Belarus (magazine #1 2021) by BELARUS Magazine

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No. 1 (1048), 2021 Беларусь. Belarus

BELARUS Politics. Economy. Culture

BRIGHTNESS OF FOLK TRADITIONS

ISSN 2415-394X

The ancient Kolyada rite is still popular in the Belarusian village in January

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ГОЛАС РАДЗІМЫ EDITION OF THE “ГОЛАС РАДЗІМЫ” IS AVAILABLE AT WWW.ZVIAZDA.BY

The newspaper for fellow countrymen: well-known and well-read 1

ГАЗЕТА З БЕЛАРУСІ

ГОЛАС РАДЗІМЫ

Голасрадзімы аўторак, 29 снежня, 2020

ГОЛ АС Што падарыць? Любоў і дабрыню! Ы РАД До М І бр З ЗІМ ыя Д спр А е б Ы Р а ся ВЫДАЕЦЦА З КРАСАВІКА 1955 ГОДА ●

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CONTENTS

Беларусь. Belarus

BELTA

Social and political magazine No. 1 (1048), January, 2021 Published since 1930 Founders: Zviazda Publishing House editorialand-publishing establishment Editor-in-Chief: Viktor Kharkov Executive Secretary: Valentina Zhdanovich Editorial office address: 220013 Minsk, Belarus, 10a Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street Tel.: +375 (17) 287-19-19, +375 (17) 292-66-92 Тel./fax: +375 (17) 287-15-26. www.zviazda.by E-mail: belarus.mag@mail.ru

CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR OF THE LAUREATES

For the sake of peace and kindness

The pandemic has affected almost everyone’s life. But it has affected the elderly the most. Older people, who have many concomitant diseases are forced to stop or minimize their contact with the outside world BELTA

The Orthodox world celebrated one of the main Christian holidays - the Nativity of Christ. All roads on this bright day lead to churches. There is an immutable tradition in Belarus: no matter what, the head of state attends the Christmas service

HOLIDAY — TO EVERY HOME

New horizons of opportunities It is already obvious: the decision made in the country in due time not to pause production in the midst of a pandemic not only saved the enterprises, but in general had a positive effect on the economy. While many countries last year closed their borders and introduced lockdowns, Belarusian products were successfully sold and competed on world markets

Беларусь. Belarus is published in Belarusian, English and Chinese.

When the approach is highly professional

The magazine is distributed to 50 countries worldwide.

They now see patients from almost all over the country. How has the coronavirus affected the cancer service and should we expect a surge in new cancer cases when the pandemic is over? How are cancer patients coping with COVlD‑19?

Final responsibility for factual accuracy and interpretation lies with publication authors. Should any article of Беларусь. Belarus be used, reference to the magazine is obligatory.

Such an attractive, mysterious world

The editorial office does not bear responsibility for contents of advertisements. Signed for printing on 21.01.2021 Offset printing. Coated paper. Format 60х84 1⁄8. Conventional printed sheets 5,58 Accounting published sheets 7,01 Total circulation — 1617

Rhythmic gymnastics is love. In the case of Belarusian gymnastics we can say that it is also Lyubov Cherkashina. In 2012 she was an Olympic bronze medalist, and now she is a judge, a coach, and the head of the athletes’ commission of the International Gymnastics Federation

copies (781 — in English)

Order Republican unitary enterprise "BudMedyyaPrayekt" Licence No. 02330/71 on 23.01.2014 220123 Minsk, Belarus, 13/61 V. Khoruzhey Street

Big life of a small town Belarus is a country of small towns. One and a half hundred urban settlements out of two hundred existing have less than twenty thousand inhabitants

Registration Certificate No. 8 issued on 16.07.2018 by the Information Ministry of the Republic of Belarus Design and Layout by Olga Razinkevich Proof-reader Alisa Gungor

Living and working in a new way

BELTA

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ONE HUNDRED SHADES OF WHITE

On the front page of the cover Photo by Anatoly Kleshchuk

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

Now we propose to get acquainted with the fairy tale of Lyudmila Rublevskaya, which she wrote for adults. In the cycle “The Crown at the Bottom of a Pool, or Tales from the Farm of Grandmother Yustyna”, each fairy tale is a legend about the origin of a plant listed in the Red Book of Belarus

“The Grey Legend” becomes modernity Kirill Zadvorny, a student of the Belarusian Academy of Arts, has illustrated one of Vladimir Korotkevich’s novels

LATIN SONG OF THE BELARUSIAN SOLOMON

26 Voice in communication space

ceramic crocks, where local experts in some unknown way identify the bottoms, rings and even patterns of pots of the Iron

The new “Explanatory Dictionary of the Belarusian Language” will have 250 thousand words. The previous dictionary had 97 thousand words

43 LOCAL JERUSALEM

Join memory return Five unexpected facts about the film “Farsi Lessons”: what makes this film special?

