DELFI.LT: What Is Closer to the Belarusian Authorities: Russocentrism or the Heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania?

Aliaksei Lastouski, a researcher at the Political Sphere Institute, comments on Kryshtapovich’s statement for the Lithuanian portal DELFI.

On 15 March, at a round table in Minsk entitled “The Religious Factor in Belarus’s National Security”, Doctor of Philosophy and Deputy Director of the Information and Analytical Centre under the Administration of the President of Belarus Lev Kryshtapovich proposed abandoning the idea that Belarusian identity emerged from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This statement was taken up by Belarusian media. And not only by Belarusian media.

We quote: “Under the guise of national traditions, people are beginning to promote and develop traditions that, in my view, have nothing in common with the mentality of our Belarusian people: when the Radziwills, Sapiehas and Ogińskis are dragged into our Belarusian culture as representatives of specifically Belarusian noble families”, L. Kryshtapovich said during the round table in Minsk. According to him, all these figures, despite the fact that representatives of these noble families were born and lived on the territory of Belarus, belong to another mentality and another nation.

“It seems that attempts to derive Belarusian identity from the so-called Grand Duchy of Lithuania are attempts that stand aside from the real process of our [Belarusian – DELFI] spiritual strengthening and development”.
How should one respond to such statements by a Belarusian scholar who is part of a state structure, against the background of Soviet-style military parades and, at the same time, the Belarusian authorities’ concern for the restoration and renovation of castles from the era of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania? Is this a private opinion, or does it represent a trend in official ideology? DELFI turned to representatives of the Belarusian academic community for answers to these questions.

Read in full: ru.delfi.lt