The association “International Union of Belarusian Writers” continues to monitor the state of the Belarusian language in Belarus and to collect cases of discrimination of the Belarusian language and its speakers. We are publishing the survey of infringements of linguistic rights in Belarus for the period from January 1st, 2024 to June 30th, 2024.
As a result of the long-term state policy of Russification and propaganda work in Belarus, according to researches by the Chatham House, it appears that 55% of the pollees-Belarusans believe that the Belarusans, the Russians, and the Ukrainians are part of the triune Slavic nation. Only 41% of the respondents support the idea that the Belarusans are a separate nation with its own history and culture. And only 16% of the respondents want to see Belarusan as the only state language. As the author of the study – Ryhor Astapenia – notes, it does not mean that the Belarusans do not like the Belarusan language or in general unpatriotic, but they do not see it as a dominant language. For the Belarusans, the Belarusan language is rather a part of culture, rather than a part of daily life. Russian is still the language of daily life, including because all communication of state bodies and document exchange is conducted in Russian, state body employees often do not meet the requirements of the law and do not speak both state languages equally, and Belarusan responses of state bodies and organizations, if written in Belarusan, often contain many errors.
According to the Belarusan journalist and writer Siarhiei Dubaviec, Russification in Belarus is not only about Russian culture and even not only about the Russian language. Along with the language and culture, the Belarusans are taught something more – officialese – the language of officials, propagandists and bosses of all scales.
Siarhiei Dubaviec believes that Lukashenko’s regime seeks to steal from the Belarusans themselves – with their nature, culture, language, heroes, and to turn the Belarusan picture of the world into a stencil where all this has no place. But what will appear instead of all this? The answer is unfortunate – nothing, nothing good. Regarding the language, according to the author, the main task of propagandists is not only to replace the Belarusan language with Russian, but also to make the Russian language a native tongue for the Belarusans.
The historian and political analyst Alaksandr Frydman thinks that under the influence of the cultural mainstream, which was formed during the Lukashenko era, people were not particularly interested in Belarusan, which led to the fact that the language and culture acquired a marginal status.
The association “International Union of Belarusan Writers” continues to closely monitor the state of the Belarusan language in Belarus and to collect every case of discrimination of the Belarusan language and its speakers for further protection.
During the first half of 2024, in open sources of information, we have found the following cases of discrimination:
On January 3, 2024, in response to the appeal of the human rights activist Ihar Slucak about product labeling in Belarusan, the JSC “Brest Beer” replied that it does not plan to use the Belarusan language on the label (packaging) of its products, nor does it plan to create a version of its own website in Belarusan. The company did not explain the reasons for such a response.
On January 9, 2024, the ceremony of awarding the “For Spiritual Revival” and “Belarusan Sports Olympics” awards took place in Minsk. The distinguishing feature of the ceremony has always been the fact that it was a rare occasion when Alexander Lukashenko spoke in Belarusan. For several minutes of the general speech, he read from a piece of paper, always in Belarusan. But in 2024, A. Lukashenko completely abandoned the Belarusan language for the first time, speaking only in Russian.
In the middle of January 2024, the inscriptions in English disappeared from the information boards at the railway station in Minsk – only Belarusan or Russian remained, and often with errors. Several errors were found in the Belarusan inscriptions. It was allegedly impossible to replace the English-language inscriptions on the electronic boards “for technological reasons related to the low temperature of the outside air”, so they were sealed with insulating tape. To the question of citizens how to navigate the station as a foreigner, they received an answer signed by the deputy head of the Belarusan Railway with many spelling errors as follows: “The railway station is not a tourist attraction, and the use of foreign languages to inform citizens at the specified facility is not necessary.” The authorities (as well as pro-Russian activists) destroy not only English in public places, but also Belarusan Latin. Thus, earlier in the Minsk metro, a part of the inscriptions in Belarusan Latin were already replaced with Russian versions. In April 2023, in Belarus, the requirement to transliterate geographical names only from the Belarusan language, which existed for more than 20 years, using traditional Belarusan Latin, was abolished. In September of the same year, Alexander Lukashenko instructed the government to get rid of the Latin alphabet on signs and information stands in the names of streets and topographical objects. He demanded to use only state languages. A few days later, the head of the Minsk City Executive Committee Vladimir Kukharev said that the plates in the city will be replaced.
On January 31, 2024, in an interview with the human rights defending center “Viasna”, after his release, the former prisoner of the prison in Navapolacak (the name of the prisoner and the article on which he was convicted is withheld for security reasons) talked about the conditions of his sentence. Thus, from autumn 2023, all Belarusan works were removed from the prison’s libraries. Political prisoners were forbidden to read the works by S. Aleksievich. The works by J. Kupala, U. Karatkievic, and J. Kolas were also removed from the libraries. They also removed books in foreign languages – English, Polish, Lithuanian, and even Chinese. The convicts asked why this happened. But the administration of the prison replied that all books must be in Russian only.