Where did the ghost come from in the town hall In the 18th century It would have taken you less than ten minutes to walk from the outskirts to the centre of Minsk. Yes, the city was small at that time, with only five thousand inhabitants, but by the end of the century its population grew by another thousand

What does green smell like?

In the capital - guests from the region The National Art Museum of Belarus hosts an exhibition “Artists of the Molodechno Region”

Artwork as a confidential conversation with the viewer Mikhail Rogalevich is one of those Belarusian artists who left a unique mark on the national fine arts

Archeology is an indisputable thing The office of the research laboratory of archeology of the Mogilev State University named after A. Kuleshov is fully stocked with current finds. Mogilev archaeologists have accumulated as much as 70 kilograms of useful material. The tables are piled with small

HAVING COME IN A DREAM “THE NUTCRACKER” ACQUIRED NEW COLOUR

YAN KHVEDCHIN

PINTEREST.RU

Swordsman Ermol, or sword-grass

GUIDE-ISRAEL.RU

MORE IN THE ISSUE 1

EDITOR’S NOTE

UNDERSTANDING REALITY What is more significant: culture or spirituality? Probably, such a concept as spirituality still outweighs. Culture is a heritage that is closely related to education. Spirituality is the state of human soul, rich in sincere feelings of respect, selflessness and many other things that are difficult to express in words. Much more often you can only feel it. Spiritual qualities are not forgotten in the modern Belarusian state. Moreover, they are highly valued in people whose intentions and aspirations are actively directed towards creative activity. It is not without reason that the country honors the laureates of the award “For Spiritual Revival” at the beginning of every year. The solemn ceremony attaches special importance to the event that embodies pride for labor and professional achievements, for national identity, for the successes that glorify Belarus, make it famous in the world, help people preserve the memory of their roots. Life does not stand still; it is rapidly moving forward. Urban and rural landscapes are changing. What will Minsk look like in a decade? Belarusian architects know for sure. The gift of clairvoyance has nothing to do with it. The prospects of the capital future are revealed in the General layout for the Development of Minsk until 2030. The architects were tasked with giving a decent faceting to the capital. This means putting things in order in the city. It is already obvious that Minsk will remain compact. They will start developing satellite towns of the capital. Meanwhile, Belarus is a country of small towns. One and a half hundred urban settlements out of two hundred existing have less than twenty thousand inhabitants. Each town has its own history, unique appearance, special destiny. Some of them, such as Turov or Zaslavl, count their biography from the times of Kievan Rus. Others, formed on the basis of industrial and energy enterprises, are not yet a century old. Today, small towns are home to about three million people. The well-being of almost a third of the country’s population depends on the economic, social and cultural well-being of these settlements. It is no coincidence that the development of small and medium settlements in Belarus has been declared a top priority. At one time, it was enshrined in the State Comprehensive Program for the Development of Regions, Small and Medium Settlements. Yes, a big city has great opportunities, a small city has little. Residents of large cities — Minsk, regional centers — have always been in more favorable conditions compared to the owners of registration in town or regional center. Not only in terms of access to theaters or libraries, but above all in terms of earning opportunities and job search. Not all city-forming enterprises, which

were the main breadwinners of the province’s residents during the planned economy, were able to adapt to market conditions. Many plants and factories have reduced production volumes, some have closed. Life in some settlements began to fade… How to motivate investors to move capital from the capital to a province in dire need of creating new competitive industries? The stimulus at one time was a decree that provided benefits for doing business in small towns. The results were not long in coming. Investments in small and medium settlements for a certain period exceeded the planned volume. Thousands of jobs have been created. Industrial production in province has increased markedly. New lease of life has begun in the Belarusian province. Although the crisis had a negative impact on the economy, small Belarusian towns as a whole showed good dynamics. The growth rate of industrial and consumer goods production there is higher than the national average. Investments in fixed assets gave a quick effect. New industries, modern technologies, competitive products, decent wages — everything that was previously only dreamed of in the province is now becoming a reality. Small towns are gradually turning into comfortable places of residence for a person, where he has a job, housing, social facilities and, unlike the capital, clean air and there is no transport problem. Moreover, it is their potential that can become the engine of economic success for the entire country. In a word, according to one of our authors, there is factual confirmation that dynamically developing regions are indeed the foundation of a strong Belarus. By Viktor Kharkov

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

HOLIDAY

FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE AND KINDNESS The Orthodox world celebrated one of the main Christian holidays - the Nativity of Christ. All roads on this bright day lead to churches. There is an immutable tradition in Belarus: no matter what, the head of state attends the Christmas service.

Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Minsk

That Thursday he was awaited in the new Minsk Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The President brought an icon as a gift, lit a candle, and addressed the parishioners. Alexander Lukashenko spoke about the past 2020 year and the coming 2021 year, called for unity, asked to take care of each other, own family and friends. He began by saying about his personal attitude to this day: — This is a bright, kind holiday. We all expect from it not only good, but also miracles. Probably, this makes us very similar to our children. The peculiarity of such, my beloved, holidays — as Christmas, Easter — is that each of us, each person goes his/her own way to own church. This is the greatest treasure that you and I have.

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

On that Christmas morning, many more people came to the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Minsk, which was built for the simultaneous acceptance of up to 300 people. The President, addressing the parishioners, asked a seemingly rhetorical question: why are we going? And answered himself: — I am absolutely convinced that all those who go to the church go for peace. They go for forgiveness. They follow the Christian values that live in us. More than 2 thousand years ago, Christmas became a kind of starting point for a new civilization, a new world order, where love, justice, kindness and mercy reign. These character traits are absolutely inherent in the Belarusian people. Some people have more of them, some less. But in general, the pursuit of honesty, decency and justice is in our blood. And therefore, Alexander Lukashenko is sure, God protects us. He spoke taking into account the lessons of recent times. He recalled the coronavirus pandemic, its terrible consequences, and likened them to other countries. And then he said: — We should understand that only together can we save this plot of land, and our children will be able to live after us with their own minds on their land. In the New Year message, I already said, that we can lose what we have. And the worst thing is that we can lose it irrevocably. In the church, sounded the following message from the head of state: to think about the future. Not only about our own, but also about our children’s future:

— It is on this holy day that He warns us from there... This is very relevant and very important. When else to think about the near future and make plans, if not at Christmas? After all, the President stressed, this is exactly the holiday that defines a new life for at least a year ahead. Hence I wish: — I really want us not to repeat the previous year, although I did not stigmatize it. We needed this year to get our heads right and to think about the future. So that we could realize who is next to us, so that we could clearly define who is who. We needed this year, but we needed it in the past. I do not want it to be repeated in this and next year. I want next year to be better — and it will be better! If we do not just want, but do everything necessary, depending on each of us. But we also shouldn’t forget about the past. The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, built in 2020, borders on the memorial complex “Masyukovschina death camp” - a remembrance place for the burial of more than 80 thousand prisoners of war and civilian Soviet citizens who were tortured in a Nazi concentration camp during the Great Patriotic War. The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the President said, is, first of all, a monument to all those who died: — These are the people who haven’t betrayed, who haven’t given up. These are the people who fought and died during the Great Patriotic War. This is very important to us now. Our entire Belarus, as I often say, is a monument to that war. We, Belarusians, shouldn’t heroize Na-

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HOLIDAY

zism even in small things. We shouldn’t! In the name of memory of those who died. We should sacredly honour those people thanks to whom we live today. The head of state insists once again: Belarus and its people do not need war or clashes. At the same time, he admits: life is really difficult now. But we should look ahead. Information wars are ongoing. A terrible fight broke out for the minds of people. Any cases are used, even this pandemic. Therefore, we need to unite so as not to lose what is ours — what belongs to us. Alexander Lukashenko gave an example to the topic of the day - just the night before, the Capitol was stormed in Washington: — The citadel of world democracy, as they presented themselves. Who would have thought? Nobody. Although there is some justice on the part of Trump. But it is bad. It is bad when people go to storm and die. Therefore, we should brace ourselves and calm down. Hence the call from the head of state: — So that you understand me and don’t condemn me right off the reel. Try to understand. I am a peaceful person. But I can’t allow someone to come here and openly destroy this our place... We don’t need any wars or clashes. They will be brought to us, look, we won’t be allowed to live calmly. Nobody will allow us to breathe freely, in the centre of Europe. This is a fight. And God forbid it turns into a hot war in our territory. But our issues will not

