Mniejszość bez reprezentacji... Kwestia przedstawicieli środowisk białoruskich w Radzie Narodowej Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w latach 1939–1945
A Minority Without Representation.... The Issue of the Representatives of Belarusian Communities on the National Council of the Republic of Poland in 1939–1945

Summary/Abstract: The following article discusses the attempts to expand the National Council of the Republic of Poland by introducing representatives of the Belarusian population in the years 1939–1945. The aforementioned structure was established in December 1939 as an opinion authority on the activities of the President and the government of the Republic of Poland. The introduction of representatives of Belarusians into its composition was supposed to be an act of treating them as equal fellow citizens and confirmation of the persistence of the Polish authorities-inexile on the position of inviolability of the eastern border of the Polish state. In the absence of wider political support for the initiative from the Polish political parties of the time and the inconsistency of the actions of the Polish government, all attempts to select representatives of the Belarusian population and bring them to London ended in failure. The way the plan was implemented revealed the nature of the national policy of the Polish Government-in-Exile in the years 1939–1945. Failure to introduce Belarusian representatives onto the National Council of the Republic of Poland resulted in far-reaching consequences and had a direct impact on the fate of the region and its inhabitants.

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