Contemporary Belarus Research Articles

SONIC VIOLENCE CONTINUUM IN CONTEMPORARY BELARUS

This article analyses the use of sound — music, noise, and vocalization — within the context of politically motivated violence in Belarus since 2020. The goal of this study is to analyze the sonic violence practices and map their range. The first part of the text reviews literature about the use of sound and music for public space control, political indoctrination and “re-education”, interrogations, tortures, and executions by various — not only authoritarian — political regimes. The concept of sonic violence used in the following analysis, allows studying the use of musical and non-musical sounds, and focusing not only on external sonic influence but also on victims’ own voices weaponized and used against them. Since 2020, Belarusian pro-democratic media and human rights initiatives have gathered hundreds of interviews with people who underwent harsh treatment and violence from “law enforcers”. Many witnesses mention experiencing forced listening, speaking, chanting, singing, and other kinds of sonic violence. The article’s second part presents a qualitative analysis of publications in independent and state-funded media (2020–2023), reports of human rights NGOs, as well as other empirical materials (audio recordings, participant observations) that identify situations where sound, music, and vocalization were used by various Belarusian state agents in a coercive or violent context. Coding and categorizing such cases allows creating a typology that can be mapped as a continuum — according to the character, intensity, duration, and impact of violent techniques and traumatic experiences caused by them. This is the first study of sonic violence in contemporary Belarus, that not only shows its widespread and systemic character, but also analyzes its forms and strategies used to counteract it. The study shows the place of the current Belarusian events in the history and genealogy of sonic violence, revealing parallels with similar practices of other political regimes, both contemporary and historical.

Between politics, memory, and historiography. Mikhail Koyalovich’s West Russianism in the reflections of “neo-West Russianism”

The article presents analyses of historiographic narrations of Belarusian researchers (Yakov Treshchenok, Valeriy Cherepitsa, Valentina Teplova, and Alexey Khoteev) devoted to Russian historian Mikhail Koyalovich (1828–1891). At the same time, it illustrates the reformulation of the “West Russianism” ideology into “neo-West Russianism” and poses the question of how these narrations fit both the scientific discourse over history and memory taking place in contemporary Belarus and the decisions of President Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Белорусский вербатим как зеркало общества (на примере пьес "Patris и Мабыць"?)

As a theatrical phenomenon, verbatim originated in Great Britain in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Authors using this method paid special attention to serious social problems, for example, discrimination against women, racial inequality, terrorism, and others. At the same time, the basis of this direction became the documentary and focus on the life of the individual. In the post-Soviet space, the documentary theater turned to issues that were relevant to the former Soviet republics. The article analyzes two works (Patris and Мабыць?) by Belarusian playwrights – Siergei Ancelevich, Dmitry Bogosławski, Wiktor Krasowski) –who, using the verbatim method, try to understand the specificity of the mentality of contemporary Belarusians. Looking at the interviews presented in the works through the prism of sociological research, one can see how various concepts of Belarusian identity are implemented in theatrical space, how the homo soveticus model and the East-West dichotomy function in contemporary Belarus, what difficulties Belarusians encounter when choosing communication in the native language. The works presented in the article can be regarded as one of the first attempts to move from passive to an active awareness of one’s own national identity.

„Inność” w powieści Artura Klinaua Szalom

The article is devoted to the experience of otherness in the formation of an individual’s identity on the example of Arthur Klinau’s work Shalom. The focus of the study is the way in which the main character is created, including the role of an unusual object and the impact on his identity. The novel, published in 2011, is another example of the use of the motif of otherness in contemporary Belarusian literature. The analyzed work has not so far been the subject of in‑‑depth literary reflection in terms of otherness. The author of the article uses a traditional comparative analysis, in which the overriding criterion is to show the change in the protagonist’s perception of himself and the surrounding reality after putting on the helmet, as well as society’s reaction to a person distinguished by his appearance, and therefore defined by the prism of otherness. The purpose of the article is to verify the hypothesis that the selfifidentification of the main character – the sculptor André – as the “other”, determines his life fate in a Belarusian society afraid of change leading him to professional and social exclusion. In the course of the argument, it was concluded that the otherness of an individual in the world depicted in the novel with direct reference to contemporary Belarus is perceived by the authorities as a potential threat to the existing social order. At the same time, it should be stated that the protagonist’s behavior, although irrational and meaningless in essence, along with the growing repression, becomes a demonstration of independence and resistance to the authoritarian system limiting individual freedom.

Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State

Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State

‘Died from Debeeration’: the Case of the First Belarusian Political Game

Early computer games of the ‘Eastern bloc’ have been studied as important artefacts of early digital media, but their significance is usually limited to the historical context. In this article, I present a case study of the first popular computer game made in Belarus, which political relevance has persisted through over two decades. In order to achieve multi-sided description and interpretation of the case, three methods are combined: semantic analysis of the game itself, a survey of its typical players, and comparison to similar cases in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia. The proposed explanation of the game’s origins highlights the importance of ‘shared commons’, relics of socialism reused for a variety of purposes during the brief period of ideological liberalism. This allows situating this particular form of subversive media in the process of transition from socialism to capitalism in Eastern Europe – the process that has never been concluded in contemporary Belarus, contributing to the totalitarian situation of 2020–2021.

Orthodoxy in the land of Belarus: pages of history

This article describes the historical path of Orthodoxy in the lands of contemporary Belarus, which has taken more than athousand years and which can be distinguished by a great peculiarity. The states, including the Western Russian lands, have had a decisive influence on the church life of the local population. Orthodoxy came to the lands of present-day Byelarus together with the baptism of all Rus at the late 10 th century. It was the beginning of a complex and long-term process of the Christianization of the vast Old Russian state and the political unification of the East Slavic tribes. The second period in the history of Orthodoxy in ancient Russian lands was connected with the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and lasted until the proclamation of the Brest Church Union (the second half of the 13 th — the late 16 th century). It was characterized by a gradual loss of the position of the Orthodox Church as a result of the religious indifference policy pursued by the pagan authorities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, since 1387, open support of the Roman-Catholic Church, which ended with the adoption of the Brest Church Union. The third period, the 17 th — late 18 th centuries, was the time of struggle for survival in an environment of dominating Catholicism and anti-Orthodox legislation, which led the Orthodox Church to the brink of extinction. The late of 18 th — early 20 th century is characterized by the inclusion of White Russia territories into the Russian Empire. It was a time of Orthodoxy revival and reunification of the Belarusian people divided by the Brest Church Unity into Orthodox and Uniates. The Soviet years in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus are connected with the hard trials, which the Orthodox Church experienced during the Soviet time. The contemporary period in history of Orthodox Church in Byelarus begins with the foundation of the Belarusian Exarchate of Moscow Patriarchate in 1989 and proceeds up to now. It is characterized by not simple process of spiritual revival of the society and fast restoration of Orthodoxy’s positions in the sovereign Republic of Byelarus.

The youth of contemporary Belarus: Basic values, life plans and behavioral strategies

The article considers the transformation of basic values, life plans and behavioral strategies of the youth in contemporary Belarus. The changes in basic values are directly connected with the youths adaptation to the conditions of global instability. The new generation is sensitive to social injustice, violations of rights and freedoms, unwillingness to take into account their opinions on current issues of social development and the future. The self-perception of people regarding the possibility to realize basic values in the current social-economic conditions is an important factor of social stability. In both 1990 and 2018, family holds the first place among the basic values in Belarus; work takes the second place as a factor of decent life and familys success; the importance of friends and leisure remains the same over the decades, while the importance of politics and religion grows. International comparisons show that Belarus has the same hierarchy of values as European countries. The surveys prove a decrease in popularity of the traditional media among the youth and an increase in individualism, importance of personal self-realization in family and at work, and in reliance on ones own forces. In the public space, the needs and expectations of people have changed - there is an increase in political radicalization and critical perception of the most important events, which affects the behavioral patterns of social-demographic groups. Education together with the family and new information technologies have a significant impact on values - there is an intragenerational gap, alienation from society and increasing informatization. The article is based on the results of the sociological surveys conducted in the framework of the European Values Study (EVS) (the results of 1990 and 2018 are compared).

