“He Who Works Does Not Pay”: Szarwark in the Economy of the Western Belarusian Region in the 1920s–1930s

Based on legislative acts, archival materials, statistical data, and published documents, the article examines the little-studied issue of szarwark, a labor service in the Western Belarusian territories during the 1920s and 1930s, when the region was part of Poland. The author describes the organizational principles of szarwark specified in the legislation, analyzes the theoretical concepts of the Polish authorities regarding szarwark, and represents the statistical data illustrating the use of szarwark in the Western Belarusian region. Labor service was considered as the most accessible means to meet pressing some local needs and did not require much financial investment from local authorities, whose task was to organize the joint work of residents for their own benefit. It was claimed that peasants had a lot of free time and therefore labor duties were not supposed to interfere with their personal agricultural activities. During the second half of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, the scale of szarwark steadily increased and its application expanded. Quite often, labor service was the primary means for the Polish authorities to conduct work on the construction and repair of dirt roads, land reclamation, construction of public buildings, etc. using unpaid labor of local residents and mainly local natural materials with minimal financial costs. The share of szarwark in Western Belarus was significantly higher than in other regions of the interwar Polish state. It was a striking feature of the in-kind economic relations in the Western Belarusian territories and reflected their economic backwardness. Labor duties meant an additional burden for the local population. Residents who paid all their taxes were simultaneously required to fulfill labor service in order to ensure basic amenities. The imposition of an ever-growing list of duties on the population to meet local needs indicates low efficiency of the Polish authorities.

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