Modern Belarus Research Articles

Chinoiserie in the Radziwill Castles of the 18th Century. Luxury in Oriental Style

The monograph by Doctor of Art History Olga Dmitrievna Bazhenova is devoted to the problem of interpreting the artistic traditions of the East in the culture of Belarus in the 18th century, namely the embodiment of the ideas of the chinoiserie style (Chinese style) in the decorative programs of the Radziwill castles and masterpieces created at the princely manufactories of the 18th century. The central place in the book is occupied by the study of the album of drawn projects of furniture, weapons, ceramics of the court artist Fischer. As the author convincingly shows, the artist's graphic projects and the objects created according to them demonstrate the correspondence of the search for chinoiserie on the territory of modern Belarus to the current trends of this exotic style in European art of the 18th century. The publication is supplemented with valuable analytical information, based, among other things, on archival data. The richly illustrated edition is prepared in Russian and English, which allows it to be relevant not only in the Russian-speaking environment.

Gypsies of Belarus. Ethnocultural review of traditions and rituals of the gypsy-speaking population of Belarus

The authors consider the main linguistic and ethnocultural features of the Roma of Belarus from the point of view of preserving traditions, rituals at the birth, marriage and funeral. As the analysis shows, the surrounding population in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and modern Belarus had a noticeable influence on the subgroups and clans of the Roma population of Belarus, expressed in rather different performances of traditions, rites and rituals. The authors hope that future projects aimed at preserving the culture of Roma communities will help maintain the unity of kinship communities in a touchscreen environment, despite the reduction in communication due to policy changes in the states where Baltic Roma live (Belarus, Russian Federation (Russia), Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). In addition, in these countries (except Belarus and Russia), Baltic Roma have stopped learning Russian. This skill played an important role for them as a communication tool. It is concluded that only parents are able to help Roma children feel a family connection with their ancestors and sense their national identity.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEMORY IN THE SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF MODERN BELARUSIAN SOCIETY: THE THEORETICAL ASPECT

This study employs a socio-philosophical analysis to reveal the role of social memory in the societal transformations of contemporary Belarusian society and highlights the importance of this phenomenon in shaping its socio-cultural development. The theoretical and methodological framework for this research includes societal functionalism, an anthroposocietal approach, the concept of social transformations in post-Soviet societies, and an informational approach to the study of social memory. These approaches enable a detailed exploration of how social memory influences societal transformations in modern Belarus, allowing for an assessment of its normative, value-based, and functional potential in establishing and maintaining a normative order, fostering social stability, and generating tension within the socio-cultural space.

FROM PRISON TO A MODEL OF BELARUSIAN SOCIETY

This analytical essay is a fragment of the research devoted to the analysis of the organization and way of life and social relations in modern Belarusian penitentiaries after August 2020. The study proposes to consider the world of the Belarusian prison as a social model, which the Belarusian authorities are actively unfolding in modern Belarus. This model manifests itself especially in the situation when a large number of political prisoners appear in prisons, which creates situations of confrontation between two worlds. The author consecutively examines several lines of tension in the lifestyles and actions of two colliding worlds: identity and self-image, critical thinking, minority (Unmündigkeit), community connections and relations, the private and the public. The conclusion gives a general characterization of this social model and examines the phenomenon of communal sociality as a basic element for the formation of this kind of systems in the modern world. The research is based on the reflection of the author’s personal experience.

GENESIS, CHRONOLOGY AND HISTORICAL DESTINY OF THE BROMME CULTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERFLUVE OF THE WESTERN BUG, PRIPYAT AND NEMAN IN THE LATE GLACIAL

The article is devoted to the problems of the chronology and historical fate of the Bromme culture in the context of the settlement of the territory of modern Belarus, and in particular, the interfluve of the Western Bug, Pripyat and Neman. The author made a review of historiography on the research problem and indicates the degree of study of these issues in the Belarusian historical and archaeological science. Based on the data obtained as a result of field research on archaeological sites, as well as data from natural sciences, possible options for the appearance of the population of the Bromme culture as a result of natural disasters were formulated, which, in turn, contributed to its formation and development of the West Bug-Pripyat-Neman interfluve in the future.

