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 BELARUSIAN
NATIONAL IDEA WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF NATIONAL IDEAS OF NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
Yuras’ Hadyka
(Þðàñü Õàäûêà)
Currently the Belarusian national idea has been discussed not only by the democratic parties and supporters of the revival movement but by the official propaganda media as well. This is a very significant phenomenon. It speaks in favor of the fact that there does exist the ground for discussions and exchanges of viewpoints. Though, the „idea” of semi-official character of the situation is that there does not exist such a notion like the Belarusian national idea and … it needs to be invented. For this very reason the scholars have been asked to get together and have been formulated the „honorable” task to develop it. Such approach sounds absolutely natural for the environment of A. Lukashenka. Being the real „soviet Belarusian”, he is not aware of the history of his people and the Belarusian nationhood. Therefore, he made the same mistake as Nikita Khrushchev did (i.e. he issued an order to develop the code of „communist ethics”). Currently, there are not so many people left who remember the fate of that code, i.e. the artificial fruit of Marxist-Leninist philosophy.
The same will happen about the „Belarusian national idea” created by order of the PPRB (the first president of the Republic of Belarus – BIR). Creative work of the Lukashenka ideologists would deserve no attention at all providing that it would not have been grounded on the thesis that the Belarusian nationhood originated only on January 1, 1919. Also, according to the Encyclopedic Dictionary the Belarusian nation had been formed only by the 16th century, i.e. much later as compared to the Russian (14th century) and the Ukrainian (15th century) one. As for the Belarusian nation, they consider it to have „appeared” only in the 20th century when the Belarusian literary language had been formed. That was the reason (according to them) why the Belarusian national idea did not exist and could not have existed before.
All these „tricks” of the soviet historical science are far from being too naďve. They serve as the logical continuation of the theory of „western Russianism”, i.e. the intellectual obtainment of Russian imperialism, the latter being the theory that was created to justify the policy of Russification and aimed to reject the right of Ukrainians and Belarusians to be the individual nations. Outrageous corruption of historical background of those nations (primarily the history of the nationhood) and ban to create literary works in their native languages served as a universal means for bringing that theory to life. This is the source where numerous myths about continuous „conquering” of Ukrainians and Belarusians by Lithuanians or Poles and „liberation” of them by Moscow come from. As the result of it, the whole history has been turned upside down and the junior „brother” has become the „big one” and vice versa.
NATIONAL IDEA AS A DREAM
There is no need to prove today that the history of Belarusian nationhood comprises 1000 years. Within the course of all this time the Belarusian national idea has also been developed and jelled. In this case we consider the Belarusian national idea to be the complex of psychologically comfortable and socially constructive aims and values adopted and grasped by the national community. However, going ahead successfully and without any misunderstandings, requires verification of the essence of some terms.
The currently used term „people” means primarily the community of people united by common territory, i.e. the borders of the same state. In this case it makes sense to apply such terms like „soviet people” or „Russian people” that comprise representatives of various nations. However, the „nation” term, in its turn, is known to be, to the greater extent, the noetic and the moral one. This phenomenon unites the people, having not only common genetic origin, but the ones who are bound primarily by their common world outlook, culture and history. Only in this case we can speak about the national idea, national character and the national features. Jews are known to be the nation while the people of Israel comprise Jews, Palestinians and other nationalities that comprise the country which has been founded only in 1948. And it is absurd to say that the Jewish nation has never existed before as prior to 1948 they did not have any common territory, economy or literary language, as it is required by the Marxist-Leninist science.
The USA, the country of immigrants, can serve as another vivid example of the same idea. American constitution begins with the words: „We the people of the United States, …”. And this is a very good beginning as at the times of adoption of the Declaration the American nation did not exist at all. Citizens of the USA were destined to have gone through the war between North and South, abolishment of slavery and struggle against racial segregation. The people of the United States started acquiring the traits of a nation only at the time when their elite formulated the common ideal, i.e. the so-called „American dream”.
To my mind, the expression of a „national dream” is synonymic to the term of a „national idea”. Both these expressions mean the complex of moral values that are common for the whole national community. They serve as a sort of specific spiritual glue that joins the number of individuals into the supraindividual organism which is known for its distinctive hierarchy of values, priorities, strivings, psychological and social peculiarities.
The said complex is known to get formed within the course of life of numerous generations as well as the history of the people and their ethnos. The natural transitional way from ethnic (based on blood relations) community to the nation runs through the „people”, i.e. citizens of the same state. One can make the statement that the Jewish nation could have hardly existed and survived providing that they had not had their independent nationhood in ancient times. Their attitude towards the state history can not but evokes the feeling of admiration. Their history has been canonized and made sacral. One can hardly change even a single letter in it. It became the integral part of Holy Writ and must be learned by each single Jew, no matter where he was born and what his place of residence is. Heroes of Jewish history became saints and serve as examples for each individual. Faithfulness to faith of ancestors became the national idea of Jews. It enabled them to create the national state following 2 000 years of banishment.
