Polekhs are a subethnic group of Russians settled along the Desna River and Seym River and mixed with local populations of Belarusians and Lithuanians.
Also, the soldiers of the Belarusian division of general Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz were interned there after the war and finally were allowed to settle in the area, which added Belarusians and Russians to the ethnic mixture.
The exhibition shows the fate of four children, ex-prisoners in Majdanek Camp: Two Jewish children, Halina Birenbaum and Henio Zytomirski; a Belarusian child, Piotr Kiryszczenko; and a Polish girl, Janina Buczek.
Today the term “Litvin” is enjoying a revival, in some quarters, in Belarus, since many Belarusians prefer to be called “Litvins” and to affiliate themselves with the historical Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and believe that Belarusians contributed greatly to its culture.
In the late 1950s and the 1960s, he chaired the League for the Liberation of the Peoples of the USSR, comprising representatives of the Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Ukrainians, Georgians, Belarusians and North Caucasians.
There he joined the Polish Army in the East, being formed under command of General Władysław Anders, just like hundreds of other Belarusians from Western Belarus (Kresy).
After losses of 1918 and mid-1919, in June 1919 it was heavily reinforced with Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians and lost its Polish character; it was then (9 June) renamed to 52nd Rifle Division of the Red Army.