№16-17, 2011

The article considers the role of the Polish language in constructing the ethnic identity of Belarusian Poles and examines how choices of native language shape real communicative practices, cultural transmission and identity preservation.

The article studies how images of authority, people and others were constructed in public speeches by Belarusian officials during the liberalization period of 2008-2010. It concludes that liberalization was understood in a very limited way and did not lead to a durable discursive opening.

The article addresses feminization of nomina agentis in Belarusian and shows how debates around this issue open a wider colonial perspective on language norms, gender and decolonization.

The article presents a biographical analysis of participants in the Belarusian cultural movement who began writing in Belarusian between 1880 and 1918. It reconstructs the regional and social profile of the movement and offers a more detailed picture of nation-building at the turn of the twentieth century.

The article asks why Lithuanian never gained official status in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania despite a growing written and printed tradition. It explains the case through a multilingual environment structured by multiple diglossias and differentiated public functions of languages.

The article analyzes the political and sociocultural foundations of the ideology of the Fourth Commonwealth in its right-wing form in Poland. It connects this ideologeme to archetypal myths, historical policy and a broader post-colonial reading of Polish political culture.

The article compares how institutions in Belarus and Poland shape regional elites in Hrodna voblasc and Podlasie voivodship. It finds both clear structural differences and some common factors in the formation of regional political elites.

The review discusses a study of political and state-building processes in Belarus from 1917 to 1919 and focuses on the transition from the Brest peace context to Soviet Belarusian statehood.

The review critically analyzes a controversial reinterpretation of twentieth-century Belarusian history and questions the concepts, methods and empirical materials offered in the edited volume.

The review presents a book on ethnic and political interactions in Western Ukraine between 1867 and 1914 and highlights its contribution to the study of ethnic politics and interethnic relations in the Habsburg borderlands.

This review discusses Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands, focusing on its narrative method, conceptual frame and some weaknesses related to the predominance of secondary historical sources.

The review examines a book about the formation of the Belarusian nation and national identity and reflects on tensions between local identities, folklore and modern nationhood.

The review analyzes a book by Uladzimir Mackievič and its approach to the value problem in modern Belarusian culture and society. It pays special attention to the interpretation of history and methodological choices behind the argument.

The review critically considers a book on ideological processes in Belarus written from the perspective of official state ideology. It relates this text to broader debates on the Belarusian state, national idea and ideological production.

The essay reviews the Belarusian Yearbook devoted to social, political and economic developments in Belarus in 2010 and assesses its value as a hybrid of analytics, scholarship and public commentary.

The review examines a political dictionary prepared by staff of Belarusian state universities and treats it as a case of terminological borrowing and plagiarism in official political science.

The review discusses a study of how Russian media construct the image of Latvia as an enemy and places this problem in the wider context of information wars and media representations.

The review critically analyzes a Belarusian study of armed conflict and displaced persons in Afghanistan and uses it to reflect on the state of Belarusian area studies and scholarship.