Візон річковий (Neogale vison) у заплаві Нижньої Прип’яті (Білорусь)

The settlement of Neogale vison in the territory of modern Belarus began 70 years ago. The expansion of N. vison determined the displacement of the native Mustela lutreola. At present, N. vison is an abundant, non-native game species in Belarus, including the territory of Lower Prypiat. A review of N. vison sightings in two administrative districts in the Lower Prypiat floodplain (Kalinkovichi and Mozyr) in 2023 was carried out. A total of 5 sightings of N. vison in the Mozyr district were collected and presented in the report. In Prypiat, there are cases when individual animals of N. vison show trustfulness to people, which is not typical for completely wild animals. The probable source for replenishment of the local population is fur farming, which is also supported by data from geneticists. In this connection, it is obvious that different colour morphs described by the author are regularly recorded in the region.

The Land of the Sad Songs: Belarusian National Identity through Polish Documentary films in the 1930s

Belarusian national identity is a taboo subject in Belarus nowadays, unless identity is understood in a Soviet/Lukashenko way. So for Belarusians, who have gone through national destruction more than once, this issue is not just a usual research topic but a crucial question that can contribute to national survival. In the 1920s-30s a part of Belarusian lands belonged to Poland and Polish filmmakers shot some documentaries there, which turned out to be the sole materials since whatever was taken in Soviet Belarus at this time, got burned later. This research aims to determine what these visual materials communicate, how they can add to the Belarusian identity and why it is important for modern Belarus and its cinema.

Moniuszko and the Revival of the Noble Traditions: The Countess and The Haunted Manor

The two recently recorded CD sets of Hrabina (The Countess) and Straszny dwór (The Haunted Manor) in complete concert versions with eighteenth-century instruments add enormously to the Polish operatic repertoire in the nineteenth century, and offer a fresh listening experience for those who have long wished for first-rate recordings of lesser-known, yet brilliantly executed, works of the hitherto neglected composer, Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872). Born in the Minsk district of modern Belarus, Monisuzko was gentry, and his nostalgia for the customs, the fields and forest, and the rural community that shaped his childhood years, fuelled his enthusiasm for modern operas set in the eighteenth century. These stellar concert versions of The Countess and The Haunted Manor provide a fascinating glimpse into the provocative and glittering salons of the eighteenth-century Warsaw nobility, whose inhabitants stand firmly in contrast to the more modest and self-effacing life of the peasants and the country gentry. In both operas Moniuszko successfully provides a romanticized portrayal of pre-Partition courtly life in Poland. While these two operas were highly regarded as national treasures in Poland, they were not particularly well known outside of the country. Polish opera at that time was largely overshadowed by Italian, French, and German composers, and the nation's subjugation to the Hapsburgs, Prussians, and Russians throughout the nineteenth century contributed mightily to the neglect of staged works by Polish composers. Additionally, singers needed to be trained in the nuances and inflections of the language. Prior recordings were either incomplete or were not available with English translations of the librettos. With the Biondi and Nowak recordings, Moniuszko's vision of expanding his art to a global audience has finally been achieved. These recordings are accessible to all opera enthusiasts on an international playing field.

The third demographic transition and migration in the regions of Belarus

The article examines the dynamics of population in the regions of Belarus, focusing on the influence of natural and migration population growth during the third demographic transition. The article provides a typology of the country’s regions based on some key factors determining the population dynamics. It is concluded that migration processes exert the most significant impact on the population dynamics of most regions in modern Belarus, signifying the occurrence of the third demographic transition in this country. Interestingly, internal migration processes are identified as the primary driver, rather than external factors. The study emphasizes the importance of examining the migration processes at the regional level for optimizing regional policy.