Also, there would not have existed any American nation and American dream without victory in war for independence. American nation is absolutely young. Currently, it is still in the process of formation. Its national idea looks simpler and is formulated as a dream and not the canonical set of values and requirements. American dream means well-being and possessing a private house. It also means higher degree of individual freedom as compared to other countries of the world. This is the reason why Americans do not have any state religion in spite of the fact that Protestants comprise the majority of the population. Therefore, this nation gives birth to the most innovative, although sometimes rather controversial, trends in art. This is the reason why each citizen has the right to possess guns in spite of the fact that the crime rate can be possibly higher as compared to some other countries. The United States is also a powerful country that must protect any American citizens, wherever he could happen to be. That is why Americans not only allot huge amounts of money for military programs, but also eagerly support the image of the USA as a „worldwide gendarme”. The times, when the USA suffered from self-isolation, disappeared forever. Nowadays almost all the countries in the world have to consider with reaction of the USA to their actions. This is the reason why one of the components of the American dream comprises imperial thinking while the national ideas of its other claimants upon the world dominance contain the anti-American flavor.
INDEPENDENT NATIONHOOD
IS THE CORE OF THE NATIONAL IDEA
The above two examples enable us to specify the correlation between the national idea and the notion of nationhood. Neither the nation itself nor its idea ever arises outside their independent state. In cases when the nation happens to loose its nationhood within the course of historical development, the idea of national independent nationhood becomes the integral part, and even the core of national idea, its aim and banner of national revival.
That is the reason why the theories, like „western Russianism”, which are „scientific” in its form, tend to really serve as the weapon of the imperial propaganda aimed to liquidate and to bury the national idea. And we will definitely witness the situation when the ideologists, having based their activities on the theory of „western Russianism”, will be trying hard to substitute the Belarusian national idea for the „Belarusian dream”. For example, the dream about the „motherland stretching from Brest down to the Kuril Islands”.
They have no other way to go. As for the actual sense and the potential consequences of such a way, Israel (only the ancient one which was larger that the ancient Judea) can serve as a good example and explanation on what will happen next. Ancient Israel lost its national idea and got assimilated. Today the so-called „Samaritans” comprise no more than 1000 men. As for the Jews, i.e. the successors of ancient Judea, they became the legal inheritors of ancient Israel.
Such kind of assimilation serves as the sense and aim of the official Belarusian propaganda. It is recognized today as the cause of rejection of national state symbols and introduction of bilingual situation, steady hatred towards the Belarusian history. It explains their attempt to save the Russian imperial myths. It also explains a very strange official cultural policy that tries to fool the real Belarusian culture around and makes us pray the strange gods.
HISTORY AS A SOURCE
OF ESSENCE OF THE NATIONAL IDEA
An independent and autonomous nationhood is the core of a national idea or the shell of any national idea. However, the shell itself is empty and therefore lacks any sense. It should be filled out with the sense and values which could differentiate the definite nation from the number of other ones. These values are to make the nation self-sufficient and capable of self-development under the conditions of competition among the neighboring nations. It should also be the element which is extremely essential at the age of rapid development of information and communication media.
The native language serves as the key element that even visually differs one nation from another. Culture and mode of life contribute to even broader differences but mainly the language serves both as the main means of moral life of the nation and the main tool of its defense. The new generations use mainly the language to grasp the national values as well as the ones common to all the world.
The essence of the national idea is developed in the history of its people. To some extent, this development reminds about deciphering of the phenomenon of the God. The Lord told Moses himself what his name was: „Az yes’m’ siy” which in Church Slavic stands for „I do exist” and in ancient Jewish language for „Yegova”. That word was not supposed to be uttered by anyone. Therefore, the name of God was pronounced by means of specification of his other qualities, e.g. Savaof, i.e. the Lord of Forces, or simply the Lord. The issue of God’s names was turned into a separate branch of Christian theology. They came up with the logical chain of positive and negative definitions, e.g. God is light; God is love; God is truth etc. They rightly considered that an extremely complicated of a transcendental God could be realized only within the course of cognition.
Similar to the above said, the national idea is developed and saturated with a definite sense through the history of the nation, geography of the country as well as its ethno genesis.
ON THE ORIGIN
OF THE „BELARUSIANS” ETHNONYM
Our remote ancestors were far from being a homogenous nation. At the times when Slavic tribes appeared within the territory of Belarus they, as any other migrants, they settled down along the major rives that served at that time as the main transport arteries. Authentic Baltic population was forced to the hills, water-partings and deep into the thick ancient virgin forests. It is amazing that our northern neighbors keep calling us today as „Baltarusai” and not the „Belarusians”. They use this term as an additional means to preserve memory about their ancient history.
Pretty soon the militant Vikings forced their way across Belarus from the north to the south of Europe, i.e. to Tsargrad (Constantinople) — the world cultural center. That was a safer and more comfortable way as compared to the marine way around Europe. Gradually it became the trading way that favored foundation of cities-states which controlled economic relations, would get richer and make their population ready for the grand social and cultural revolution, which Christianity resulted in.
Chronicles give evidence to the fact that our ancestors had a definite choice, i.e. they could have either adopted Christianity coming from the West or the one from the East. It was quite natural that mainly Constantinople (and not Rome) won. It was both richer and closer to our ancestors as compared to Rome. Another advantage of Constantinople dealt with fact that they had already processed church books in the language of southern Slavs, i.e. the Old Church Slavic language. In contrast to the unknown and foreign Latin, it was the language that could be generally understood by the eastern tribes of Slavs.