be resolved there, our interests will not be observed there. And we in Belarus know not only by hearsay what war is, but also what peace can be. In this regard, a particular thanks from Alexander Lukashenko sounded to the clergy: — We have preserved interconfessional peace. We have no discord between not only Catholics and Orthodox (we are Christians). We have no conflict between Christians and Muslims, Jews and other confessions, and there are more than 25 of them — small, large — that exist in our country. There is enough space for everyone. It should be so. We don’t have interethnic strife. It doesn’t matter for us who lives here on our land: Pole, Jew, Russian, Lithuanian or Ukrainian, Belarusian. We need to preserve this peace. We are an example for the whole planet, all countries. There is no such peace and tranquility anywhere as in Belarus. The head of state donated to the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost”, the creation of the image of which dates back to the 17th century. The icon, 35x45 centimetres in size, was made in the workshop of St. Elisabeth Convent, with the use of gold leaf and pearls. In response, the President was presented with a bronze souvenir bell with an inscription on the outside of the lower edge: “Lord, save those who loved the beauty of your house”.

Besides, Alexander Lukashenko was presented with a model of the temple made of polished bronze, as well as a book by Nikolai Gavrilov “...And God will wipe away every tear”, which tells about the fate of soldiers and officers of the Red Army who were captured in the first days of the war. In the centre of events is the same camp of prisoners of war in Masyukovshchina, where more than 80 thousand Soviet soldiers and civilians were shot. Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus Benjamin, who was present in the church, said, in turn, the following words: — May this holy holiday induce us to bring our grateful hearts to the Lord... So that we do good deeds for our neighbours. Because this is what Christ takes on his side. The future of our country largely depends on how much we turn to Christ now. To his example — the great, the sublime, the unique. How much we will follow his example. It is important that all of us — young and old, from senior to junior — bring our gifts to Christ. Who can do more — more, who can do less — less, but from a pure heart, from all diligence. And undoubtedly — this will be a guarantee of our further prosperity. Will evoke a response from Christ and will be the embodiment of our life and the good health of each of us, and the joy and blessing of our land and the unity between us. Aleksey Fedosov

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

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TRADITION

CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR Patriotism means to bring your whole self to your mission, living and working for the good of your native country and people. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced this at the award ceremony “For Spiritual Revival”, a special prize for cultural and art workers and the award “Belarusian Sports Olympus”.

he Head of State called t his e vening amazing. “We have already entered the business rhythm of the coming New Year, but we are still in the atmosphere of bright and good New Year and Christmas holidays. In the atmosphere that many years ago inspired us to create a unique award “For Spiritual Revival”, the President noted. Alexander Lukashenko stressed that the award ceremony is one of the main events of the year. It has firmly entered the life of Belarusians as a modern tradition that connects the past and present of the native land, fills the goals and aspirations of citizens with a special meaning, the Head of State noted. “From year to year, such meetings unite us in the best and most sincere feelings: pride in worthy people, gratitude for mercy and kindness, courage and heroism, admiration for the creativity and talent of our compatriots. We, Belarusians, are people with a beautiful soul. I think about this every time I study

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

the success stories and sign the awarding documents. I think that Vladyka (Metropolitan Benjamin. — Ed.) and I think the same at this time. Every professional or personal achievement is primarily based on hardworking and honest people. People who bring themselves to their mission, live and work for the benefit of their native country and people. This is patriotism”, the President said. Alexander Lukashenko noted that patriotism is expressed in love for children and disinterested desire to surround those whom fate has deprived of their maternal affection with care, in a selfless struggle for the life and health of people, in a careful attitude to the cultural heritage of the nation, age-old traditions and spiritual values of Belarusians. “In protecting the historical truth, the memory of the heroes of our land, the informational sovereignty of the country. In educating young Belarusians in love for their country and pride for their ancestors, in sports victories for the glory of Belarus,” the Head of State added. It is already a good Christmas tradition. On these bright days, we honor our

wonderful fellow countrymen, real ascetics in the field of the spiritual revival of the Fatherland. Everyone in their respective fields has achieved more than just excellent results. Their very activity cements society, strengthens its united spirit, makes our awareness of ourselves a single nation more solid and deep, glorifies the country and the people living in it. The state highly appreciates such services. They are honored with these special awards. The words of Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of all Belarus Benjamin that followed after the ceremony sounded in tune with the atmosphere that reigned in the hall. He turned to honored people with words of gratitude: — For the labors that you have undertaken in the past tense, and they were crowned with such a high award. We still have a lot of work ahead. Vladyka Metropolitan Filaret showed us an example of selfless service to his native Belarus. Day, night, to the detriment of his health, he bore good results and stood at the origins of this wonderful event, a wonderful evening, and the revival of spiritual