THE STRATEGY OF “POL’SHCHIZNA” IN THE ETHNO-CONFESSIONAL CONTEXT: SOCIOCULTURAL AND POLITICAL ASPECTS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF BELARUS)

The author makes an attempt, based on the work of modern domestic and foreign researchers, to give a systematic description of the strategy of "pol'shchizna", to determine the specifics of its use in the modern Belarusian ethno-confessional context, as well to reveal the role of this strategy at the beginning of the XXI century. This strategy is considered as a long-term system of indirect actions, primarily of a humanitarian plan, which are designed to solve the tasks of the "eastern policy" of the modern Polish state in the format of a comprehensive promotion of "Polishness". The article traces the design of the concept of "pol'shchizna", identifies the goal-setting ideological characteristics and cultural and historical prerequisites of this strategy, and also examines the main directions and the most successful practices of its implementation in the ethno-confessional context of modern Belarus. It is concluded that in Belarus in the 1990s - the first decades of the 21stcentury, a pro-Polish-oriented part of the population was formed, which in many ways became a support for further manipulative actions already in political terms, which was clearly shown by the events around the presidential campaign of 2020. It is argued that referring to the specific experience of implementing this political strategy is useful in modern conditions from the point of view of evaluating the effectiveness of the project of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, as well as developing Russia's own strategy in relation to this region.

A Comparative Approach to Belarusian Ethnicity

The article is a scholarly review of the monograph “Faces of the Other in the Multilingual Belarusian Literature of the 19th Century” written by N. L. Bakhanovich. The book examines the image of “The Other” in Belarusian literature of the 19th century. Bakhanovich refers both to Polish-speaking romanticists (for example, A. Mickiewicz) and to some Russian-speaking authors to illustrate the main message of the book. From a methodological point of view, Bakhanovich follows the traditions of the Russian school of comparative literature and develops the thoughts of A. N. Veselovskii, Yu. M. Lotman, and others about the importance of describing the perception of “the other”, i.e., of a different cultural, religious, and ritual space reflected in literary works, for a more accurate understanding of the Belarusian culture and ethnicity. Although the book attempts to use the methodological framework of “imagined communities”, as presented by the British political scientist and sociologist B. Anderson, it is not convincingly justified. The book touches upon the difficult issue of cultural self-identification of the lands of modern Belarus; a number of the conclusions made by the author are controversial and in need of additional commentary, as is the terminological apparatus chosen to represent several political issues (for example, an attempt to consider the inclusion of the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania into the Russian Empire as an act of colonization). Such a publication is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the development of scholarly ideas about the formation of the Belarusian literary tradition in the 19th century.

The Reflection of the Socio-Cultural Context in Russian, French and Azerbaijani Internet Memes