Christianity brought to the Slavs literacy and education as well as formerly unknown crafts and agricultural goods. It also restructured the legal system and the state administration. In former times the cities were ruled by the veche (i.e. popular assembly - BIR). Prince and his bodyguards had limited functions and he could be any time substituted by the veche. Christianity favored establishment of monarchy but the bits of the former republican order continued to exist (e.g. in Polatsk, the first historically recognized Belarusian state).
Christianization of the eastern Slavic population resulted in a pretty fast disappearance of the names of the largest tribes of Slavs. They were replaced by the „Rus’„ term. Since the 19th century numerous scholars had made deliberate attempts to reveal the secret of its origin. Initially they tried to associate the term with the name of the Racsalan tribe that has been mentioned by ancient historians (Strabon, Ptalemei and Tatsyt). Later on it was decided to attribute the term to the name of the Scandinavian tribe which resided on the Rugen island. Another associations dealt with the names of lakes and rivers as well as the light brown hair and fair skin of the eastern Slavs etc. However, all the above hypotheses gave no conclusive evidence for the rapid and broad expansion of the „Rus’” term.
It was only in the 1950s when Mr. Pashkevich, the Polish historian with the Belarusian last name, substantiated the theory of origin of the „Rus’” term having concluded that it was the name of the Byzantium church province of the Slavic office. For this purpose, the religious Greeks applied the reference from the Bible about the leader of the indefinite northern people named Rosh. The hypothesis about „Rus’” being a Christian name for huge number of tribes (including the non-Slavic ones) does not only remove all the contradictions of the previous hypotheses but also finds direct support in the chronicles available.
Thus, the „Rus’” term is not an ethnonym. It is recognized to have originally been a confessional term used by the Greeks to name their northern church province. It means belonging to a definite Christian confession and the language of public worship. Some time later this term acquires the nature of an ethnonym. However, even today it saved some elements of its original nature, i.e. along with the „a Pole”, „a German” and „a French” ethnonyms (that are expressed in Russian by nouns); the „Russian” ethnonym is applied as an adjective.
In early 13th century the east Slavic nationhood suffered from a deep crisis. The principalities got smaller and smaller and based their relations between each other on feud and hatred. At the same time the principalities faced the growing threat coming from the east on the part of Mongol-Tatars. That was the reason why western lands of Belarus united into the new state called Grand Duchy of Litwa (Lithuania) and Russia with the capital located in Navahrudak. It was founded in the lands inhabited by the pagan population but its capital was set up on the border line with Russia. And that was quite natural as the dynasty was the pagan one but they could build a strong state only with involvement of the Christian population. The language of the Russian inhabitants became the official language of the Grand Duchy that resulted in quick assimilation of Lithuania, i.e. the tribe which was obviously of the Baltic origin and it related to Zhamoity, i.e. the ancestors of modern Lithuanians. However, the Zhamoitiya itself kept securing its independence for the coming 200 years and joined the Grand Duchy of Litwa as an autonomous region only at the beginning of the 15th century. It also adopted Christian but in the western way which enabled it to escape further assimilation.
It is worth mentioning that Mindoug, the founder of the Grand Duchy of Litwa, was a Christian. Voishalk, his son, who terminated the first civil war in the history of Belarus, was also a Christian. The civil war burst out between the pagans and the Christians right after the death of Mindoug and ended up in a compromise. The ruling dynasty remained to be the pagan one which served as a guarantee of peace between the confessions while the administration and the state language were Russian, i.e. the Christian ones. Thus they formed the unique powerful state that turned out to be both the polyethnic and polyconfessional one. It became the cradle for three peoples, i.e. Belarusians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians.
Prior to the foundation of the Grand Duchy of Litwa there existed the necessity to differentiate different regions of vast territories united by the same name, i.e. the „Rus’”. Color-based geographical symbols were applied. According to the latter, the eastern part of Rus’ became the White Rus’, the western one was named the Black Rus’ and the southern regions were called the Red Rus’. Thus, the Uladzimir principality of the 12th century was located within the territory of the White Rus’.
However, the fate of the terms „White Rus’”, „Black Rus’” and „Red Rus’” turned out to be different. Following the invasion of the eastern principalities of Rus’ by the Mongol-Tatars, the „White Rus’” shifted to the west and was localized within the territories of the present Vitsebskaya, Mahiliouskaya and Smalenskaya provinces. The „Black Rus’” continued to be called the „Litwa”. The „Red Rus’” became the „Ukraine”, but only for the period of time stretching from the end of the 13th century to the glorious battle at the Blue Waters when it was won back from the Tatars by the Grand Duchy of Litwa. It is not difficult to figure out that the lands of the Rus’, that happened to have been invaded by the Tatars, lost their right to be called the Rus’. Ukraine turned out to be not the suburb of the Moscow principality but the suburb of the heart of Grand Duchy of Litwa and Rus’, i.e. the territories that match nowadays Belarus.
