Russian-speaking Belarusian Nationalism: An Ethnolinguistic Identity Without a Language?

Abstract

This essay examines the development of a form of Russian-speaking Belarusian national identity. While Belarus’s early post-Soviet nationalists relied upon Belarusian as the central pillar of national identity, this has been challenged by more ‘pragmatic’ nationalists using the ‘language of the people’, namely, Russian. Analysing history textbooks and popular history books that represent three key identity projects in Belarus, this study sheds light on the specific programmatic ideas of a new Russian-speaking Belarusian nationalism. Despite the emergence of the geopolitically-motivated Russian World (Russkii Mir) concept, some Russian-speaking nationalists have articulated a programme that paradoxically draws upon Russian neo-Eurasianist thought, but which is simultaneously anti-Russian.

Notes

1 The referendum was held on 14 May 1995. The turnout was 64.8%. The four questions were: (1) ‘Do you agree with assigning the Russian language the status equal to that of the Belarusian language?’ (83.3% voted for it, 12.7% against); (2) ‘Do you support the suggestion about the introduction of the new State flag and State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Belarus?’ (75.1% for, 9.39% against); (3) ‘Do you support the actions of the President of the Republic of Belarus aimed at economic integration with the Russian Federation?’ (83.3% for, 12.5% against); (4) ‘Do you agree with the necessity of the introduction of changes into the acting Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, which provide for early termination of the plenary powers of the Supreme Soviet by the President of the Republic of Belarus in the case of systematic or gross violations of the Constitution?’ (77.7% for, 17.8% against). For details see the official website of the Central Commission of the Republic of Belarus on Elections and Holding Republican Referenda, available at: http://www.rec.gov.by/ru/arhiv-referendumy/respublikanskiy-referendum-14-maya-1995-goda, accessed 27 November 2018.

2 These are currently the most recent EVS data available. The first pre-release of the new EVS wave data will only become publicly available in December 2018 and the full dataset of the EVS-2017 only in December 2019.

3 Fond ‘Russkii mir’, available at: https://russkiymir.ru/fund/, accessed 26 November 2018.

4 Fond istoricheskoi perspektivy, available at: http://www.fiip.ru/about, accessed 26 November 2018.

5 Fond istoricheskoi perspektivy, available at: http://www.fiip.ru/about, accessed 26 November 2018.

6 Both of which consider the principalities to have formed part of Kievan Rus.

7 Lithuanian historians, for example, are criticised for the way they ‘deliberately manipulate facts and opinions, and sometimes write blatant lies’ (Taras 2013, p. 11).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marharyta Fabrykant

Marharyta Fabrykant, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia; Belarusian State University, 9-428, Kalvariyskaya St., Minsk, 220004, Belarus. Email: [email protected]; [email protected]