Internet texts represent the most mobile and eclectic type of a text. Therefore, the methodology of their analysis is integrative and polyparadigmatic; and for adequate interpretation it is required to consider them taking into account modern socio-cultural context and presuppositional knowledge. The article is devoted to the description of meme-creating components associated with modern sociocultural context in various forms of Internet memes: comics, demotivators, cartoons, presented in three segments of the Internet (Runet, French and Azerbaijani segments). The novelty of the research is based on the fact that for the first time, the meme-creating plots in the Russian, French and Azerbaijani segments of the Internet were identified and correlated; the authors carried out an analysis of the authentic material formed under the influence of the socio-cultural context - the influence of various external factors and cultural background. A continuous selection of network sources from various segments of the Internet allowed compiling an author’s card-file containing more than 2 500 Internet memes, the examples from which became an empirical basis for the study. The material was аnalysed with the use of a descriptive and analytical method that involves direct observation of the phenomena under analysis and their systematization, generalization of language material; we also used elements of discursive, componential and linguopragmatic analysis.A comparative analysis of memes in the Russian, French and Azerbaijani segments of the Internet showed, on the one hand, a quantitative asymmetry (Russian memes prevail), and on the other hand, differences in the forms of Internet memes (for example, demotivators prevail in Runet, comics and cartoons are commonly found in the French and Azerbaijani segments). The analyzed material showed that both words and phraseological units of different categories realize the functional potential in the verbal part of Internet memes of the three linguocultures under consideration. In a number of cases, there is an actualization and complete rethinking of lexical and precedent units. The nature of the presentation of images in the visual part may be associated with the cultural tradition of the nation. The study shows that such 21st century attraction events as migration and threat of coronavirus infection are reflected in Internet memes regardless of the system of values, religion and mentality. When creating national images and presenting artefacts, the role of ethno-linguistic markers perceived by a particular nation is decisive. The visual element can also be actualized in connection with ongoing socio-political events. All this proves that adequate interpretation of memes requires presuppositional knowledge, so that understanding such a polycode formation as an Internet meme does not become a communicative failure. Memes about labour migration and the coronavirus pandemic in the Belarusian segment of the Internet, content and forms of which are conditioned by the multicultural originality and socio-cultural openness of modern Belarus, confirm and typify the main provisions about the factors, conditions, methods and motivations of meme formation in Russian, French and Azerbaijani linguocultures.

The Phenomenon of Cultural Literacy in the Context of Closely Related Bilingualism

The subject of research in the article is cultural literacy in the aspect of the relationship between culture and education, language and culture. Cultural literacy is viewed as a system of knowledge and skills necessary for a person to confidently navigate in the modern multipolar multicultural world of people, relationships, events, traditions, values, etc. The purpose of the article is to reveal the features of the phenomenon of cultural literacy in modern Belarus. The article analyzes the main directions in the formation and development of cultural literacy in the context of closely related Belarusian-Russian bilingualism, enshrined in the Republic of Belarus at the legislative level. The material for the research is the process of humanitarian education of children of primary school age. Research methods - theoretical (analysis, comparison, generalization) and empirical (observation, questioning, testing).

Maly Traścianiec in the Context of Current Narratives on the Holocaust in the Republic of Belarus

This article examines the current memorialisation of the Holocaust in Belarus through the example of the Maly Traścianiec camp, established by the Nazi occupation regime just outside Minsk. It traces the changing interpretations of the site’s history, from neglect of its Holocaust dimension to a partial recognition of this in the past few years and the establishment of two significant memorials, opened in Maly Traścianiec (2015) and Blahaŭščyna Forest (2018). Building on previous studies, it asks whether Belarus may finally recognise the transnational nature of the Holocaust and Maly Traścianiec as a key component of the Holocaust in Belarus. Such recognition may eventually change the government’s longstanding focus on victory in World War II as the founding stone of modern Belarus.

Problems of ethno-confessional relations in Western Belarus during the second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1921–1939) (on the example of the assumption Zhirovitsky monastery)

