Arloŭ , Uladzimir Hierasimovič , Źmicier Belarus. The Epoch of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: An Illustrated History (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 555 Mykolaichuk’s casting as Ivan, the reception for the film was lukewarm in 1965, at least outside of a segment of the Ukrainian cultural intelligentsia. As one disenchanted cinemagoer wrote, ‘for the first time in my life, I saw spectators, not by themselves, but in rows, who got up and left’. The film’s celebrated status in Ukrainian cinematic history then may be ascribed to its apparent espousal of an emergent Ukrainian nationalism. Depsite Paradjanov’s elliptical references to preserving ‘national colour’ in the film (p. 49), his cinematic work arguably displays no affinity to nationalism in any form. Except, perhaps, that rarest of belief systems, Soviet nationalism. Disputes about the existential meaning of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors were conducted within the framework of hermetic 1960s debates about how to define ‘poetic cinema’ and ‘national cinema’. As First argues, these discussions were ‘filled with allusions to the great conflict between formalism and socialist realism during the early 1930s’ (p. 45). Although these debates now have a decidedly musty aura, the film remains. First concludes his work by pointing, tantalizingly, to the films continuing influence over present day, and presumably future, filmmakers (p. 58). We shall see. Department of History Steven A. Usitalo Northern State University Arloŭ, Uladzimir and Hierasimovič, Źmicier. Belarus. The Epoch of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: An Illustrated History. Translated by Jim Dingley. Technalohija, Minsk, 2018. 407 pp. Illustrations. Chronology. BYR55.00. History is particularly important in Belarus, a country which has been described variously as denationalized (David Marples) and the last dictatorship in Europe (Condoleezza Rice), and where history constantly needs to be asserted and reasserted in order not to be crudely distorted or forgotten. Few have been more active in this Sisyphean task than Uladzimir Arloŭ, author of numerous historical novels and illustrated books aimed at raising the national consciousness of adults and their children. The role of Hierasimovič in this handsome volume was to design the layout of the many illustrations (some of which were made by him) amongst the texts and other materials. In many ways this book is a successor to Arloŭ’s earlier Kraina Bielaruś (Bratislava, 2012) translated by Jim Dingley as This Country Called Belarus (Bratislava, 2013); it is immense in scope: from the Bronze age via the medieval period to the early twentieth century. The translation from the original Belarusian is both fluent and accurate, although the spelling of some of the names of places and people in the Belarusian rather than the SEER, 97, 3, JULY 2019 556 familiar manner could startle some readers who had not read the translator’s explanatory note (p. 4). Nationally conscious Belarusians regard their country as the successor state to the misleadingly named Grand Duchy of Lithuania (hereafter GDL). The principal basis for this claim lies in language and culture, for the state documents of the GDL were written in what linguists regard as Middle Belarusian; indeed, when Muscovy engaged in negotiations with this flourishing state, they requested interpreters to accompany the GDL’s delegation. This is a highly informative as well as extensively and handsomely illustrated volume comprising seventy sections from Slavs and Balts to Belarusians in modern Lietuva (aka Lithuania). It is not possible to name all the sections, and difficult to pick out individual ones, although the second offers a lucid introduction to the part played in the medieval period by the early Belarusian principalities, Polacak (Arloŭ’s native city), Smaliensk (now claimed by Russia), Turaŭ (soon to include Pinsk and Bieraście) and, obviously related to these early states, religion and culture. The last section on Belarusians in modern Lietuva, amongst other things, shows how important the city of Viĺnia (Vilnius as the capital of Lithuania) was to Belarusians in the late renaissance and the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. During the book as a whole the importance of this city for Belarusians emerges very clearly indeed. The aim of the book under review is to persuade and inform, and to this end it is well supplied with a list of the key historical personalities, as well as a series of valuable chronologies to accompany many of the sections, thus allowing the commentaries...