Since January 25 to May 5, 2024, the State Museum of Belarusan Literature had to host a literary and artistic exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Belarusan national writer Vasil Bykau. But the exhibition lasted only 10 days; it was closed on February 5. The museum management did not explain the reasons for the early closing of the exhibition. However, let’s note that the Belarusans consider Vasil Bykau to be the conscience of the nation, while Lukashenko and his supporters perceive Bykau as hostile, alien.
On February 4, 2024, on his Facebook page, the editor-in-chief of Nasha Niva Jahor Marcinovic (convicted under Article 216 of the Criminal Code — causing property damage without signs of theft – to 2 years and 6 months of imprisonment in a colony under the general regime, recognized as a political prisoner on 12 June 2021, released on August 18, 2023) said that the head of the club in the prison in Babruisk did not allow a convicted person to read a poem of a Belarusan classic in Belarusan at the self-activity competition. To all the remarks that Belarusan is the state language in Belarus, the head replied in an obscene manner that he is not interested in which languages are state in Belarus, no one in his club will speak in Belarusan.
February 12, 2024. The former political prisoner, activist and local historian Aleh Kulesa (convicted under Article 342 of the Criminal Code – organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order, or active participation in them, up to 1 year and 7 months of imprisonment in a colony under the general regime, recognized as a political prisoner on 15 June 2021, released on September 17, 2022) told on the air of the Belsat program “Language again” that the attitude of the employees of Babruisk colony No. 2, where he was serving his sentence, towards Belarusan-speaking detainees is harsher than towards Russian-speaking ones. He also said that the administration of the colony carried out the day of the Belarusan language, but in an unusual way. Instead of the prisoners appreciating the Belarusan language, reciting poems, making productions based on the works of Belarusan writers, the former head of the pre-trial detention center, who now heads the library in the colony, gathered everyone in a huge hall and began to tell them that the Belarusan language cannot be used, that it is already forgotten, unworthy, and generally a kind of nonsense. Aleh also reminded that when he was in the Brest prison, out of 4-5 thousand books in the Belarusan language, there were only 42 of them.
February 13, 2024. “Zerkalo” said that the pro-Russian propagandist Olga Bondareva continues to struggle against the Belarusan language in public transport. This time, she was not satisfied with the fact that the names of the stops are announced only in Belarusan, and not in the two official languages. She sent her appeals to “Minsktrans”, the Homiel, Brest, Viciebsk, and Hrodna regional executive committees. Olga believes that announcing stops only in Belarusan is “the elimination of the state Russian language.”
February 21, 2024. It became known that the stylish Belarusan-language sign of the capital cafe “Biarozka” was replaced with a Russian-language one: on the facade of a house on Victory Square in Minsk, instead of the “Biarozka” sign made in the retro style of the 1960s, a simple Russian-language sign “Berezka” was hung.
By the Mother Language Day, which is celebrated annually on February 21, the “Viasna” human rights defending center prepared a report on the situation with the Belarusan language in prisons. The report is based on the testimonies of former political prisoners and detainees about the use of the Belarusan language in prison and its perception in places of captivity. Here are some excerpts from the report that were not previously known (names and articles on which the respondents were convicted are withheld for security reasons):
- The investigator, during the interrogation of one of the detainees, advised him not to speak Belarusan with “vertukhais” (screws) and during the trial, because of this he may receive a longer term. That is, speaking in Belarusan is perceived in courts as an aggravating circumstance.
- The deputy head of the prison of the Maladziecna District expressed a “wish” that the arrested human rights defender would speak with him in Russian. The second time, an employee in the same detention center told him something like: “Speak in a normal language”.
- Illa Mironau, a former political prisoner activist in the Homiel prison (convicted under Article 369-1 of the Criminal Code — discrediting Belarus, to 1 year and 6 months of imprisonment in a colony under the general regime, recognized as a political prisoner on October 6, 2021, released on October 24, 2022; on February 10, 2023, included in the list of extremists) was refused a request to issue an administrative offense report form in the Belarusan language (there is a possibility that such forms simply do not exist in Belarus).
- Another political prisoner said that in Mahilou Colony No. 15 he heard from the management that writing documents in Belarusan is “not allowed”. The administration of the colony did not accept the report made in Belarusan and sentenced the political prisoner to 10 days of detention. After the next attempt to make a report in Belarusan, the political prisoner received another 10 days of detention, and was also deprived of all meetings and, consequently, letters.