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TRADITION

OF THE LAUREATES life throughout Belarus. Much has been done. May the memory of him live forever. However we still have a lot to do to develop his work. Through the spiritual, inner work of everyone on himself, through a new stage in the spiritual revival of our society we must come to unity in our society and country. This will be the result of the coming year. God send to achieve this important, meaningful goal for us. ...After Metropolitan Benjamin speech, Alexander Lukashenko again came to the microphone. In the person of those present, he addressed all our fellow countrymen: — There are some good, kind moments in life, there are also sad ones. Then you especially think about the meaning of life. I will put it this way, in a popular way: you know, life is so short. Let’s do our best not to waste this time on empty talk, unnecessary deeds, especially destruction. This is clearly not about those present in the hall and on the stage. The Head of State addressed them as follows: — These are 3000 reliable, honest (I know) patriots. Everything depends on us — and the future of our country. Remember and pay special attention to what I said in my message to you on New Year’s Eve: God forbid us in the heat of this madness - world-

wide madness — to lose what we will never return. To lose irrevocably, to ruin with your own hands what has been done over the past quarter century. We did it with you! You can’t lose it! Read, think, analyze and only then draw conclusions. A flurry of lies fell upon us, as well as on the whole world, and even on everyone who was the initiator of all the bad things in our life. We have to get over it. We say about ourselves that we are wise, talented. Well, let’s be wise and talented. Alexander Lukashenko wished creative workers and clergy endurance and courage: — And most importantly — never rush... This does not mean that you should think the same way like me or Vladyka, like everyone else sitting here on this stage. No. But before drawing conclusions, take your time. A lot depends on our word. Take your time, so that later it will not be painful and shameful to exist and live in this society that we have built. We must walk the path with dignity and save our country for future generations. To those gathered — happiness, health, live together and not quarrel: — We have all. What is not, we will earn. We are able to do this. And we will definitely do it.

The President also said warm words in memory of Vladyka Filaret: — Vladyka Filaret lived for 85 years. It would seem a lot. But I remember our first meetings. This is a moment. It’s nothing at all in history. Not even a moment. Therefore, life is very short. Take care of each other. Show an example to your children how to live, so that it would be a little easier for them in life. Then there was a concert. Just like the solemn part of the event, it was filled with deep meanings. Children and adults performed. Folk and modern songs were played. About the country. About people. About our land. About everything that, as the Head of State said, in no case should be lost. That at any cost you need to save for yourself, your children and future generations. The thoughts and moods of the Head of State, spectators, laureates and performers here unambiguously coincided. Let’s be sure — all our people. A big basket of light flowers from the President was a good symbol of this unity. In the finale, it was taken to the stage under the overflow of bell ringing. It was seen only as a good sign of a common big and bright future. By Alexander Pimenov

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION

NEW HORIZONS OF OPPORTUNITIES It is already obvious: the decision made in the country in due time not to pause production in the midst of a pandemic not only saved the enterprises, but in general had a positive effect on the economy. While many countries last year closed their borders and introduced lockdowns, Belarusian products were successfully sold and competed on world markets.

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This is also confirmed by companies that have long earned a name in the world market. One of them is JSC Horizont Holding Management Company. The holding itself includes 16 commercial organizations, employing about 4 thousand employees. The company is actively developing six business areas — from the development and production of consumer and industrial electronics to construction, logistics and services. In addition to several hundred models of TVs, interactive systems, electronics for cars and agricultural machinery, and much more are produced here. The contracts with world famous brands are among the achievements. However now Horizont can be proud of such successes. But it was not always so. During a recent visit to the HORIZONT innovation center, which is the

