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Belarusian Historiography

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lightbulbAbout this topic
Belarusian historiography is the study and interpretation of Belarus's history through various scholarly perspectives, methodologies, and sources. It encompasses the analysis of historical narratives, the evolution of national identity, and the impact of political, social, and cultural factors on the understanding of Belarusian past.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Belarusian historiography is the study and interpretation of Belarus's history through various scholarly perspectives, methodologies, and sources. It encompasses the analysis of historical narratives, the evolution of national identity, and the impact of political, social, and cultural factors on the understanding of Belarusian past.

Key research themes

1. How is Belarusian national identity constructed and contested through historiography and cultural discourse?

This research area investigates the discursive construction of Belarusian national identity within historiography, cultural events, and public discourse in the context of authoritarianism, Soviet legacy, and grassroots cultural activism. It explores how narratives of Belarusian history, language, and creative community articulate alternative or oppositional identities to prevailing state and Soviet-era ideologies, reflecting a dynamic, fragmentary, and negotiated sense of nationhood.

Key finding: This paper identifies a grassroots cultural discourse at CreativeMornings Minsk where Belarusians construct an oppositional identity of a 'creative people' in Minsk. Using Cultural Discourse Analysis, the authors demonstrate... Read more
Key finding: This comprehensive work reveals the multi-layered and contested nature of Belarusian identity, emphasizing cultural, linguistic, and ethnic polyphony. It traces competing myths including the nineteenth-century peasant nation,... Read more
Key finding: Relying on field observations and classic theories of nationhood, this study articulates the intricate relationship between language and identity in Belarus. It evidences a divided perception among Belarusians concerning... Read more
Key finding: The paper documents shifts in the historiography of Old Belarusian literature as reflective of broader identity processes. It shows how literary histories evolved from Soviet-era monolingual interpretations to a growing... Read more

2. What are the dominant narratives and controversies in Belarusian historiography regarding national history and historical policy?

This theme addresses how Belarusian historical narratives are shaped and contested through official historiography, history textbooks, and political speeches, focusing on issues such as the legacy of the Soviet past, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and competing national-democratic versus Soviet-Russian discourses. It assesses the political instrumentalization of history and the fragmentation of memory in Belarus’s post-Soviet national identity construction and state legitimacy.

Key finding: The article delineates three dominant discourses in Belarusian historical memory: national-democratic, Soviet-Russian, and official government historiography, the latter largely aligned with Soviet-Russian thinking but... Read more
Key finding: Through analysis of three Belarusian history textbooks, this study reveals that textbooks simultaneously reflect and shape contested national narratives. It shows how textbooks portray the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and... Read more
Key finding: This paper documents Belarusian nationalist historiography’s framing of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a distinctly Belarusian polity, countering Russian and Polish claims. It highlights how 19th and 20th-century Belarusian... Read more
Key finding: Analyzing President Lukashenka’s public speeches on Independence Day, the article uncovers a limited and pragmatic historical narrative privileging Soviet and wartime myths over pre-Soviet history. It demonstrates that... Read more
Key finding: Although broader in disciplinary scope, this editorial offers critical methodological reflections relevant to Belarusian historiography. It interrogates the dual legacy of foundational figures in Slavic studies, illustrating... Read more

3. What methodological challenges and innovative approaches characterize contemporary Belarusian historiography, including emerging fields like oral history?

This theme focuses on the epistemological and methodological state of Belarusian historiography, exploring issues such as Soviet legacy influences, methodological stagnation, ethno-historical myth persistence, and the gradual institutionalization of oral history scholarship. It considers how methodological limitations and state ideological constraints affect academic research while pointing to emerging alternative research strategies that seek to revitalize Belarusian historical studies.

Key finding: The paper critiques contemporary Belarusian historiography’s methodological stagnation rooted in Soviet traditions and ideological loyalty to Lukashenko’s regime. It identifies unproductive reliance on outdated... Read more
Key finding: Based on interviews with Belarusian historians, this study reveals widespread dissatisfaction with the current state of Belarusian national historiography, emphasizing negative phenomena like ideological constraint,... Read more
Key finding: The article traces the development of oral history in Belarus, from its inception in the late 1980s through its institutionalization by non-governmental organizations. It highlights oral history’s potential as an alternative... Read more
Key finding: This study details the creation and curatorial rationale of the Belarusian Politics and Society (BPAS) web archive, which preserves digital grassroots protest content from 2020–2022. It highlights the methodological necessity... Read more