The Article by Kirill Solovyov, candidate of cultural studies, is devoted to the problems of ethno-confessional relations in the territory of Western Belarus during the interwar period. Introduction. Given the fact that 2019 was the anniversary year for the young independent Republic of Belarus, and in 2020 the anniversary of the victory In the great Patriotic War in the expert community of Russia and Belarus, as well as in political circles and among the national Belarusian intelligentsia, you can find directly opposite points of view on how the process of national revival took place in the territory of modern Belarus in the period of 1921–1939, how the relations between the Polish government and Polish national associations on the territory of the “Kresov Vskhodnih” and Belarusian nationalist and Russian public emigrant associations were built. As a rule, if a State committed to integral nationalism wants to detach a part of the people from their historical roots, this happens either through cultural or religious assimilation. The article deals with attempts of such religious assimilation by the Polish authorities during the sanation regime of 1921–1939 for example, the existence in Poland of Orthodox Uspensky Zhirovichi men’s monastery. For a sufficient evidence base of the proposed research, the author used the comparative method of historicism in the field of religious studies and the method of “inheritance of culture”, which can be applied in the field of sociology of religion, thanks to which it is possible to show how great the temptation to unify in a multinational young state and turn it into an ethnonational unified community. Materials for the study of this problem were both post-revolutionary emigrant studies on this topic, and modern Belarusian studies concerning the history of inter-Church relations on the territory of the Western Belarusian lands in the interwar period. In the course of a comprehensive study of this problem the author conducted an interesting geocultural analysis of the development of the Polish state in the field of interethnic and interreligious relations which was based on the Polish version of the so-called integral nationalism. The article also traces the trend towards the termination of the Riga Treaty between the RSFSR and the Polish state which became more active after 1926. It should be noted that the Polish state used this trend to plant on the “Eastern borders” of the Polish military colonists – besiegers, who were the military and political support of the new Polish state. Using the example of the existence of the Orthodox Dormition Zhirovitsky monastery on the territory of the second Polish – Lithuanian Commonwealth, the author traces how Orthodox Christians resisted the tendencies of ethnocultural assimilation. The study has shown how necessary it is for the State to not interfere in the Affairs of the Church, and how important it is to avoid the temptation to use the “national” Church in building an independent and sovereign state. This is a serious problem that is typical for those post-Soviet States that plan to build their national identity on the principles of extreme nationalism.

Research of the efficiency of the one-step process for producing carbon steels on the territory of modern Belarus in the pre-industrial period. Foundry production and metallurgy

The article describes experiments on the reconstruction of the technology of the one-step process of obtaining iron-carbon alloys in furnaces based on archaeological sources. It contains the description of furnace design, metallurgical process technology and raw materials preparation. The process of refining the iron bloom by forging is described. Scientifically grounded assumptions are made about possible technological methods of obtaining steels in the pre-industrial period on the territory of modern Belarus.

ИСТОРИЯ ПРАВИТЕЛЬСТВЕННОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ В СЕВЕРО-ЗАПАДНОМ КРАЕ В XIX - НАЧАЛЕ XX В. (АНАЛИЗ НОВЫХ ПУБЛИКАЦИЙ АРХИВНЫХ ИСТОЧНИКОВ)

The article discusses new publications of archival sources dedicated to the formation of government policy in the Northwestern region of the Russian Empire (territories of modern Lithuania and Belarus) in the XIX - early XX century. In recent years a number of important documents have been published, both extracted for the first time from Russian archives, and previously published, including the journals of the Committee of Western Provinces (1831-1835), the Western Committee (1864), essential reports of the governor-generals of Vilna M.N. Muravyev, P.D. Sviatopolk-Mirskii and others.

ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ РАБОТЫ ТВЕРСКОГО ГУБЕРНСКОГО АРХИВНОГО БЮРО С ДОКУМЕНТАМИ ВОЕННЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ, ЭВАКУИРОВАННЫМИ В ТВЕРЬ В 1914–1917 ГГ.

The article considers what the Tver Provincial Archive Bureau (gubarkhbyuro) did in 1919–1923 to identify and organize the documents of the military units and military organizations evacuated to Tver in 1914–1917 in connection with the military operations on the territory of the Russian Empire. The revolutionary events of 1917 prevented the timely transportation of the document complex to Petrograd; so the documents remained in Tver, Bezhetsk and Rzhev in an unsystematic form and undescribed form, without being provided with the satisfactory storage conditions. The article describes the actions of the Tver gubarkhbyuro to search for the documents and organize their acceptance for state storage. In the research process, the composition of the existing document complex was analyzed: in addition to the documents of the military organizations from the territories left by the Russian army, the documents of the Russian Empire civil organizations that operated on the territory of modern Belarus, Lithuania and Poland were evacuated. The documents were provisionally combined into a complex on the territorial principle as the documents of the organizations operating in the Kovno and Vilna provinces. The article also attempts to trace the fate of the documents received for state storage. In 1921, part of the funds of the institutions of the former Russian Empire operating on the territory of the Kovno Province was transferred to the Lithuanian Government. That complex consisted of the documents of civil organizations, whereas the documents of military units and military organizations remained in the archives of Tver until 1926.

