Belarus III: Partisans, Empire, Revolution: Building the Belarusian Nation through Literature, Music, and Teaching of History

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

National liberation in the Soviet space has generally been treated within the framework of dissident movements with a distinctly anti-Soviet program. In the case of Belarus, the political failure of such movements has led to the retrospective assessment of a “weak nationalism” or an “unformed nation”. To problematize this notion, the interdisciplinary panel aims to discuss specific modes of nation-building in Belarus during Soviet and post-Soviet times. Literary works, films, and popular music from the late socialist era embody the intertwining of Soviet nationality policies and the critical assertion of a romantic version of national history and culture. Several, sometimes contradictory historical narratives of the Belarusian nation are being constructed during that era, bringing together WWII partisans, 19th-century revolutionaries, and medieval empires. Their fluidity overcomes the imposed strict division between “Soviet colonial” and “liberated national” Belarusian identity. Where do those narratives stem from? How do they intersect? How does this historical legacy still inform any thinking of the Belarusian nation?

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Jakob Wunderwald, U of Potsdam (Germany)

Papers

• Between Belarusian Partisans and The Beatles: Brezhnev’s Nationality Policy and Globalization of Soviet Pop in the Music of the VIA 'Pesniary' - Lizaveta Lysenka, U of Bonn (Germany)

• Beyond the ‘Partisan Republic’: The Self-Portrait of Late Soviet Belarus in the Republic’s Media - Natalya Chernyshova, Queen Mary, U of London (UK)

• Employing the Distant Past for Modern Nation-Building: Teaching the History of a Long-Defunct Empire in Secondary Education in Belarus - Yuliya Brel-Fournier, U of Delaware

• Reconsidering Revolution: Uladzimir Karatkevich’s Critique of Post-Stalinism via the 19th Century - Jakob Wunderwald, U of Potsdam (Germany)

Discussant

• Alexander Wöll, U of Potsdam (Germany)