What is my point? Russian peasant soldiers, and not Petrograd’s workers influenced an outcome of the February Revolution of 1917. Specifically: Whenever I hear official versions of the events that led to the February Revolution of 1917, they tend to say how the proletarian forces joined by peasant soldiers took down Russian monarchy. While an [...]

I tried to start writing this post couple of times and every time I ended up looking at the blinking cursor and unable to collect my thoughts. Sometimes pictures can tell the story better than words and this is why we simply put here WWII military photos made by German soldiers in Belarus during the [...]

Not long ago we wrote about a documentary movie ‘Lessons of Belarusian Language”. Back then, it was unavailable to viewers; however, thanks to comments from our readers we are happy to write that this movie is available on line! below is a recap of a blog and the movie itself. Radio Svaboda reports that First [...]

PRAGUE, August 18, 2006 (RFE/RL) –Fifteen years after the failed coup that triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union and transformed his own life, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev talks to RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service about the events of August 1991 and their legacy. RFE/RL: In his annual address to the Federal Assembly in 2005, [...]

Quiet honestly, I like “What If…” discussions. A week ago, I was talking with friend of mine about an impact of Allied Forces on the outcome of the WWII. Inevitably for such topic, we came to “What if” scenarios with one major question: What if the United States did not enter the WWII? I can’t [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]