КОНСАЛТИНГОВОЕ СОПРОВОЖДЕНИЕ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПРАКТИКИ ПЕДАГОГА БЕЛОРУССКОЙ СЕЛЬСКОЙ ШКОЛЫ

The processes taking place in the educational sphere of modern Belarus require both theoretical rethinking and practical research. The current demographic situation in the country and the socio-economic conditions for the development of society have actualized the issues of the functioning of the rural school. Today in rural schools in Belarus there are five times less schoolchildren than in urban schools. Rural schoolchildren find themselves in a situation of very limited choice of forms of the system of out-of-school and additional education. Rural schools have limited access to various types of resources due to their territorial and, correspondingly, informational isolation. The difficulties of attending cultural events not only at the republican, but also at the regional level are explained today not so much by territorial remoteness as by the material support of a rural family. These circumstances lead the professional practice of a rural school teacher to a situation of uncertainty. It is aggravated by the problems of insufficient material and technical equipment of rural schools, low wages (especially for young teachers), low motivation to receive education from schoolchildren and their parents. Consulting support of the professional practice of a teacher allows you to look at education in rural school from the inside through the eyes of subjects immersed in educational processes. The article outlines the main theoretical and methodological ideas for organizing the process of consulting support for the professional practice of a teacher, the features of its implementation in rural school, reveals the mechanisms and conditions for the implementation of this activity. The publication highlights the results of feedback from participants in consulting events – teachers of rural schools in the Baranovichi and Mozyr regions of Belarus. In the process of consulting support, rural teachers actively discussed the pressing problems of work in rural schools in Belarus, both at the regional level and throughout the country as a whole. The article presents the results of surveys on the optimization of rural schools by enlarging them, on the existing paper-reporting and other kind of bureaucracy, on the material, technical, scientific-methodological and staffing of the educational process in rural school. The analysis of these results will make it possible to concretize the directions for reforming education in the country.

Formation of the USA foreign policy strategy in the aftermath of World War II: the analysis of factors and goals that shaped the reality today

The article views the process of formation of the USA foreign policy strategy as being an instrument of establishing a new world order in the aftermath of World War II. An array of information, which consists of numerous sources in English, has been introduced into the scientific circulation of Belarusian political science and translated by the author himself. These are USA foreign policy documents, archival materials, memoirs, specialised periodicals, etc. Based on system analysis of this information, the key factors that determined the formation of the USA global strategy have been identified and analysed. Among them are the following ones: military, strategic, economic, political, nuclear, messianic, personal, factor of external threat («image of enemy »), geopolitical. The medium and long-term goals of the USA foreign policy strategy in Eurasia have been identified. The system analysis of the factors, goals and geopolitical concepts used by the White House in realising its foreign policy, both during the Cold War and in its aftermath, allows tracing how did the liberal paradigm, which foundations had been formed within the historical events of the first post-war years, become a reality today. The article demonstrates that the expansion of the new world order paradigm is being accompanied by permanent economic, geopolitical and military expansion of the United States. In the framework of that expansion the territories of modern Belarus, Russia and other states of the former USSR are the stepping stones necessary to gain world leadership. From this point of view, the Cold War is not over. Yet its forms and methods have changed. Therefore, the new world order appears as being a multifaceted phenomenon projected into the informational, economic, and military-political dimensions to establish the global power of the USA in the world and that of the forces that stand behind it. It is concluded that the obeyance of the national spirit to the interests of the US foreign policy strategy is the main conceptual goal of the latter. This fact determines the nature of the modern war on consciousness. Understanding the new world order phenomenon as well as the USA foreign policy strategy as being the instrument of its establishing is necessary to ensure national security and successive development of the Belarusian state.