[Whiteruthenian]

Besides extremists, do any ordinary Belarusians perceive themselves as Russian?

Yes. But there are few.

Yes. I wouldn’t be afraid to say that very few (if Exeter means Belarusians identifying themselves with the main ethnos of Russia).

did the Belarusians already regarded themselves as a distinct ethnicity from Russians in the Zarist era?

The impression that Belarusians appeared after splitting the Russian nation and identity, is not correct (formally speaking, Ruthenians and Muscovites distinguished themselves long before XX century).

It is not easy to answer your question. The Zarist era in Belarus lasted from the end of XVIII century to year 1917, and the identity of the native population changed a lot during that time. From the end of XVIII century to 1830s inhabitants of these land couldn’t feel especially close to the Russians. The elite was culturally polonized then and was predominantly Roman Catholic. The peasantry was predominantly Greek Catholic (Uniate). Up to 1830s the Russian Empire didn’t make serious attempts to russify these lands, the situation changed only after the uprising in year 1830. The Uniate church was abolished and became the part of the Russian Orthodox church (some Belarusians “escaped” to the Roman Catholicism although it was not allowed, but the main part became Orthodox). Before that time the Russian authorities distinguished Poles from Belarusians and Ukrainians not so well but after the uprising the theory about the triune Russian nation (which was supposed to include the Great Russians, White Russians and Little Russians) got a new impulse. As for the Catholic part of the Belarusians – they were put into the category “inovertsy” (persons of another faith) and often were simply regarded as Poles.

As I said the elite was culturally polonized at that time, but they had a regional identity - with the Great Duchy of Lithuania. That identification was so strong that survived the XIX century and existed at the beginning of XX century among pioneers of the Belarusian national movement as the intention to revive the Great Duchy (~ present Lithuania + present Belarus) in a new form. It is not unusual, because among those pioneers a large part were szlachta.

In my opinion in 1830-1917 we had this situation: the identity of White (Western) Russians steadily spreading among the Orthodox Belarusians, identification with Poles – among the Catholic Belarusians (doesn’t matter peasants or szlachta). Probably both the Catholic Belarusians and the Orthodox Belarusians distinguished themselves from “true” Poles and “true” Great Russians, but it was not what we call “a separate national identity”. The separate Belarusian national identity began to form and spread at the end of XIX century (and replace the two aforementioned identities), but, as I said, in 1917 it wasn’t rooted deeply yet in the Belarusian people, although the Belarusian national movement had some successes, no doubt. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had the declaration of independence of the Belarusian People’s Republic on 25 March 1918, the BSSR (as a part of the USSR), and independent Belarus now.