Two more civil wars between the parties, i.e. between the Catholic ( Catholics appeared after Grand Duke Yahaila baptized the pagan part of the population) and the Orthodox one, that took place at the beginning of reign of Vitaut, the Grand Duke, and after his death, tended to serve as a vivid example of struggle for national and state independence. The wars also ended up in reaching a compromise. Rights for existence of the two major Christian confessions have been recognized as well as legal grounds for their co-existence have been developed. The principle of inherited power was step by step displaced by the principle of election of a monarch who would have an executive power, would be the commander-in-chief of the army and stay in charge of the foreign affairs of the state. However, the legislative power was gradually concentrated in the hands of the Highest Council and later on the Soim that were known to be the collegial body of the sate. The state was acquiring the features of the aristocratic republic. They developed the legal standards that have currently adopted by the whole civilized world, i.e. adoption of decisions on the basis of consensus (which is known to be liberum veto), irreversibility of law (the principle of „not bothering the past”) etc.
The final stage of the formation of the Belarusian nation ranged from 1492 through 1569. The first Great War at the end of the 15th century between the Grand Duchy of Litwa and the powerful Grand Duchy of Moscow resulted in occupation by the latter of huge eastern territories, inhabited exclusively by the Orthodox („Russian”) population. In 1569 the Ukrainian delegates at the Lublin Soim, which discussed further destiny of the union of the Polish kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Litwa after the death of the last representative of their common Yagelons’ dynasty, voluntarily voted for joining the Crown. Territory of the Grand Duchy of Litwa reduced down to the lands of modern Lietuva and Belarus. That was the state with common state language, administration, national economy, state borders, army, currency etc. In other words, it possessed all those elements which ethnology considers to be the signs of a nation. That was not by chance that mainly at that time they began codification of law and the last Charter of the Grand Duchy of Litwa of 1588 actually served as the first constitution of the high society in Europe. The constitution proclaimed equal rights for all the „well-to-do people” no matter what their nationality or religion was. The Charter is considered today to be the masterpiece of legal thought and it has not been properly evaluated yet.
It is clear that it was far from the real democracy. Freedoms and human rights were observed only in cases of gentry and citizens who possessed assets. At the same time, we need to keep in mind, that it took Western Europe 70 more years of civil religious wars till they reached the same status of society. In Russia class-related democracy was 300 years late while the religious tolerance will never become the reality in that country. Belarus, in its turn, since the 16th century has become the shelter for all exiles. It became the home place for the Protestants from Poland and the Catholics from Scandinavian countries, old Orthodox believers from Russia and for Jews whatever placed they lived and got persecuted. Mainly Belarus (and not the Crown) became the country in which tolerance, i.e. religious and ideological tolerance, developed the social institution of citizenship, the latter having become the distinctive feature of the national culture.
CULTURAL CREATIVE
ROLE OF THE UNIYA (UNION)
That was due to the age-old tolerance which contributed to the success of the religious Uniya. Those historians do not tell the truth who state that the Uniya was introduced by force. The Ukraine was really the country in which the Uniya faced strong opposition. As for Belarus, this union has momentarily enveloped the whole country and became the religion for eighty per cent of its population. It left behind its boundaries the Catholic gentry and small groups of Orthodox and Protestant dissidents. The Uniyat culture became the people’s version of the Sarmatian culture of Belarusian nobility. The bulk of it had been already developed since the 16th century.
The Sarmatian culture was known to be a chivalrous culture that was current within the territory of Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. To put it in present day terms, peculiar features of that culture comprised such slogans as a ”golden freedom”, a „pan-brother as well as deep religiousness, patriotism and the cult of a woman.
Our ancestors protected their „golden freedom” with arms in their hands fighting both the outside aggressors and the ones inside the country who made attempts to limit that freedom. At the beginning of the 16th century Mikola Husouski, a poet who composed his works in Latin, wrote that „we are bleeding” protecting the Christian Western from the Moslem plaque coming from the East. It was a shame to die in one’s bed at home rather than in the battle field.
Personal dignity at that time came above all. Therefore, the gentleman, who owned only a horse and a sward, had the right to use a „pan-brother” from of address in greeting the king or the Grand Duke and could expect the same response on their part. The monarchial Russia perverted those noble relations in such a way that they converted them into the undue familiarity.
Feeling of freedom and dignity gave birth to pride and love towards their motherland that was supported by religiousness of the people. Because of the existence of various confessions and even faiths, religion was true, sincere and not the superficial or formal one. The people would always have freedom of choice. That was the reason why our ancestors felt themselves like being the outpost of the real Christianity. Religious tolerance resulted in a deeper and appreciated faith as compared to the one in mono-confessional neighboring countries.
That was mainly the Uniya that developed such distinctive feature. It converted the initial Christianity with its simplicity and affinity with the folk tastes into the national ideal. That ideal was saturated with hard work and respect to knowledge, love of nature which was close to pantheism, open-mindedness and deep cultural roots. The Uniya formed the Belarusian folk culture and social psychology. Persistence, patience and hard work became its distinctive features. The results of the first and the last census of the population in tsarist Russia proved the number of educated people in Belarus to be twice as much as compared to the mean values current within the rest of the empire and to be higher than in Poland. The Belarusian folklore preserved such great number of relicts of pagan deification of nature that no one other European nation did.
