Russians

Białystok

minorities

sociology

The objective of the work is to present the opinions of the students of Białystok universities about Russians. The background to the considerations (unexposed in any survey research) are the close political relations with Russia stemming from historical conditionings and the current political events related to economic situation and events in Ukraine. Another premise are very negative opinions held by Poles concerning the modern image of Russia and a complex image of Russians themselves which stem from the all-Poland research conducted in 2015. The author’s own research was conducted in Białystok on a representative group of students from public universities. Białystok is treated here as a specific area – the border area with many co-existing cultures. A significant element is the respondents’ experience resulting from the presence of citizens from behind the Eastern border in Podlasie and Białystok, as well as the coexistence of many minorities. The research covers several types of neighbourhood which appeared in the respondents’ answers. The opinions of the surveyed participants were described in the following dimensions of neighbourhood: physical (cohabitat on a given area), social-cultural, religious and economic.