The Belarusian Orthodox Church at grassroots’ level: the organisation, functioning and role of Orthodox brotherhoods and sisterhoods in Belarus

This article is devoted to the analysis of the growing importance of brotherhoods and sisterhoods of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. Currently these organisations perform important social, educational, informational and charitable functions, up to and including at regional level. This article analyses how the conditions and the logic of their operation are dependent on local religious contexts and how they are inscribed in the broader context of the growing role of the church in emerging community welfare in contemporary Belarus. In this article, special attention is given to the analysis of activities of the Union of Sisterhoods and the sisterhoods in Lida and Novogrudok. These sisterhoods mainly work to achieve important social and charitable objectives. In the case of brotherhoods, their main activities have been confined to educational and missionary work, as seen in the example of the Three Martyrs of Vilna brotherhood in Minsk.

Bazilian education in the territory of belarus in the second half of XVII century

The article is devoted to undeveloped issue in historical science. Among the main objectives of the study are history of individual schools; efforts of Church leaders to intensify outreach activities; training local bazilianes in papal alyumnatah Vilnо, Brunsberg and Olomouc, the Greek college of Rome; methodological support of the educational process. The paper noted the existence in contemporary Belarus several important educational centers bazilianes – Minsk (up to 1655), Byten (second half 1660), Baruny (from the end of the XVII century). Their lack of proper amount is the main cause of the increasing role of foreign educational institutions. There was a direct relationship ecclesiastical career by studying abroad. Analysis of the specific provision of the Bazilian school schoolbooks showed that dominated in their foreign editions and Jesuit schoolbooks. Decline Vilna Unitarian printing house explained the publication of books of educational character themselves Uniate in Catholic publishing houses. Qualitative change in the situation was the new Uniate typography in Suprasl. The general condition of the Unitarian education in Belarus in the second half XVII century identified: Military devastation of the second half 1650 – early 1660; acute shortage of vehicles; competition from the Jesuits. Developed in these adverse conditions of the Bazilianes approaches to the organization of the learning process with a combination of its own educational traditions with the achievements of Catholic Education have allowed them to meet the needs of its denomination in a well-prepared priests and teachers

The quality of life of the older generation in Belarus

The demographic aging of population typical for many countries requires much more financial and material resources to meet the needs of the post-working-age population. For the Republic of Belarus, the problem of population aging is highly relevant for the share of the elderly grows annually. The article focuses on the social-demographic characteristics and quality of life of the older generation in Belarus. The article is based on the data of the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus and the results of the sociological research “Belarus: Family, Stability of Family Relations, and Birth Rate in the Changing Social-Economic Conditions” conducted within the international research program “Generation and Gender”. The authors present a sociological-statistical approach to the analysis of the key characteristics of the elderly’s life in contemporary Belarus, which combines the information resources of sociology and statistics. The authors consider the general statistical data on the population aging and the elderly’s features and the sociological indicators revealing the perception of life at the older age. The assessment of the older generation’s life is presented as a set of indicators of the quality of life, which includes both objective statistical data and estimates of the older people’s satisfaction with various aspects of their life. For the first time in Belarus the quality of life of the 60-69- and 70-79-year-old cohorts is studied not only through statistical data but also taking into account their own assessments of various aspects of their lives, which allows to identify the most relevant issues for the social programs aimed at meeting the needs of the older generation.

Soviet meta-jokes: tradition and continuity

This article provides the first published collection and analysis of Soviet meta-jokes, accompanied by a review of meta-joke research, and a discussion of the ways that scholars have understood the term. As far as possible, the Soviet meta-jokes published here appear in chronological order with the goal of showing how, with the help of certain intertextual links, these jokes reflected political and historical changes in joke-telling culture. Soviet meta-jokes captured how joking traditions developed, which joke cycles were especially productive and popular, and how people in the Soviet Union reacted to various jokes. I also show in this article how the characteristics of meta-jokes that have been identified in previous research are applicable to Soviet meta-jokes, and how their political content makes them distinctive from, for instance, mainstream Anglophone meta-jokes. Given the lack of meta-data on the Soviet joking tradition (due to the authoritarian regime), meta-jokes serve as a valuable social commentary on the tradition of Soviet joke-telling. The article concludes with several examples of meta-jokes from post-Soviet countries, demonstrating that such texts remain chiefly political; at the same time, I show how much more complex and sophisticated meta-jokes have become in the course of their development, both in terms of structure and content. The fieldwork-drawn materials from contemporary Belarus allow me to observe meta-jokes as they are told in a variety of forms and contexts—something impossible for the Soviet jokes (mostly archived without any context). The article documents, among others, multi-level meta-jokes from contemporary Belarus, showing how they keep seemingly old or extinct Soviet jokes topical.