However, the main outcome of the Uniya lies in the fact that it converted the „Belaya Rus’” (White Rus’) term, related to confession and territory, into the ethnonym and filled it in with the new great sense, i.e. „the pure, holy and authentic Rus’”. That was the original Rus’ where Christianity was the only national and integral religion that had not been split into the repugnant branches yet. That was the factor that separated Belarusians from Russians of that time. Moscow documents of the 17th century specify our ancestors as the ones having dual name, i.e. Litwins-and-Belarusians (Lithuanians and Belarusians). The first part of the name specified citizenship and the second one stood for the nationality of the people of Belarus. 200 years later Emperor Nikolai I, who pursued the policy of denationalization of Belarusians, banned the Uniya and ordered Belarus to be called the North-Western Krai (area). That was his way to state that a”Belarusian” was not a confession-related term but the mere ethnonym. That was why the leaders of the first wave of Belarusian Revival did a great job when they made their choice in favor of the „Belarusian” ethnonym. No matter whether they did it consciously or subconsciously, they went in line with the principle of the Belarusian national culture, i.e. the principle of „not bothering the past” and introducing no new notions. The name of „Belarus” accumulates, in the best way, the whole complicated spiritual history of this country.
PROBLEMS OF NATIONAL
SELF-IDENTIFICATION OF BELARUSIANS
Unfortunately, the roots of the problems of national self-identification of Belarusians also go back into the old history of this country. Seventeenth century was marked by continuous devastative wars against the southern, northern and eastern aggressors. It became the century of gradual conversion of the Belarusian nobility into Catholic faith. It would not be so crucial at the background of tolerance and expansion of cultural influence of the West in the field of education and economy providing that it would not associate with Polonization of the area. In 1696 the Belarusian language lost its official status in the state and that favored vast infiltration of Polish culture into the Belarusian cities and environment of local gentry. Difference in the language stood as the tragic barrier between the Belarusian elite and the Belarusian people. National consciousness suffered greatly because of that factor.
However, national elite could not exist in the isolated environment without any support on the part of the best representatives of the regular citizens. As the abandonment of the mother tongue served them as the pass to join the national elite, the latter immediately lost its live feed-back. Self-isolated elite started treating themselves as Poles in spite of the fact that direct migration of ethnic Poles to the Grand Duchy of Litwa was illegal.
At the time of partitions of Recz Pospolitaya the Belarusian gentry considered themselves to be the patriots of Litwa and not the Belarusians. The tsarist policy of Russification of Belarus, which was exercised in extremely brutal ways, also favored the process of Polonization of Belarusian elite. It representatives were brought up on the ideals of freedom and republican system and therefore they simply could tolerate monarchic, slavish traditions of Russian culture. That was the reason why they began loosing even Lithuanian patriotism and replaced it by the Polish one which was getting stronger and stronger as the result of bloody violence towards the participants of the liberation rebellions.
Ban of the Uniya in 1839 increased the number of Belarusian „Poles” as the smaller number of Uniates, in attempt to escape the Moscow violence, would preference to the Catholic faith rather than the Russian Orthodox religion. Finishing off the Belarusian nation, the tsarist regime closed down the Vilnia (Vilnius) University and abolished the national system of education. Till the end of the 19th century the Belarusian nation stopped its existence. There existed only Belarusian people. This is the reason why national and cultural revival, creation of the national elite and winning of the independent nationhood become the corner-stone of the national idea of Belarusians, which is similar to the one of Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians and other post-slavery peoples.
Having survived through the World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Belarusian people managed to have created their own state. However, they failed to have avoided the powerful hugs of the last empire. Policy of Russification, although proclaiming different slogans, was still going on. It combined both the violent methods and the ones of cultural expansion. Again, the Belarusian language and the Belarusian history became the major obstacle on their way. That was the reason why the physically annihilated the activists who carried out the process of Beautification in the 1920s. That was why they falsified the Belarusian history to the maximal extent. During the times of the Soviet Union it was more preferable to refer to the works of the Russian historians of the 19th century rather than to the soviet ones. The Russian scholars were known to have lied to a smaller extent.
The communists had to form the Belarusian elite. Its representatives were russified, spoke Russian, and were deprived of their historical memory. They could be „locals” but not the Belarusian patriots. Currently we live under the conditions that existed at the end of the 18th century. The said elite together with the great number of Russified population became the major obstacle on the way to the second Belarusian revival.
Vast spread of the Russian language was not due to the advantages of the Russian culture as compared to the Belarusian one as it is claimed by the nowadays „Western Russians”. In reality it was caused by the policy of „iron curtain”, i.e. isolation from the world culture, suppression of natural development of the Belarusian language, and in addition by the electronic mass media. It is real tough for a person, who has been brought up through reading of „Tale about Saltan Tsar”, Tale about Golden Rooster”, „Tale about the Pope and his Balda servant”, to realize and admit that Adam Mitskevich was not the worse but even better poet as compared to Aleksandr Pushkin. At least, for one simple reason that A. Mitskevich was the poet of freedom; that was him who berhymed the history of your native people and the beauty of your wonderful land. More that that, the majority of the fans of the Russian culture simply have never read any works by A. Mitskevich as only very few of them have been translated into Belarusian.
This is the reason why the Belarusian national idea deals not only with the form and essence phenomena but with the process as well. This process deals with winning and strengthening independent nationhood, mastering (by the elite) national cultural heritage, propaganda and promotion of its values as standards and stereotypes of social behavior. Such behavior is the only factor that can emancipate creative potential of people and enable them to reach dignified material and spiritual standards of life. Only harmony of soul, self-respect, self-reliance, and feeling of unity can give force to the society which could help to overcome the current crisis in all spheres of life as well as to guide in hard work on the way to construction of a prosperous and dynamic country. It will become the country that will be highly appreciated as the potential member of the European community, the country with the real future.
