From the monthly archives:

April 2006

“An Unhealing Wound” by Vasil Bykau

by Islander on April 27, 2006

The ruins decay – the vultures fly away No longer flocking round the gore. But painful and unhealing stay The ever-gnawing wounds of war. Michaś Vasilok The cold autumn wind sweeps over the ground driving the withered leaves under the zavalinkas* and sways the wet branches in the small garden. It prances mischievously from round [...]

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The Path of Chernobyl – 2006

by Islander on April 26, 2006

Belarus has marked the 20th anniversary of Chernobyl catastrophe. 10,000 thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of Minsk for a traditional Charnobylski Shlyakh (The Path of Chernobyl). This year the rally was held under the motto “Freedom. Truth. Justice”. The Belarusians protested not only against the official policy of hushing up the aftermaths of [...]

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Belarusification in 1920′s

by Islander on April 26, 2006

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V for Vendetta

by Islander on April 23, 2006

Not long ago, belarus. blogsome.com published an article titled “Almost an Open Letter To Hollywood Producers”. In one instance, an author writes: “But revolution or, say, democratization could be somewhat profitable, if some guy like Steven Spielberg decided to make a movie about it. Let us face the facts – we are interesting. We are [...]

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“Still Life” imagery in full motion

by Islander on April 15, 2006

The photo chronicles of “Belarusian fight for freedom” are widely available on Internet. By looking at those images, a viewer can see a full story behind “The Denim Revolution”. It sort of unveils in front of his eyes in full colors and details, giving a viewer a chance to get an extra sense of what [...]

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Claims on White Russia…

by Islander on April 13, 2006

“Claims on White Russia…” This is a title of a letter sent to The New York Times and published by the paper on July 4, 1920. By reading it, the very first questions should be: who pretends on it? to whom it belongs? Moreover, these questions bundled together with the title present you with a [...]

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Captive Nations Parade

by Islander on April 11, 2006

Living in New York for short time I have already witnessed so many parades that probably, I could have written a reference titled “Annual parades held in NY”. For example, Puerto Rican, Irish, Turkish, and Chinese…All these parades have their unique history, backgrounds and purposes. Generally speaking, they are all aimed to show their cultural [...]

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Remarkable discovery in White Russia in 1853.

by Islander on April 10, 2006

Earlier on, we attempted to show how many various interpretations exist regarding the Belarusian nationality . Anuszka mentioned in her comment: “So, who was Mickiewicz?? Polish, Lithuanian, or Belarussian?”. Because he was born in Belarus, wrote poems in Polish, and his most famous poem begins with: “Lithuania, my homeland!”. And indeed, so much confusion and [...]

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Researching Belarusian history I was amazed at how many contradictory issues surround this country’s past. And while we can strongly assert that each single nation went through historical, political, cultural transformations Belarus stands out among them. Among most burning was (still is) an issue whether Belarusian were more of a Polish, Russian or Baltic stock. [...]

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In the end of the WWI, patriotically inspired Belarusian parties convened the All-Belarusian Congress in Meinsk. There were 1, 915 delegates from local governments, social, political and military organizations. According to some historians, there were almost all possible fractions and parties of that time: Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, and Social-Christians and so on and forth. An atmosphere [...]

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