It feels that in the past year the question that bothered Belarusians the most was “Is this the time for me to pack and leave?” We have just put behind the year 2011. But that year, being one of the most difficult the current generation can remember, raised a lot of questions to people of different walks of life.
The political and economic turmoil of 2011 made many people think that it is time to leave their naive ideals behind and move on (or away). Those commonly known as “silent majority” stumbled face to face with economic hardship and considered going somewhere with a less volatile exchange rate. This urge to leave cannot surprise anyone, it has its rational reason behind it. What I find more interesting is the fact that the thought of migrating became real to a lot of people who have always been politically and socially active, and insisted that leaving the country is somehow irresponsible and selfish, people who believed that as long as you don’t betray your ideals and values and work for the change of the authoritarian status quo there is no reason to leave. In a way, this type of thinking can be condensed to: Why should I leave when I know that I can make a change here and be happy in Belarus?
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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…
Since the Referendum in 1996, the 3rd of July is the official Independence Day of Belarus. Even though “independence day” by default should call on the patriotic feelings of all Belarusians and especially those representing the national democratic block, so many pro-democratic young people detest this date and the way the state organizes the “celebrations” to commemorate it. There are a number of reasons for that. 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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