As for the policy and propaganda of the current regime, it is heading down in an absolutely different direction. Hard scrupulous and persistent work is applied by the regime to oppose one layer of the population against the other, e.g. Orthodox believers against Catholics, both of them against Protestants, the ones who speak Belarusian against the Russian-speaking part of population, veterans against the youth, the ones who support the reforms against those who vote for „restoration of distorted ties”, Slavs against the rest of the nations… At the same time, the regime is trying to integrate into the country where every third citizen has never wanted and does not currently want to be a „Russian”. This policy is not only deconstructive and wrong. This is a felonious and cynical policy that presents menace to the overall existence of Belarusians. Therefore, the Belarusian national idea is also considered to be a weapon in fighting dictatorship regime. It also serves as the way to reconstruction of the system of justice and legal order. As any other idea, it belongs to each individual who realizes its essence. We also witness its becoming the banner in struggle for democracy in Belarus.
LET US TAKE A LOOK
AT OURSELVES FROM A DISTANCE
Numerous phenomena, that seem to be insufficiently clear and definite, require comparison with similar phenomena that makes the process of understanding and realization much easier. It is especially true in cases of typologically close phenomena that are current within the neighboring environment. I have already mentioned about the „American dream” as a very sensitive and clear idea of Americans, i.e. the nation of the United States. However, this phenomenon is too difficult to compare with the Belarusian reality as the American nation is too young and their culture is absolutely different. To better grasp our originality, it would be more reasonable and useful to take a look at our close neighbors, i.e. Russia and Poland. It is not only because of Poland (completely) and Russia (as a whole) being the Slavic states with approximately similar to Belarusian depth of their cultural traditions. It is also because of the fact that within the course of complicated Belarusian history there were not only the periods of strong cultural influence of Poland or Russian on Belarus. There were times when the neighbors also experienced strong effect of Belarusian culture as well. Poland witnessed the times (when the first dynasty of the Yagelons was in power) when the walls of the Catholic churches in the king’s castle had been ornamented by the so-called „Russian frescos”, i.e. the silent eyewitnesses of talent of artists from the Grand Duchy of Litwa. Russia could enjoy the similar masterpieces that appeared from distemper times through the middle of the 18th century. In the „Malorossiyskiye vliyaniya na velikorusskuyu tserkovnuyu zhizn” (Effect of Minor Russia on Religious Life of Grand Russia) book by K. Kharlampovich, published before the revolution of 1917, you can find dozens of names of Belarusian artists, printers, craftsmen and ministers. I would like to mention only one name, the one of Simyaon Polatski who was known to be the founder of the secular poetry, dramaturgy and education in Moscow. He was the mentor of tsar’s children, including Peter the Great, who made Russia face the West.
This explains why it is of interest to evaluate how the Belarusian idea correlates with the ideas of the nearest neighbors. Russia can serve as a better example because it has enjoyed its permanent nationhood since the end of the 15th century which (the idea of nationhood) had been clearly formulated, molded into the pre-determined formulae that enable us to make clear comparison today.
The Russian idea began in Russia with the church-and-geographical-and-political concept which has been formulated at the times when Ivan the Third was in power, i.e. „Moscow is the third Rome and the fourth one is not to come”. This concept was definitely formulated by the Greek clergy who had to flee from Constantinople – the Second Rome that had been seized by the Turks. Ivan the Third turned out to be a far-seeing politician. Having terminated his first marriage, he married the niece of the last Greek emperor and acquired powerful ideological weapon. Within the course of three decades he passed under the control all the „Russian” (Orthodox) principalities and whipped off the power of the Golden Horde. The religious (church) concept became the state one and resulted in formation of the independent national state as well as for long centuries laid the foundation for the imperial aggressive policy.
One can argue for hours and hours about the consistency, historical destiny of adoption of the imperial sacral ideology by Moscow, but, obviously, that was mainly that ideology which converted a small, peripheral principality into the heart of the powerful state and formed the grand Russian nation. It underwent slight changes within the course of time but until now it preserved its original influence.
We can see today what sufferings mentality of the Russian population of the Russian Federation has to go through due to the loss of its status of a super state. We are the witnesses of how easy the real interests of the people are sacrificed to please the imperial ambitions and how almost all the political leaders of Russia declare restoration of former greatness of Russia as the main element of their programs. In all cases „greatness” was understood as the military power of the country.
In the 19th century the imperial ideology had coined into a well-known formula of the national idea, i.e. orthodoxy, absolute monarchy, nation. This three-part formula is very thoughtful and significant. Each of its components is full of sense that is disclosed in numerous manifestations of the Russian culture, politics and psychology. Each Belarusian must try this uniform on before he integrates with Russia. He must also tell himself whether this uniform strangles or not.
Let us begin with ORTHODOXY. All the eastern Christian churches are known to be called in the West as the Orthodox ones, meaning that they are traditional and unchangeable. However, the Russian equivalent to this notion is different. The term Orthodoxy („Pravoslavye”) stands for „the only true religion” and contains the claim that it is the chosen religion. In this case it serves as the embryo of aggression. In everyday life this word acquires even more pretentious character. Just listen to some of the orthodox ministers who happen to be interviewed on the Belarusian TV. They use the term of „orthodox faith” which is, mildly speaking, the case of blasphemy as all Christians – Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants – are known to have one universal faith, i.e. Christianity. Mainly this shift from „the only true church” to the „only true orthodox faith” served as the foundation for it to be spread not only among the Christians but also among the Muslim peoples, of course, in a violent way. This shift also served as justification of their imperial policy both in the West and in the East.
