'The Locals': Alternatives to Nationalism in Ianka Kupala’s 'Tutejshiia'

• In Event: Revolutionary Life beyond the State

Abstract

During the years after World War I Belarus saw a brief reprieve from intensive censorship and repression. The thinkers who gathered around Belarusian language journals and periodicals such as “Nasha Niva” and “Polymia” could suddenly express some of their most daring ideas. Literary great, Ianka Kupala took this opportunity to prime his readers for a new form of social and political organization based on tutejshiia, a uniquely Eastern European expression of radical localness. This current of thought tragically met its demise in one night of mass executions in October 1937. Yet still, this alternative to the state continues to set the stage for a pluralistic and democratic Belarus.

Author

• Oliver Okun, U of Chicago