All papers in Belarusian Historiography

The process of a nation describing itself is, to some extent, also a process of its creation. This is particularly relevant to literature, which functions not only as a body of texts but also as a system of interpretation and... more
Артыкул прысвечаны даследаванню жыцця і навуковай творчасці амаль забытага зараз этнографа-палевіка, гісторыка беларускай этнаграфічнай навукі 1920-х гг. Аляксандра Ануфрэевіча Шлюбскага. Гэта быў надзвычай пладавіты даследчык, які... more
Гэты нумар прысвечаны 160-м угодкам паўстання 1863–1864 гг. На старонках часопіса прадстаўлены артыкулы і рэфераты аўтараў з Беларусі, Польшчы, Літвы і Украіны. Даследчыкі ўздымаюць пытанне значэння паўстання для беларускага, літоўскага,... more
Выпуск 3 Мінск «ІВЦ Мінфіна» 2025 УДК 930.25(082) ББК 79.3я43 А87 Р э д а к ц ы й н а я к а л е г і я: А.К. Дземянюк (адказны рэдактар), Т.У. Пецюкевіч (намеснік адказнага рэдактара), А.
The article is devoted to the problem of the influence of Italian humanism on the works of F. Skorina. In the article the author, based on the well-known original works of F. Skorina and the collected information, found out which works... more
The article is devoted to the past of the former estate of Stanislavovo, the country residence of the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislav August Poniatowski. After the annexation of the Commonwealth to the Russian... more
Ідэалагема «Дружба народаў» аказалася эфектыўным інструментам знешняй і ўнутранай савецкай палітыкі. «Дружбу народаў» афіцыйна зафіксавалі ў Канстытуцыі 1936 года і ў савецкім гімне. Праявы дружбы можна было сустрэць практычна паўсюль: у... more
Рекомендовано до друку Вченою радою Дрогобицького державного педагогічного університету імені Івана Франка (протокол від 27 червня 2019 року № 7) наказом міністерства освіти і науки україни збірник включено до категорії «а» переліку... more
Исследуется вклад А. Л. Аниховского в развитие белорусской науки и культуры в 1918-1928 гг. До недавнего времени специалистам было известно о результатах его краеведческой и археологической деятельности исключительно в Оренбургском крае.... more
“On the Tracks of a Struggle with a Historical Myth”, this paper examines the background of writing and discussing the “Following the Tracks of a Myth” – one of the most known and criticized books of Mikola Jermalovič (1921-2000) that was... more
The paper reviews the book by Nicholas P. Vakar “Belorussia. The Making of a Nation” (1956) that for some reason has not been under discussion in Belarusian historiography yet but newly appeared in form of e-edition of Harvard University... more
The article presents an outline of views of Belarusian historians on the events connected with Khmelnytsky Uprising in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The author highlights the social and political reasons for varying... more
Ivangorodsky K. Source base of studying the Eastern Slavs’ Ethnic History: the experience of contemporary Belarusian historiography Introduction. The problems of the Eastern Slavs’ ethnic history, like any other historical problem, can be... more
Ivangorodsky K. Ethnic transformations of East-Slavic communities within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: modern Belarusian historiography. The article analyzes the main tendencies of contemporary Belarusian historiography devoted to the... more
Ivangorodsky K. Methodological approaches to the ethnogenesis of Eastern Slavic communities in contemporary Belarusian historiography. Modern Belarusian historiography is in a bifurcated condition, conditioned by the conservative ideology... more
Ivangorodsky K. The problem of the Balts influence on the ethnogenesis of the Slavs (until the middle of the 1st millennium AD) in Contemporary Belarusian historiography. The most important questions for researchers of the Eastern Slavs’... more
Ivangorodsky K. The problem of Urheimat Slavs localization in modern Belarusian historiography. Historians have always perfectly understood: solving the problem of the Slavs ethnogenesis foremost depends on establishing the place of their... more
Ivangorodsky K. Modern Belarusian national historiography in perception of historians from Belarus. In the article are investigated the Belarusian historians’ views devoted to the modern Belarusian national historiography analysis. The... more
Ivangorodsky K. Belarusian historiography today: between neo-Soviet and national practices // The Image of Belarus in historiography and historical memory of Ukrainians: collective monograph / ed. V. Masnenko. - Cherkasy, 2015.
The article analyzes the coverage of the political struggle for the Roman citizenship of the Italian socii (allies) by Fyodor Nechay (1905—1990, notable Belarusian historian of the Ancient Rome).
. Сёньня беларуская гістарыяграфія перажывае пэрыяд свайго актыўнага разьвіцьця. Нягледзячы на шматлікія перашкоды арганізацыйнага, фінансавага й ідэйнага характару, штогод зьяўляюцца глы бокія навуковыя дасьледаваньні, вартыя ўвагі як... more
У артыкуле раскрываюцца некаторыя праблемы сучаснай беларускай гістарыяграфіі. На прыкладзе артыкула брэсцкага гісторыка Алега Карповіча паказваюцца такія хібы, як слабое правядзенне навукова-пошукавай працы, фрагментарнае выкарыстанне... more
На падставе аналізу навуковых прац (артыкулаў і манаграфій) беларускіх савецкіх гісторыкаў міжваеннага перыяду Усевалада Ігнатоўскага, Уладзіміра Пічэты, Яна Віткоўскага, Сяргея Цытовіча і іншых паказваецца працэс пашырэння кола ўжытых у... more
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