The article  draws attention to such an aspect  of the  history  of forced migration from Belarus as the long period of Belarusian  refugees’ stay in cities  and  villages of more  than  thirty provinces  of the  Russian  Empire. The article draws attention to the fact that  the very nature  of the relationship between  refugees and the local population was caused by measures of help to migrants,  creating  conditions for their  social adaptation, excluding  social tensions that  could arise due to the complex problems due to the fleeing itself as a mass extreme phenomenon. on the basis of archival materials, the materials  of the Russian periodicals of wartime, the author concludes that during the forced long stay outside the native places, which lasted for up to nine years, Belarusian refugees were in circumstances that  contribute to the aggravation of national traits,  in conditions that  stimulate awareness of their ethnic difference.