ABSOLUTE MONARCHY. This is the direct rejection of the republican form of administration and democracy. The concept of the only Christian potentate, selected by the Lord, was borrowed from the administrative policy and theory of Constantinople (the Second Rome) that destroyed all the republican traditions of the authentic Rome. This is the concept of a closed society in which any information gets filtered and ideologically processed. Mainly this propaganda gave birth to the traditional fairy tales about the „kindhearted father-tsar” and bad boyars. This is the source of all the Russian excruciations dealing with the introduction of the democratic system as well as mockeries at any form of parliamentarism. Absolute monarchy in cooperation with orthodoxy gives birth to a pretty conservative social structure that contains no inner potential for any reforms.
NATION. It serves as the remainders of the Christian „socialism”. This is the concept of assembly that means the preeminence in the rights and interests of the community as compared to the rights and interests of an individual citizen that borders on the complete disregard of them. The Stalin theory of „screws” completely matches the theory of „nation”. The Russian „nation” borrowed from the medieval Christian „socialism” (that used legal acts of Byzantium to really protect interests of defenseless people and limit wealth growth but not to suppress the individual initiative) only deprivation of rights of an individual and his/her worthlessness in the eyes of a state.
Now, let us see how the Russian national idea, formed by the elite of the Russian empire, affected the national character and mentality of the nation. S. Averyntsev, an outstanding Russian philosopher and culture researcher, in one of his works explained in a figurative way the difference between the nonmaterial world and psychophysical reactions of the eastern vs. the western Christian. Imagine the existence of the ether of ideas (some of them being contradictory and full of antinomy) interspersed with some zones of spiritual life of human beings. In Catholic philosophy they are limited in size. The conflict ideas, which penetrate into its core, get gradually subdued. In orthodoxy these spheres are known to be of a very small size. Under the ideal conditions they are to get squeezed to the size of the point and, therefore, contradictory nature of the ideas is percepted by the orthodox believers in a very trenchant way. It can actually serve as a geometrical image (pattern) that explains the difference between rational and irrational perception of conflicts of life. It explains why the Russians tend to rapidly switch from love to hatred, from extreme courage to panic, from crazy activity rate to the limp inactivity, from enslavement to the „senseless and unmerciful” revolt. It also explains their striving at being equal in the sense of misery. That is why they hate wealth but love luxury of non-standard (swear/taboo) words in the Russian language.
The above manifestations of the „broad Russian soul” are very well known to each Belarusian as well as he is aware of dry rationalism and egoism of carriers of western culture. These manifestations have been described in the really great Russian literature that treated ecstatic character of psychology of a Russian as a goldmine.
However, one can hardly imagine a typical Belarusian, ripping up his shirt on his chest as well as it is next to impossible to imagine a typical Russian who would work hard for the collective farm free of charge or a Muscovite, crossing the street with the green light of the traffic light on. It was not by chance that the Belarusian soldiers of the tsarist and soviet army tended to be the best ones because of their high level of discipline, stamina and education. As for the whole post-war Belarus, it became the „assembly line” of the former USSR.
It would be not bad at all if each Belarusian would try the „wide Russian soul” on and figure out for himself whether it fits him well. (Objectively, it is not worse as compared to his own one, but it is simply different). Having realized this fact, he would need to also keep in mind that soul is not a material thing. It gets formed within the course of bringing up and education and influenced by the social environment and governmental policy. Primary goal of the latter is to make Belarusians ruin their souls. It explains the fact why the issue of the Belarusian national idea currently becomes the edge-cutting one. This national idea demands hard spiritual work from each of the citizen who does not need anyone’s soul.
The Polish national idea has been molded in such toreutic forms as compared to the Russian one. However, we can use the Russian model for reconstruction of the Polish national idea, having no confidence, that it will be appreciated by each Pole or the Polish elite. The key issue in this case is not associated with an absolute accuracy in our definitions. It deals with the adequacy of perception of Polish culture and national character by the majority of Belarusians.
THE PRIMARY ELEMENT
OF A THREE-PART FORMULA WILL
DEFINITELY BELONG TO CATHOLICISM
The concept of this very confession proclaims the clerical power to be free from the secular one. It prevents the Poles from sacrilizing the state and treating the state system as the one that is obsequious with God and does not depend upon the will of the citizens. That was why they managed twice within the recent two centuries to have survived without any major losses the periods of foreign domination as well as to have restored their nationhood without any civil conflicts.
Poles are the traditionalists that also derive from their confession. They not only love and know their history, highly appreciate and protect their cultural monuments. Each restoration of the nationhood goes in line with restoration of its name, i.e. Recz Pospolita (the republic). Republic, as an opposite to absolute monarchy state system, became the second constituent of the Polish national idea. The republican system means domination of law and not will. This is the state order that gives freedom to initiative and independence. That was obviously one of the reasons why the Poles survived the „shock” therapy of the liberal reforms in a comparatively easy way.