The Religious Factor in the Politics of Memory in Contemporary Russia and Belarus: Comparative Analysis

The article attempts to analyse the role of the religious factor in the formation and implementation of Politics of memory in modern Russia and Belarus. The urgency of work is caused by the increasing role of the religious factor in the politics of memory of the two States in the first decade of XXI century the research Objective — identify and similarities in the manifestations of the religious factor in the politics of memory of Russia and Belarus. For this purpose, we identified the subjects and mechanisms of interaction of state and religious institutions in the formation and implementation of memory policy. We showed that in Russia, religious organisations have a greater subjectivity in the politics of memory and can form a complementary discourse of memory and expand it at the expense of their system of interpretation of the past. As concerns the religious factor of the processes of political socialisation in the context of the policy of memory we revealed in the interaction of religious organisations of the two countries with the systems of public education and the armed forces. We concluded the similarity of the strategies of this interaction in Russia and Belarus. We showed that in both states, the selective interaction with religious organisations is carried out according to the criterion of their tradition. We also concluded that religious organisations do not form adversarial, but complementary channels of socialisation in the implementation of the state policy of memory. The process of creating a symbolic space and the possibility of participation of religious organisations, especially the Russian Orthodox Church, which is a key actor here, is also analysed. We also studied the religious factor of memory policy in the context of integration of Russia and Belarus. We concluded that the attempts to use it building the value basis of integration on the concepts of the collective historical past have not yet been successful, but such an opportunity remains.

Oświata i szkolnictwo polskie na Białorusi. Analiza dyskursu prasowego «Głos znad Niemna na uchodźstwie» w latach 2014–2016

Artykuł koncentruje się na analizie dyskursu prasowego dotyczącego oświaty i szkolnictwa polskiego na Białorusi w latach 2014–2016 w tygodniku «Głos znad Niemna na uchodźstwie». Sytuacja polskiej mniejszości na terenach Białorusi była zawsze trudna ponieważ polityka władz białoruskich skupiała się na niszczeniu wszystkiego co związane było z polską kulturą oraz posiadającego polskie korzenie: inteligencja, szkoła, teatr, prasa. Sytuacja Polaków należących do polskiego społeczeństwa zamieszkującego obszar poza granicami we współczesnej Białorusi wydaje się być skomplikowana. Z jednej strony, stanowią oni duży odsetek społeczeństwa na Białorusi, jednakże z drugiej strony, znaczna ich część ma problemy z zachowaniem polskiej tożsamości. Polska prasa na Białorusi odgrywa ważną rolę w procesie tworzenia i rozwoju świadomości narodowej. Przez wiele lat tak ważną rolę odgrywał tygodnik «Głos znad Niemna na uchodźstwie» wydawany przez organ prasowy Związku Polaków na Białorusi. Analiza dyskursu prasowego okazała się być szczególnie pomocna w odniesieniu do spraw etycznych oraz mniejszości narodowych. Przeprowadziliśmy analizę pięciu wybranych artykułów w odniesieniu do oświaty i szkolnictwa polskiego na Białorusi na łamach tygodnika «Głosu znad Niemna na uchodźstwie». Zaobserwowaliśmy jakie tematy porusza się w prasie w odniesieniu do polskiej oświaty, czym jest dyskurs i tworzenie, rodzaje stosowanego słownictwa oraz struktur, jak i osiągnięte zmiany w zachowaniu oraz mentalności czytelników.

