№21, 2013

The article examines the earliest stage of Soviet philosophy in Belarus and the role Belarusian Soviet philosophers played in shaping the canon of Soviet Marxism during the 1920s. It focuses on unstable orthodoxy, new terminology and struggles over the proper philosophical line.

The publication presents the decision of the Higher Attestation Commission of Belarus on a political science dissertation together with an introductory commentary. It highlights the dependence of political science on ideology and the weak state of academic standards in Belarus.

The text gathers responses from nine well-known Belarusian intellectuals about the general intellectual situation in Belarus. It explores their views on the role of intellectuals in shaping Belarusian culture, nation and public strategy.

The article offers a concise authorial vision of the main stages in the evolution of modern Belarusian thinking from the early 1990s to the present.

The text analyzes the logic and conditions of the development of philosophy in Belarus after 1991 and discusses the main challenges for philosophy as an academic discipline and a cultural practice.

The text interprets the Belarusian intellectual situation through seven theses and reflects on the tension between clear and practical reason in contemporary Belarus.

The article defines the intellectual situation in Belarus as a situation of thinking and describes the conditions under which such thinking becomes possible.

The text presents an intellectual manifesto for contemporary Belarus and formulates the needs and challenges facing the country’s intellectual community.

The article outlines characteristic ways of thinking among Belarusian intellectuals who study society, including their dependence on authority, the spread of ideological rhetoric and obsolete explanatory schemes.

The text describes relations between Belarusian intellectuals and the authorities and considers how intellectuals are drawn into politics and assigned roles within authoritarian power structures.

The article proposes a scheme of relations among the erudite, the expert and the intellectual, and reflects on how intellectual work becomes entangled with state service.

The review examines a monograph by Belarusian official scholars and reveals its weak scientific substance and strong ideological orientation in the service of authoritarian justification.

The review critically considers Andrew Savchenko’s interpretation of Belarus as a perpetual borderland between eastern and western civilizations.

The review analyzes a collective study on desovietization in Belarus and discusses it as a political and social project linked to broader transformations in work, business and culture.

The review discusses a collective study of social and humanitarian disciplines in Belarus and Ukraine after 1991 and emphasizes its importance for understanding post-Soviet theoretical and methodological disorientation.

The review considers a collection of essays on visual text in mass communication and discusses the role of images across contemporary media systems.

The review considers an anthology of Lithuanian political thought from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and its importance for Belarusian readers.

The review discusses a book on Edward Woyniłłowicz and his family and notes its contribution through newly introduced letters and family materials.

The review examines a monograph on German myths and stereotypes of Eastern Europe and reflects on how the East has been imagined through a specifically German optic.

The review considers a Czech-language study of Belarusianization in the 1920s and its interpretation of nation-building through Soviet nationality policy.