management in Poland achieved absolute perfection (dramatic discussions concerning its improvement are still taking place) but one can hardly prefer the Belarusian model, which was made ten years ago. I would like to recall the fact that a referendum was held in our country back then, and that results supposedly showed most of the population does not wish to elect the heads of local executive authority and does not want to know which are fields of the state budget finances.
"It is better to live in Europe with the Belarusians"
About how the system of local self-management works, it could see by way of illustration at the Czyze local authority, which recently established a partnership with the Kamenetz District Executive Committee. Around 2,700 inhabitants live within the territory of this administrative unit which unites 23 built-up areas. Almost 80 percent of inhabitants identify themselves as Belarusians, therefore it is quite obvious why only representatives of the Belarusian Election Committee and the Union of Left Wing Democrats (SLD) have won seats in the local council during the last elections. The head of the local authority Erzy Vasiliuk informed that the basic revenues of the body hi is a head come from an immovable property tax, agricultural and wood taxes and also from other payments. Target payments for concrete projects, and also the contribution from the European Union budget (for roads infrastructure and water pipes in rural houses of Czyze) are essential support for the local authority's budget.
However, it was the farmers that felt the major benefit of Poland’s membership of the "Union", as locals call EU. Jan Adamczuk is one of them. He even joked in the beginning of our conversation: "The [European] Community has set foot here, and the Union doesn’t allow questioning the rules". However, he then started quite seriously and with economic precision to enumerate advantages gained from the European "order". These advantages are quite many. "One can retire at the age of 55 (the Poles earlier had to reach 65 to be allowed to retire). Money is allocated to create beneficial conditions for any business entrepreneur. Specially created bodies care about various grants for those who cultivate ecological crops or artificially limit the number of cattle. As a result, each of the farmers in Czyze, for instance, gains from the EU 700 Zlotys on average per one hectare of land. If we take into account that a farm in Podlasie province consists approximately of 15 hectares, the sum turns out quite good.”
"Uncle" Jan, very much into politics, admitted that last time he voted for famous Polish populist Andrzej Leper ("though he’s also a chatterbox"), regretted President Lukashenko ("why does the Union not like him?"), sacrificed Belarusian tractors ("Excuse me but it is better to buy something from the West") and summarized the conversation with a strange but frank wish " It would be better to live in the united Europe with brother Belarusians".
Paradoxes of Belovezhskaya Pushcha
One more topic around which disputes are in progress in the Polish society is unemployment. On average it reaches 17.5 % of the population able to work in the country, while in Podlasie unemployment fluctuates around the 15 % figure. It seems that after Poland’s accession to the EU the situation does not look so dramatic anymore – with the common labour market now open, many of the Poles left over the border to earn their wage in the countries of "old" Europe (over 170,000 Poles are in Ireland alone). The problem however is that people of young age and high qualification mostly go abroad to work and it is not so easy to replace them in Poland with skilled employees, taking into account the professional level of the unemployed and the offered salaries. Some kind of "grey" labour market emerged when, by hook or by crook, these vacancies have started to be replaced by the Belarusian and Ukrainian citizens, for whom Polish fees look much more attractive than native ones.
It is clear that the "grey" of the labour market is characteristic, first of all, for Warsaw and other large cities of the country. As to Podlasie, local authorities try to fight unemployment in other ways and placed all their hopes on the development of tourism. Some years ago an agreement was signed on the creation of Euroregion "Belovezhskaya Pushcha", which encompassed boundary areas of Hajnowka and Belsk provinces (many ethnic Belarusians live on the territories of these administrative units), and also Kamenetz and Pruzhany districts of the Brest region and Svisloch district of the Grodno region. The Head of the Hajnowka province Vlodzimerz Petraczuk, elected the Chairman of the Euroregion’s Council, told how plans were made at first to create with joint efforts a unique complex of primeval woods to become more popular among the fans of nature and travels. However the expressed enthusiasm of the initiators has now decreased. The local authorities have no relation with the National Park "Belovezhskaya Pushcha" situated on the Belarusian territory and subordinated to Property Management Department of the Belarusian President, there is no base for setting business cooperation, for attracting tourists who would ignore the presence of the state border in order to visit Pushcha's landscapes. Through its actions the administration of the National Park made it clear that it does not need assistants to develop tourism activities. If someone wants to visit an estate of Grandfather Frost, will be very welcome but [in their opinion] the idea of riding bicycles or walking across the woods of Belovezhskaya Pushcha ought to be left alone.