Astapova, Anastasiya Negotiating Belarusianness: Political Folklore Betwixt and Between (review)

SEER, 94, 4, October 2016 772 sense-memories and human interactions. It is both engaging and highly readable, and despite the odd typo and an incorrect date it is an extremely valuable addition to the growing body of literature on everyday life in the GDR, and will appeal to those interested not only in GDR history, but also in urban studies, geography, memory studies and sociology. While it might have been interesting to investigate the post-Wende period in more detail, such an endeavour doubtless warrants a study of its own. Although Marzahn may currently be seen as a place with no past and no future, there remains much to learn from its study in the present. School of Modern Languages and Cultures A. Saunders Bangor University Astapova, Anastasiya. Negotiating Belarusianness: Political Folklore Betwixt and Between. Dissertationes Folkloristicae Universitatis Tartuensis, 22. University of Tartu Press, Tartu, 2015. 214 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Price unknown. Political folklore in Belarus flourishes, despite the country’s reputation for apathy or, at least, passivity. Anastasiya Astapova’s thoroughly annotated dissertation offers the fullest analysis and illustration of this phenomenon to date. Its basic form is an extended introduction to the subject, including the work’s somewhat enigmatic title, followed by five of the author’s articles. The Introduction consists of: ‘Belarusian history and a rationale of current political situation’; ‘Representing Belarus: stereotypes, questions and challenges’; Theoretical framework and main concepts’; ‘Sources and methodology of this research’; and ‘The articles in brief and the main ideas described therein’. The English is at times less than authentic, and another minor problem is inherent to the dissertation’s format, namely the pagination, which makes direct reference to the work complex indeed: throughout the Introduction, References and Publications, as well as the first article, the pages are numbered consecutively 1–91; articles 2–5, however, are numbered individually, and the general pagination only resumes with ‘Summary in Estonian’ (p. 206). These small difficulties, however, pale beside the very thorough, well informed and illustrated research of a professional folklorist whose material, beyond the theory, is mainly derived from interviews with Belarusians inside and outside the country. Astapova has assembled some excellent verbal and visual illustrations to accompany her work. The first article, ‘Why all dictators have moustaches: Political jokes in contemporary Belarus’, for instance, has a picture of Hitler, Stalin and Lukashenka in profile over the heading ‘They Fought for Belarus’. REVIEWS 773 Manyofthejokesareofagenerickindrelatingtodictators,nationalstereotypes, limited intelligence and other staple topics, although the frequently inept sayings of the Leader himself appear highly amusing to many of the people interviewed. In article two, ‘Political biography: Incoherence, contestation, and the hero pattern in the Belarusian case’, small changes in the Leader’s date of birth make several of Astapova’s interviewees think of other plenipotentiaries’ tendency to alter the calendar at will. Hero patterns are graphically illustrated by two photographs of Lukashenka and Putin, each standing up to their waists in fields of corn. Beyond entertainment, the article gives seriously detailed attention to the origins, official and unofficial, of the Belarusian leader (nicknamed Baćka [Dad]), including national and racial features; for example, one picture shows a little boy holding up a placard: ‘A gypsy is no dad to me’. Article three, ‘When the president comes: Potemkin order as an alternative to democracyinBelarus’,describesafarfromexclusivelyBelarusianphenomenon in some of its most absurd manifestations, as the Leader regularly rides around his beleaguered country. As elsewhere in Astapova’s work, the academic narrative is lightened by stories told by the people she speaks to. The fourth article, ‘In search for truth: Surveillance rumors and vernacular panopticon in Belarus’, is introduced by a detailed theoretical introduction, before turning to rumoured and in many cases real instances of state surveillance. Belarus’s very high level of army personnel per capita (higher than Russia, for instance) and a large militia, as well as considerable mystery surrounding the command structure, all help to fuel fears that there may be a constant and omnipotent big brother. One cartoon shows Lukashenka behind a desk marked ‘Boss’ in the middle of a prison camp the shape of Belarus. Also discussed in this article are more than one terror attack, where the...

BELARUSIANS’ SELFIDENTIFICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF CIVILIZATIONAL BORDERLAND

The article is focused on Belarusians’ self-identification within civilizational borderland as it appears to have a considerable impact on the nation’s complex identification process and remains critical in contemporary Belarus under its strongman A. Lukashenko. Significantly, the current head of state and, most importantly, the official political course can be regarded as the key “identifier” of the Belarusian nation in the geopolitical and civilizational dimension. Lukashenko’s pendulum-like foreign policy highlights the national identity reference points and defines its either pro-Russian or pro-Western leaning. In the context of regime’s relentless maneuvering between Moscow and Brussels, Belarusians’ pro-Russia and pro-West orientations reached parity at the end of 2010. It might imply that the country’s identification trajectory can be modified in accordance with the ruling elite’s foreign policy imperatives and the current political conjuncture. Despite the fact that the elements of European identity are present in Belarusians’ identity code, notably as the symbol of better living standards, its role is far from relevant. Instead, strong bonds with the Eastern Orthodox civilization—nurtured within the Pan-Slavic “Russian world” paradigm—will probably prevail as the dominant vector for the nation’s identification in the long-term perspective.