February 23, 2024. The ex-political prisoner of prison No. 15 in Mahilou Ilya (the name is changed; the article on which he was convicted is not named for security reasons) told Nasha Niva that political prisoners are forbidden to learn foreign languages, read books on historical topics and in the Belarusan language. “Very often did the administration made searches. The colony staff shook the bedside tables and beds. If they found a book in the Belarusan language or if they did not like the content of a Russian-language book, they were taken away. Then they were destroyed: they were thrown into a common pile near the bathhouse and set on fire.”
March 7, 2024. In response to the appeal of the human rights defender and language activist Ihar Slucak, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Yu. G. Ambrazevich replied that the language policy implemented in Belarus at the state level is exemplary, does not provoke conflicts, corresponds to the perceptions and hopes of the Belarusan people, and promotes cultural and spiritual enrichment of the Belarusan nation.
March 20, 2024. The propagandist Andrei Mukovozchik published an article in the pro-government newspaper “SB: Belarus Segodnya” entitled “The language is Belarusan. It is ours. Therefore, we should take it.” In his article, he disrespectfully names the people who in 2020 supported democratic changes in the country. In his opinion, they took the Belarusan language for themselves and will not simply give it back to Belarusan society. He also believes that the supporters are using the Belarusan language as a weapon to split the Union State. He writes that there are no problems with the Belarusan language in Belarus, but the supporters say that there are, so the problems are not with the language, but with the supporters, and they should be punished. At the same time, he praises the Russian language, cites various quotes in its defense, as a link to a great civilization. Meanwhile, the article itself is written by Mukovozchik in Russian, the text sometimes uses Belarusan words, more often in a derogatory way. The Belarusan entrepreneur, business mentor and former prisoner Alexander Knyrovich disagreed with Mukovozchik’s conclusions. So, on the air of the Belsat NEWS program on March 24, Alexander expressed the opinion that the propagandists began to “take away” from the supporters and appropriate the Belarusan language due to the fact that the question of the full integration of Belarus and Russia, which they really do not want, has become more acute. They do not want to integrate, but not out of love and respect for their native people and language. Propagandists are trying to show that, in their opinion, Belarusans are a part of Russian civilization, but they are still a separate people, and they use the Belarusan language for this.
April 12, 2024. The instagram channel MOVA TUT noticed that informational stickers written in Belarusan (for example, about emergency exit) began to be destroyed in buses and trolleybuses in Minsk. Stickers in Russian began to appear in their place.
April 12, 2024. The cosmonauts Marina Vasilevskaya and Oleg Novitsky presented Alexander Lukashenko with a watch. One detail on the watch attracts attention. The surnames of the cosmonauts who participated in the mission with Marina Vasilevskaya are written on the watch. The American Tracy Dyson is written in English, the surname of Oleg Novitsky, who represented Russia in flights, is in Russian. And the name of Marina Vasilevskaya, who represented Belarus, is also in Russian.
April 13, 2024. In the center of Minsk there appeared a bus stop with a strange name – “Chirvonaya” (which must be “Krasnaya”). Such an unusual name was included in the electronic scoreboard of “Minsktrans”, and also appeared on the route diagram of bus №100. On April 13th and 14th, the intersection of Independence Avenue and Kazlova Street was under repair, so bus №100 was allowed to detour. That was how “Chirvonaya” appeared on its route. According to the Law “On Names of Geographical Objects”, which came into force on March 2, 2011, the names of all geographical objects, including public transport stops, are assigned in the Belarusan language, which is transliterated into Russian. Surprises with the appearance of “Budavnikov” or “Chigunochnikov” streets occur every year. The reason is that the officials initially do not think that the name will be transliterated from Belarusan.
The situation with the stop “Chirvonaya” consists in the fact that it is named after Chyrvonaya Street, which was originally “Krasnaya” (i.e. “beautiful”) in Belarusan. During the Soviet era, its Russian name did not change in any way, but in Belarusan it was already called “Red” (because the word “krasnaya” in Russian means the color red).
April 13, 2024. In response to the appeal of the human rights defender Ihar Slucak about the use of the Belarusan language in the activities of the State University “Football Club “Dniapro-Mahilou”, the institution replied that there is currently no urgent need for the use of the Belarusan language. The institution also made a reference to the article of the Constitution saying that the country has two official languages.
