The “Belarusian Question” in the “Świat” Periodical in the Years 1918-1919 (original) (raw)

From the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Belarusian Democratic Republic: the Idea of Belarusian Statehood during the German Occupation of Belarusian Lands, 1915 - 1919

The Journal of Belarusian Studies, 2014

While co-written, the introduction, sections on the , Ober Ost and the conclusions are written primarily by Per Anders Rudling. The sections on the ideology, politics and internal divisions of Belarusian nationalism and the politics of the BNR are written primarily by Dorota Michaluk. 1 According to the census of 1897, 70 per cent of the children above the age of 10 were illiterate in the only 25.7 per cent could read and write. According to the Polish census of 1931, in Poland as a whole population (of Belarusians, Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians) above the age of 10; 17 per cent in the 1968; Tereshkovich 2004. The literature also contains examples of higher numbers. For instance, N. Niamiha claims an illiteracy rate of 71.1 per cent among the Western Belarusian population in 1931, a claim which should be treated with care, as we do not know the knowledge of what language he took into consideration: Polish or Belarusian (Niamiha 1956, 90).

The Path to a Soviet Nation. The Policy of Belarusization, Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, 2021, -p. 295, ISBN 978-3-506-79181-8

2022

The book sheds light on processes of Belarusian nation-building and identity formation during the interwar period. It provides a complete analysis of the Soviet policy of Belarusization in interwar Belarus (1924-1929). The analysis covers issues pertaining to the formation of national identity, the incorporation of the Belarusian national language into educational and administrative spheres within the policy of Belarusization and its acceptance by the different strata of the multi-ethnic society in the BSSR of that period. The monograph also sheds light on the reasons for the launching and ceasing of that policy as well as on the interrelation between the Communist Party and the Belarusian national intelligentsia.

Soft Belarusianisation. The ideology of Belarus in the era of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. OSW Commentary NUMBER 253 | 3.11.2017

2017

Over the past three years, a distinct change has become visible in the ideological discourse of the government of Belarus. To an increasing degree, the state ideology is focusing on strengthening national identity, emphasising the divergence of Belarus’s interests from those of Russia, and re-examining the historical narration in a direction which emphasises the distinctiveness of the history of Belarus from that of Russia. Above all, the government has changed its attitude towards the Belarusian language and culture. A campaign promoting the Belarusian language is being carried out on a large scale – under the auspices of state ideologues. The government has also become involved in the promotion of vyshyvanki, traditional, embroidered Belarusian clothes and their ornamentation. This allows us to talk about a process of ‘soft Belarusianisation’. Articles criticising Kremlin policy have begun to appear fairly regularly in the government media. Official representatives of the authorit...

ABOUT THE BELARUSIANS AND RUSSIANS IN BELARUS − REFLECTIONS ON THE BELARUSIAN SOCIETY

Ethnologia Polona, 2015

This article presents contemporary Belarusian society and focuses on the Russian minority and their place in Belarus today. The author’s reflections are based on current Polish, Belarusian and Russian literature on the subject as well as on ethographic material collected during ethnographic research conducted in Minsk and surrounding areas between 1997 and 2000.

Breaking with tradition: Belarusian short prose in the early twenty-first century

Canadian Slavonic papers, 2018

View Crossmark data workers. Cities were destroyed, with everyday prices skyrocketing. By 1943, only a quarter of the urban population received bread, and many people could no longer remember the last time they had seen meat. This chapter shows that many people just tried to survive, being what the author calls the silent majority. This book is a good addition to the history of Yugoslavia, the Balkans, and to studies on the Holocaust. It provides sufficient background to make it well suited for undergraduate courses. At the same time, it is well researched and well written, and includes several important images and figures to demonstrate the brutality of the occupation. The book is weaker where it deals with everyday life. Sections on living costs in cities, hardships in the countryside, or the occupational government's attempts to organize cultural events with German propaganda are relevant, but broad and not as detailed as, for example, the description of German occupational structures. Hopefully the author will return to the social and cultural history of the German occupation in some of his future works.