The Captive Nations Parade has been conducted every third week in July for the past 48 years. This event has been held annually since 1959. When Congress designated the third week of July as a time to remember once-independent countries which are now under Soviet rule. The Captive Nations Committee and approximately 50 supporters—mostly [...]

Here we go again! After dealing with Da Vinci Code by banning it from local movie theaters, Belarusian authorities found another victim-V for Vendetta. Perhaps, they took comics seriously or maybe it is paranoia responsible for it. In either case, V for Vendetta won’t be shown in Belarus, period. Apparently, an uncompromising vision of the [...]

I won’t be really wrong if I say that it takes a lot to make a history class a truly remembered one. In most cases, it depends on a subject, professor and his teaching style. In my case, I had one very good professor at NYU who taught “Contemporary World” class. The professor never had [...]

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 the corners into the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

In a previous post, we attempted to show how many various interpretations exist regarding national stock of Belarusians. 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 [...]