George Matulaitis Journal

Sztafinski, who is a deacon and a nationally conscious Belorussian, came today. He is from the Sokó = ka deanery and attended secondary school in Gardinas (Grodno), where he belonged to a youth group supervised by Father Hrynkiewicz, a Belorussian. I asked him if there were many Belorussians in the senior year. He said that he did not know. The Belorussians do not own up. They hide their nation- ality because they are afraid of being persecuted. Normally, especially in the lower courses, not many seminarians admit to being Belorussian, but after receiving major orders, some do own up that they are Belorussian. In the past they would do so only after they had gone to the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, other Belorussians do not admit their nationality even after graduating from the seminary. They remain Poles because they are afraid of antagonizing the authorities. From a national point of view, the situation at the seminary is very difficult. Those who present themselves as Belorussians are treated with disdain. I asked him if it were true that when the list of students is drawn up, the Belorussians are forced to sign up as Poles. He said that it was so. There were two courageous fellows who signed up as Belorussians, but they had to pay for it. One of them was expelled, but perhaps for some other reason as well. The Polish paper Dziennik Wile < ski [The Vilnius Daily] had announced that out of more than twenty ordained seminarians, only two were Lithuanian and all the rest were Poles. Since there were many Belorussians, they demanded that the newspaper correct the error, but it refused. Sztafinski said that he did not know very much about this inci- dent, since he had been at the seminary in Zhitomir 1 ( ÷ ytomierz in Polish) at the time. He related how the Polish priests of the Sokolka deanery conspired against the Belorussians and make every effort to Polonize them. The Germans had established about forty schools for the Belorussian people. The priests boycotted them, urging the parents not to send their children. The priests would not teach catechism in these 225 1 An important industrial and cultural center of the Ukraine; it had its own cathedral and Seminary. It had been the ancient seat of the Latin-rite bishops of Kiev.