Discriminative Economic Policy of the Russian Government Towards the Catholic Nobility of Belarus (Second Half of the 19th Century – the Beginning of the 20th Century)

Abstract

Introduction. The upper class of Belarus within the Russian Empire attracted the attention of researchers. However, the restrictive economic policy of the Russian government towards the nobility of the Roman Catholic faith has not been the subject of special study. The aim of the article is to identify the main aspects of the discriminative policy of the autocracy against the Catholic nobility of Belarus in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Methodology. The study is based on the fundamental principles of historical knowledge – historicism, objectivity, value-based approach, and traditional general scientific and concrete historical methods were used to implement the research tasks. Results. In 1858 in the Belarusian provinces the hereditary nobility made up one third of the upper class of the European part of Russia. The implementation of the “parsing the shliahta” policy led to a sharp reduction in the Catholic nobility by 1865. The government sought to economically undermine the economic activities of the Catholic nobility and equalize Russian and Catholic land ownership in the Belarusian region. This was reflected in the preferential sale of sequestered and confiscated estates, the prohibition of land purchases by Catholics, all kinds of fines and especially through contribution fee and a tax to support the Orthodox clergy. Conclusion. The government’s discriminative policy towards Catholic nobility was aimed at curbing the economic activity of “the Poles” in Belarus. The main elements of its implementation were the sequestration and confiscation of the estates of Catholics who directly or indirectly participated in the uprising of 1863–1864, various fines, the prohibition of the purchase of land holdings, contribution fee, taxes on maintaining the Orthodox Church, etc. At the same time, this policy did not lead to the expected results. At the beginning of the 20th century the Catholic nobility outnumbered the Russian nobility in land ownership.