The popular Belarusan blogger “Loony” runs two YouTube channels – Loonyman on medical topics and historical “Archivarius”. Recently, the young man began to speak more often on political, social and linguistic topics. Thus, in one of the last tiktoks on April 26, 2024, he calls the Belarusan language “not native” to Belarusans, claims that no one knows it, and in another recent clip, grimacing, he laughs at an advertisement for coffee in Belarusan. “The Belarusan language is not native to us” – declares the blogger and argues his position by the fact that in his 31 years he saw only five people who spoke Belarusan. The blogger says that he himself once “went through the stages of Belarusanization” and thought that it was necessary to speak Belarusan, to protect the Belarusan language, but then he realized that it was in vain. “I tried to speak Belarusan – they looked at me as if I was sick… We have our own language – Russian, which we have been speaking for the last 200-300 years. In 99% of cases, the native language of Belarusans is Russian,” he insists. He believes that the Belarusan language is not known in the country. He calls everyone who thinks differently and promotes the ideas of Belarusanization “pot heads”.
May 1, 2024. In his Telegram channel, the propagandist and recently MP Vadim Gigin drew attention to the bicycle project with the Belarusan name “First Bicycle”, which is widely advertised and “officials bless it with their presence”. But here is the word rovar (“bicycle”), according to Gigin is “a bright and deliberate Polonism.” For proof, he turns to the Niekrasevic-Baikou dictionary of 1928 edition, which, according to him, is praised by many patriots. It says vielasiped (“bicycle”). Thus, the propagandist concludes, “vielasiped/rovar” is not a “philological curiosity”, but a political matter. And he offers his name to the project – “Piersy Vielik”. In the comments under the survey, one woman notes that the Belarusan language with dictionaries is edited by people who do not live among its speakers, live in cities and speak Russian.
May 6, 2024. At the request of the prosecutor’s office of the city of Minsk, the information products of the printed editions “Selected works” by Vaclau Lastouski (1997) and “Selected works” by Ales Pietraskievic (2017), published as part of the “Belarusan Knihazbor” project, were recognized by the court as extremist. Vaclau Lastouski is a Belarusan social and political figure, writer, philologist, literary critic, historian and ethnographer, and Ales Pietraskievic is a Belarusan and Soviet playwright, novelist, publicist, screenwriter, teacher, the first rector of the Minsk Institute of Culture (1975-1976), candidate of historical of Sciences (1967), Honored Worker of Culture of the Byelorussian SSR (1975), laureate of the State Prize of the BSSR (1976), member of the Writers’ Union of the USSR (1974).
May 20, 2024. On the website of the Ministry of Education, it is published that from September 1, 2024, “History of Belarus in the context of world history” will appear in the timetable of 10th graders instead of “History of Belarus” and “World History”.
The Minister of Education Andrei Ivanets said that the textbook “History of Belarus in the context of world history” for the 10th grades will be presented already in August. This textbook can be read literally in a day “without stopping”. He also noted that “There will be a very serious patriotic component, because we have actually changed the approaches to the texts that are used there.” Usually patriotic components mean replacing the Belarusan language with Russian and distorting historical facts for propaganda purposes.
On May 16, the former Minister of Culture of Russia and now Putin’s assistant Vladimir Medinsky called for “more balance” in the teaching of history in Russia and Belarus. According to him, mutual licensing of school textbooks will be continued. Synchronization will also be carried out at the scientific level, by means of a joint dictionary, joint common concepts.
The Russian-Belarusan expert-consultative council on history agreed on the creation of two joint historical magazines. One of them will be general historical, the other one will be devoted to military history.
The commission previously stated the need to create a single textbook on the history of Belarus and Russia. A textbook on the history of the Union State was also developed.
May 24, 2024. Court of the Zytkavicy District recognized Jazep Januskievic’s preface to the selection of works by Dunin-Marcinkievic as “extremist materials”. Dunin-Marcinkievic’s two-volume book was previously recognized as “extremist materials” in November 2023 by the same court of the Zytkavicy District. Later, on March 11, 2024, the decision of the district court was canceled by the presidium of the Homiel regional court. However, this two-volume book has now reappeared in the relevant list on the Ministry of Information website. However, this time only the preface to it is recognized as “extremist”.
June 1, 2024. A resident of the city of Kobryn was arrested for 10 days for keeping a book by Uladzimir Arlou “Homeland: a picturesque history. From Ragnieda to Kasciuska” in his house. The police found out about the presence of the “extremist” book in the house through a tip. In court, during the session, it was found that the man kept the first edition, while the second edition of the book was recognized as extremist. The court did not take these circumstances into account and found the man guilty of possession for the purpose of distribution of information products included in the national list of extremist materials.