Inteligenckie biografie na Białorusi. Studium przypadku

Intelligentsia biographies in Belarus. A case studyDrawing on a case study from the body of empirical research which includes 30 narrative interviews conducted using Fritz Schuetze’s biographical method with male and female residents of Belarus, the author explores the process of Belarusian identity formation of a Belarusian-speaking dissenting intellectual. The case study is drawn from the author’s research into the ways in which Belarusian-speaking intellectuals (the group locating itself in opposition to the establishment by the very recourse to the literary Belarusian language of instruction and everyday life as well as other dissenting identity markers) conceptualize and hone their national identity. One can trace the path towards fully-fledged Belarusian identity which unrolls via turning points, thanks to significant others through participation in intelligentsia circles. One of the membership rules in the social world of intelligentsia is the use of the high-profile Belarusian language. The interpretive analysis is set against the backdrop of the socio-linguistic situation in contemporary Belarus with its authoritarian regime, advanced Russification, contested memory field, restrained memory work and conflicting historical and national discourses.

Why All Dictators Have Moustaches: Political Jokes in Contemporary Belarus

AbstractBased on the repertoire of Belarusian oral political jokes collected between 2011 and 2013, this article compares contemporary Belarusian humor to the earlier Socialist and contemporary non-Belarusian jokes. During this study, I discovered that Belarusian oral jokes mostly have versions created through various schemes of adaptation in other countries and about other figures (not necessarily political). The continuity goes far beyond the exchange of jokes between dictatorships (as it may initially seem after the comparison of Belarusian and Socialist jokes). I also discovered that Belarusian oral jokes are mostly authoritarian – ridiculing the regime and the president, unlike post-totalitarian ones targeting ideology. Finally, drawing from the emic perspective which coins many more forms and themes as the markers of political jokes than the scholars usually do, I show how expansive the notion of political humor may be.

Белорусская национальная философия: опыт генеалогии предмета

The article advocates the application of the «theoretical philosophy» or meta-theory as an integrated methodology for the analysis of philosophical structures of diverse complexity. With this view it makes an attempt to reconstruct (on the example of Belarus) the genealogy of the subject of national philosophy as a complex and multifaceted dynamic object. It is pro-posed to consider the national philosophy of Belarus in three ways. First, it is the totality of the works of the philosophers who lived and worked in the territory of the contemporary Belarus. Secondly, it is the reflection on the destiny of this country. Thirdly, it is the history of the phi-losophy of Belarus as a scientific discipline. In the last narrow sense, the national philosophy is the structured (in many aspects artificially) discourse of the philosophical development of Belarus. The most important components of the national historical and philosophical process’ meta-theory are (1) the grasp of its essence, (2) the understanding of the structure, (3) the ge-neralization of practices and (4) the conceptual description of the process of the development of the national spirit.

Belarusian Traditional Culture in the Legacy of Oskar Kolberg

Abstract The article examines the subject of Belarusian musical and ethnographic materials collected by Oskar Kolberg. The materials on Belarusian folk culture, which were collected by the researcher throughout his whole life, were published almost 80 years after his death in Volume 52 Belarus–Polesie, while some of them are also to be found in Volume 53 Lithuania. Thus, the geography of these materials extends far beyond the borders of contemporary Belarus. However, individual regions of the country are not equally represented. Using the works of his predecessors, Kolberg compiled information about the culture and ethnography of Belarus and supplemented it with his own research. The author of this article divides the materials used to compile Volume 52 into two unequal groups: publications of other authors and the personal field notes of Kolberg (together with the materials sent to him by correspondents). The latter group, which constitutes more than a quarter of all the materials and is essential for assessing the Belarusian achievements of the Polish ethnographer, has been analysed in the article. The abundance of Kolberg’s own transcriptions of music in the volume makes his work into one of the key sources in 19th-century Belarusian musical historiography The author also puts forward a hypothesis concerning the Belarusian beginnings of Kolberg’s entire collecting activity.