Europe did not need Belarus up to 1991, because Belarus as a political subject had not existed in European history until that year. The only exception was perhaps the Polatsk Principality in the early Middle Ages, which for more than 100 years successfully resisted integration into the Rus Kaganate, an Eastern European superpower that is known in modern historiography under the name of Kievan Rus. Polatsk was not only a participant in European politics but also an important link in Europe’s economic life. Its might was founded (...)

Belarus is experiencing a diffi cult period of its development. The consequences of a long-term reign of totalitarianism in this country proved much more serious than initially expected. The prospects of political, economic and social changes also proved more complicated than assumed. Numerous arising diffi culties, the problem of democratisation of Belarusian state and social institutions as well as the nature of development of political processes may be to a considerable extent explained by the heavy burden of the communist (...)

This paper presents research undertaken in archives in Poland and the UK on the situation of the Belarussian minority in Poland in the immediate post-war period. It draws heavily upon the pioneering work of Eugeniusz Mironowicz (1993, 2000) to position Belarussians’ experience within the Polish context and seeks to extend Mironowicz’s contribution by highlighting the role played by Poland’s war time western Allies in sanctioning both the redrawing of the Eastern border and the transfer of population groups on the basis (...)

That is a commonplace knowledge that even the most detailed prognoses tend to never come true. However, it does not mean that they are senseless. Anyway, instead of waiting for the miracle to come we need both to think hard and to come up with our prognoses. As for the future of Belarus, it can be easily predicted on the basis of similarity of today which arose from yesterday. Future of Belarus is predetermined primarily by its colonial fate. The latter, having been placed like a nut into the pliers of the two competing empires, (...)

I met Vasil’ Bykau in 1992 in Warsaw. As a member of the official delegation, headed by Stanislau Shushkevich, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, he participated in the Grand Opening of the Embassy of the Republic of Belarus, the first one in a short history of this country. One year prior to our meeting I had translated the Ablava (The Swoop) by Bykau. It was published in the Literatura na wiecie monthly in 1991. It was already at that time when I considered Bykau to be the only candidate who deserved being recommended for (...)

I think that xenophobic people see in the so-called globalization a demon depriving the nation of its strength, sucking out nation’s blood, and tangling creative thought. Globalization is a matter of convention, but in practice it resembles a system of communicating vessels. If artists are to see in globalization a threat, one needs to ask a question – a threat to what and to what degree. Each situation of emergency should mobilize a search for an alternative exit door, which does necessarily have to be a fire escape but, (...)

Many public figures, scientists, writers and artists of the world consider that in the 21st century one of the most important problems will be national and racial, especially in multinational countries. First of all, it concerns Russia, the USA and other big countries. And this may cause the most acute and undesirable consequences. It is not accidental that at the very start of the 21st century the UN (UNESCO) declared about the dialogue of civilizations. Koffi Anan, the UN Secretary General, is sure that „the variety of ethnic (...)

The Belarusian culture is not widely known in Europe. It is connected with a little importance of Belorussia itself, and its only recent independence. The wall of ignorance about spiritual achievements of the Belorus’ is slowly being crumbled by the national literature, for example Wasil Bykau, a candidate for the Nobel Prize, translated into many languages. The Belarusian literature has only recently started to seek place in the European awareness. In order to grant this phenomenon features of regular enterprise, we initiated (...)