Польская аперацыя” (1937 – 1938) – курс на канчатковую асiмiляцыю польскай нацыянальнай меншасцi у БССР.

This article is based on literature review and historical Polish and Belarusan archives and attempts to establish the main reasons for undertaking mass extermination of the Polish population in the BSSR during the years 1937-1938 during the “Polish Operation,” by high-level Soviet leadership. In addition, an analysis was undertaken to establish the number of Poles shot or sent to far regions of the USSR. These numbers significantly differ from the numbers used by Belarusan historians working in public universities. The difference is the result of their use of statistics offered for public use by the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB; these numbers are treated with certainty. In practice, the enactment of the “Polish Operation” was the beginning of the end of the normal functioning of the Polish minority in the BSSR and had the goal of complete forced assimilation and integration to the Soviet People for whom class consciousness was the most important and deciding factor to further human existence over national identity, national culture and faith. The “Polish Operation,” and bloody terror which accompanied it, suspended the harmonious development of the Polish national minority in the BSSR and became the direct reason for the loss of Polish language which resulted in the cessation of use of the language by Poles in the BSSR in their national community.