Belarusian Generation Y logbook

One of the biggest problems of modern Belarus is the lack of national identity. And indeed, the first form that an identity takes is the name, and that is exactly the reason why dozens of stubborn Belarusians keep sending official emails and letters of clarification to foreign news agencies and newspapers, asking them to refer to our country as to “Belarus” and not Byelorussia, or Weissrussland or any other forms of White Russia, and to use adjective “Belarusian” instead of “B(y)elOrusSian”. If you came to this blog, you might know that Belarus is a separate country, but I met a frightening number of educated people abroad who asked me if Belarus is a region of Russia. At the end of the day, you don’t expect Belorussia be that different from Russia. But the truth is that it is!

To me as a person it is completely clear why some people can find it strange. After all in Belarusian we also translate the names of most of the countries. However, when many of the so called strong democracies speak of solidarity with troubled nations like Belarusians, it is natural to expect them to call us the way we find more appropriate, especially when there are strong political grounds for that. So, as the only acceptable excuse is that people just don’t know, I will try to clarify the background of this issue further in this posting. Continue reading…

Today Belarusians are celebrating the 90th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR). Although this is not an official holiday, people still celebrate it and remember it as an important date of national history. This day is traditionally commemorated through a big street action and a meeting in the center of Minsk. This year’s 25th of March is celebrated with particular enthusiasm because of its big date – the 90th anniversary, as events associated to Belarus are held not only inside the country but also abroad.

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