Belarus and Poland in a Time of Instability: IV Belarusian-Polish Expert Forum named after Raman Skirmunt

18 June, 13:00-19:00, Warsaw
University of Warsaw Library (room 254, ul. Dobra 56/66)

On 18 June, a public session of the 4th Belarusian-Polish Expert Forum named after R. Skirmunt will take place at the University of Warsaw Library. The Forum is a platform for experts, involving representatives of civil society, business and politics in discussion in order to strengthen partnership relations between the societies of the two countries. The main organisers are the Institute for Political Studies “Political Sphere” and the Centre for Eastern Studies named after Mark Karp. The Forum will include presentations of studies on bilateral and related issues.

13:00-13:50 “The Russian World” as an Infrastructure of Hybrid Influence in Belarus,

December 2025-May 2026. Presentation of the results of monitoring conducted by the Institute for Development and Social Market in Belarus and Eastern Europe. The monitoring records Russian influence in Belarus in the areas of state partnership, education, historical memory, religion, work with youth and other fields.
Speakers: Dzmitry Kukhlei (IDSMBEE), Pavel Tserashkovich (Belarusian Association of Education and Science), Mariusz Maszkiewicz (Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University)

14:00-15:15 “Belarus after a Potential Peace Settlement in Ukraine”. The report was prepared by a group of Belarusian experts and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Belarus Office. The document examines three possible scenarios for the development of the war, each of which could create qualitatively different conditions for Minsk.
Speakers: Artsiom Shraibman (Sense Analytics), Leu Lvouski (BEROC), Yan Auseyushkin (iSANS)
Moderator: Kamil Klysinski (OSW)

15:30-16:45 “Polish Public Opinion on Belarus and Belarusians”.

A sociological survey of a sample of 1,006 respondents was conducted in May 2026 by the Institute for Political Studies “Political Sphere” in partnership with SW Research (Poland). The results help to understand how Poles perceive Belarus and Belarusians in the context of politics, the economy, migration, culture and history.
Speaker: Andrei Kazakevich (Institute for Political Studies “Political Sphere”)
Moderator: Andrei Yahorau (Centre for European Transformation)

17:00-18:15 Presentation of the translation of Hanna Engelking’s book Kolgasniki: An Anthropological Study of the Identity of Belarusian Villagers at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries. The book is based on many years of field research by Polish ethnographers in Western and Eastern Belarus and reveals how the experience of collectivisation, war, atheisation, work on the land and faith in God shaped the identity of Belarusian kolkhozniks. The translation was published by the Institute for Political Studies “Political Sphere”. Learn more about the book translation: https://palityka.org/2026/06/hanna-enhjelkinh/
Speaker: Hanna Engelking (Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Discussants: Katarzyna Waszczynska (University of Warsaw) and Aliaksandr Smalianchuk (Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Moderator: Aliaksei Lastouski (Belarusian Institute of Public History)

A reception for participants and guests will take place after the event.

To attend the event, please fill in the form.

Contact: [email protected]