The Image of Russia and the Russians on the Pages of the Vilna Belarusian Newspaper “Nasza Niwa” in 1906 and 1907

Abstract

The publication in 1906, during the First Russian Revolution, in Vilna (Vilnius) of the first newspapers in the Belarusian language “Nasza Dola” and “Nasza Niwa” was a revolutionary event. This marked the beginning of a stable process of the formation of the national identity of the Byelorussian intelligentsia, outside the Polish and Russian national discourses, which took place mainly on the pages of these publications. One of the important factors in the formation of the Byelorussian national identity in this period was the awareness of the differences between Byelorussians and Russians, their understanding of their place in the Russian Empire, which included the Byelorussian lands. Russia and Russians — “other” or “alien”? Russia and Byelorussia — an empire and a region or two different countries? Rasieja, rasiejski, ruski — the names of the state and the people: what was invested in these concepts. The answers to these questions are important for understanding the process of forming the image of Russia and Russians in the ideology of the Byelorussian national movement, which entered an active phase during the First Russian Revolution.