June 2, 2024. The pro-government artist Svetlana Zhigimont saw the word “download” on the information board, which is located in the parking lot near TsUM, and lashed out with insults against the Belarusan language. According to her, she “knows the language well”, but in recent years it has been “damaged” and she is not going to waste her precious time in her old age on learning this set of words and expressions from different languages and dialects. Then, the artist was outraged by the inscriptions in public transport about the emergency exit, made in Belarusan. She says that she needs an alternative in Russian. He calls public transport with Belarusan-language inscriptions “transport for anti-Lukashists and English-speaking tourists. The pro-government supporters of close integration with Russia have long been indignant about the use of some Belarusan words in public transport. For example, the propagandist Olga Bondareva recently published a post on her Telegram channel in which she was outraged that the word kirouca (“driver”) borrowed from the Polish language was used in an official text message in the validator on the Minsk bus.
June 7, 2024. The Mahilou Regional Theater of Drama and Comedy named after Vincent Dunin-Marcinkievic, located in Babruisk, has updated its repertoire. There was no place for Belarusan works in the new repertoire, almost all performances were based on the works of Russian authors, often little-known ones. The Babruisk-based theater did not have a national flavor before. Last season, only “Niescierka” was produced, but now there is nothing Belarusan left.
June 10, 2024. Radio Liberty reported that thousands of books are being confiscated from Belarusan bookstores and libraries. Not only those recognized as “extremist”, but also school textbooks, books in foreign languages. The professor of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, former BSU teacher Pawel Barkowski explains: previously, special expert commissions made decisions on the recognition of extremists, but now it’s just district courts by order of the prosecutor’s office without any expertise, because they will interfere with the process. The composition of the commissions that come to libraries, bookstores, second-hand shops with checks is unknown. Their participants usually do not introduce themselves during the visits, – several sources in the book sphere said. If such people find unwanted literature, they are ordered to urgently write it off and “dispose of it”. Old textbooks on history, foreign languages, and methodical literature are taken en masse from school libraries. In the Brest gymnasium, when the commission found history textbooks and books published in the 1990s, it ordered them to be written off. The director of the gymnasium ordered to write them off at a later date, two weeks before the arrival of the commission.
June 11, 2024. The Ministry of Education of Belarus published the statistics of the results of the centralized examinations (CE) in the Belarusan and Russian languages, which Belarusan schoolchildren passed on May 30th. 11,500 students passed CE in Belarusan, 44,000 in Russian. The maximum 100 points were obtained by 177 pupils who passed the Belarusan language and 292 pupils who passed the Russian language. The average score in Belarusan was 61.7, in Russian – 63.3. It turns out that, on average, they passed the Belarusan language worse, but the proportion of students who passed the Belarusan language was 2.3 times higher among those who passed the Belarusan language. The situation is not surprising, taking into account the reduction of the time spent studying the Belarusan language and the state educational policy in general.
June 14, 2024. The pro-government activist Olga Bondareva in her Telegram channel was outraged by the fact that the Hrodna dairy plant is in correspondence with the human rights defender and language activist Ihar Slucak and satisfies all his requests to label the manufactured products in Belarusan. In her message, she is disrespectful to Ihar Slucak and demands the management of “Milk World” LLC to return the Russian-language labels on the products due to the fact that, in her opinion, Russian is spoken by the vast majority of the population of Belarus and tourists.
June 24, 2024. The court of the October District of Minsk made a decision to recognize three books of the opposition politician, co-founder of the Belarusan Christian Democracy party, writer Paviel Sieviaryniec (convicted under part 1 of article 13 and part 2 of article 293 of the Criminal Code — preparation for participation in mass riots – 7 years of imprisonment in a prison under the strict regime, recognized as a political prisoner on 10 July 2020) as extremists. Thus, the court found “extremist” content in Paviel’s books such as “Heart of Stone”, “I Love BELARUS: 200 Phenomena of the National Idea”, “Belarusalim”. The book “Heart of Stone” by Paviel Sieviaryniec is a collection of essays written over the past twenty years, short stories from Belarusan captivity: “days”, “chemistry”, prisons. In the book “I love BELARUS: 200 phenomena of the national idea” Paviel found 200 of the most famous phenomena of Belarusanness in a wide variety of fields: from history, geography to economy and sports, not leaving out well-known personalities, culture, spirituality. “Belarusalim – The second book. The Heart of Light” is a continuation of the book “Belarusalim”. “Zolak” (2017) is an intense novel about faith and love, struggle and betrayal, in which the historical fate of Belarus is being reviewed.
We will continue to closely monitor the state of the Belarusan language and conduct similar reviews at least once every six months. Therefore, if you have examples of discrimination based on language that are not included in this review, please send them to us at [email protected].
The survey has been prepared by the association “International Union of Belarusian Writers”