The Polish national idea does not comprise the equivalent of a nation. Poles are bigger individualists as compared to Russians. The individualism does not exclude solidarity, hospitality, sympathy. But, it becomes one of the traits of their national character that sometimes irritates Belarusians. This trait comprises feeling of personal dignity, aptitude for demonstration of their cultural preeminence. The latter feature is not characteristic for highly educated people but can be displayed as the demotic reaction to the unacceptable foreign culture.
Thus, I would formulate the Polish national idea in the following way: Catholicism – republic – dignity or solidarity as solidarity itself is the form of socialization of dignified people.
Comparison of the neighboring national systems and reliance upon our own historical experience should serve as the basis for definition of the main elements of the Belarusian national idea. These should be the elements that could specify peculiar features of the national character and national values. They should be protected and developed by the independent Belarusian state in case of it is formation.
The primary element should definitely deal with the world outlook. Belarus is the multi-confessional country but the prevailing confession is Christianity. However, it is useless to apply the term orthodoxy in this case as Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox believers are Christians. Our main historical achievement deals with tolerance and faith leniency. In this aspect we are strikingly different as compared to Russia and Poland. They are on the way to achieve what we have already gotten. The Belarusian state should be only of a secular nature. Church should be secluded from the state. The United States can serve as an example in this respect. And, of course, there should be no speeches of the President of the country in Church.
One should see the difference between tolerance and gentleness, placability, indifference. Tolerance comprises opposition to violence, cult of force, self-sufficiency of your world outlook, exposure to acceptable cultural influences and sparing conservation of one’s values. Tolerance is a sign of democracy, and respect to self-value of an individual and knowledge. Tolerance is a kind of dignity that is free from the aggressive shading of vantage. All these traits are characteristic for the traditional Belarusian culture that comprises both professional forms and folklore as well as folk fine arts. One can trace them looking at the Uniyat icons and Sarmatian portraits. They can be read about in the works of polemic literature of 16th through 17th century as well as in the classical works of Belarusian Renaissance and even the ones of the Belarusian soviet literature.
Yanka Kupala’s reply to the „And what, what are they striving at?” rhetorical question was „To be called the human beings”. He meant tolerance. This is the reason why the current regime fights this trait of national character in politics and spiritual life. This is the proof of the antinational nature of this regime.
Absolute monarchy is uncongenial for Belarus. At the same time, the republican traditions are too weak in this country. Therefore, democracy can serve as the only state administration principle. The term of „democracy” is vaguer as compared to the „republic”. It balances between the ochlocracy (the trap which Belarus got into) and parliamentarism. History of this country comprises traditions of parliamentarism as well. Building of an independent Belarus should be based on them. But before they are applied again, they need to be rehabilitated in the eyes of the regular citizens. This necessity becomes an enormous responsibility for the Belarusian elite. It duty is to breed the political culture, respect towards the parties and their public responsibility, to disclose the essence and advantages of the representative legislative power as compared to the veche and its current implementation in the form of the president who is responsible for everything and is not limited by anything in his activities. Belarus is neither an African tribe nor a large collective farm. Multifaceted interests of its citizens should not be reduced to the will and intelligence of one person. To bring Belarus back to Europe and actualize it national idea it is necessary to build the parliamentary republic and to get rid of absolute power in this country.
The third element of our formula of national idea also presents a definite interest. It specifies the degree of socialization of the Belarusian society. It goes without saying that homogeneity of the „nation” and high degree of civil „solidarity” are not the distinctive features of Belarusians. Continuous absence of independent nationhood and national elite, multi-confessional nature of the population favored development of a specific form of socialization, i.e. solidarity arising out of necessity or, in other words, talaka ( a team of people that gather to cope with a task in no time –BIR). This form of solidarity is characteristic not only for the rural communities but for the working/production teams which never had any conflicts based on the national, religious or any other cultural grounds. It can also be traced in the persistent existence of such form of national liberation struggle as partisan movement which we are well aware of from the history of this country. It exists even within the frame of numerous present political parties.
Talaka is a means of achievement of the common aim by means of applying joined efforts. It is a means that is limited both in time and space. However, typologically it is the embryo of the civil community. Its instability and dynamism serve as the guarantee from creation of the caste-based society (that presents the typical pathology of a „nation”). Talaka can also acquire the all-national character. Only talaka can unseat the regime.
Thus, to sum up the above said, I do declare that the core or the form of the Belarusian national idea today is the struggle for independent Belarusian state. It essence covers the national and cultural revival, creation of the national elite. The main national values are tolerance, democracy and talaka. It should be understood, of course, that such a most complicated term as national idea can not be completely formulated in only three words. The three synonyms, selected by myself, are considered to depict this notion in the best way possible.
I also do admit that not all the Russians and Poles will agree upon my interpretation of their national ideas. This is to only serve as the Belarusian way to treat the issue. More than that, the national ideas, in spite of their concentration within the historical roots of each nation, are at the same time pretty flexible. Serving, on the one hand, as a beacon in cultural activities of the people, they keep verified and developed by each generation to come, especially within such crucial periods in the history of the country as the Belarusian people are passing through at present.
Trans. Ivan Burlyka
YURAS’ HADYKA – Belarusian politic, leader Belarusians Popular Front, activity in opposition.
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