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

“brain” of the holding, Alexander Lukashenko recalled how at the very beginning of his presidency he visited an enterprise that found itself in a very difficult situation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But the decision to keep the company was right. — This is a great production, this is the image of our country. Horizont, Vityaz in Soviet times… Horizont was generally a great company. It’s good that we saved it. I do not regret that I have kept this production, the President emphasized. New times — new solutions. It is not for nothing that the management of the holding was instructed, together with the Government, to think and decide what it is necessary to use production sites in the center of Minsk for. The fact is that for the time being, several objects remain unoccu-

pied, therefore, proposals are periodically received to transfer these territories, for example, for residential development or entertainment centers. However, the position of the Head of State on this issue is principled — the holding must analyze everything for the future, so that later it does not look for new production points for itself: — We need to build something that will give money tomorrow and where we can employ people… At the same time, the current situation at the enterprise is favorable. While industrialists in many countries are counting losses from the coronavirus pandemic, Horizont is counting profits. COVID‑19 did not reduce the demand for TVs and other electronics, so the Belarusian manufacturer is in the black: plans here are already planned for the whole of 2021. Yes, and the results of last year are impressive: the revenue from product sales for 11 months approached 400 million rubles, and the net profit amounted to almost 21 million rubles. In general, over the past five years, the holding increased its production volume almost fourfold, exports grew 3.7 times, and profit from sales — 4.6 times. In addition, as the general director of the holding, Yury Predko, said, they set up production of their own screens, which made it possible to increase the share of localization in Belarusian TVs to 60 percent. By the way, 90 percent of the production is exported. According to the top manager, in the last year, sales to Germany have grown

ECONOMICS OF INNOVATION fact that in the IT sector, along with the HiTech Park, there are other centers operating today, and a layer of young, promising specialists is emerging at the National Academy of Sciences and at industrial enterprises. According to the Head of State, this creates healthy competition in the industry. Communicating with the staff of the innovation center, he commented on it this way: — You are a good alternative (to IT specialists. — Ed.), where talented people are

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fivefold, to India 4.4 times, and to Kazakhstan, Poland and Vietnam twice. By the way, the Atlant plant, which the Head of State also visited some time ago, significantly increased the supply of refrigerators to Russia during the pandemic. Alexander Lukashenko once again emphasized the importance of the decision taken, albeit not popular at the time, which cost the image losses, to continue working without interruption:

At the innovative products research and development centre

— We started taking Belarusian goods with pleasure… You work today day and night, there is demand, there are no deposits in the warehouse.This is the great thing that you have done. This is if we talk specifically about manufacturers. But we shouldn’t forget about the global either. The tactics chosen by the country were reflected at the level of the economy. Against the background of a fall in GDP in the EU countries, Russia and other regions, Belarus ended the year with a minimal economic decline: the gross domestic product at the end of 2020 is expected to be at 99.5 percent against the level of 2019. Meanwhile, the HORIZONT innovation center concentrates developers, industrial designers, programmers, engineers, designers who create new products for consumer and industrial technology, electronics. In fact, the holding is a modern grocery company. Alexander Lukashenko was pleased with the novelties and developments he saw. He also positively assessed the

gathered. You need competition, you need several points of competence. I was convinced that it was not in vain that we started this. There is room for development. The developments and products of the holding today clearly demonstrate: Made in Belarus — it not only sounds proud, but also is a guarantee of quality. In any case, the demonstrated samples are in no way inferior to their foreign counterparts, and at a price they are much cheaper. Within the walls of the innovation center, they talked not only about the future of the holding — the entire country. From the topical: this year has been declared the Year of National Unity. The first, very important comment on this issue has already been sounded in the President’s New Year speach. Alexander Lukashenko proposed to turn the page and stop unnecessary confrontation. He developed the topic, communicating with the work collective: “I want the country to be quiet and peaceful. Probably, you yourself want it.

If you do not like the current President, then only elections can resolve this issue. Only elections. I say this, no matter how someone likes it. You, especially in Minsk, should understand that besides Minsk, we have Belarus. They say it is small. It is big! Yes, you (youth. — Ed.) are the future. We will leave. You then take care of this country. You are the future. But elections are when a young man of 18 years old and over, and an old man has the same ballots. In this regard, an appeal was made: not to break the law, everyone to do their own thing, to develop production and, first of all, think not about themselves, but about their children. The President spoke about the opponents of the current government as follows: — Let it be a minority, but these are my people, no matter how pretentious it sounds. If someone was lost, I also want them to hear: we will not have another piece of land. Do not forget, we — this is the most important moment — can lose everything. Irrevocably. We will never return to this. Perhaps the best way to advertise your own products is to draw attention to them. A new laser TV that looks more like a small bundle will find its place in the Palace of Independence. However, the employees of the holding did not fail to mention one more area of their activity — the possibility of transferring the housing stock to heating with electricity. The calculation here is simple: Horizont has launched production of affordable and competitive electric water heaters. The President is not against such experiments, he instructed the technology to be tested on several houses. At the same time, he recalled that a campaign was launched in the country to expand the use of electricity in various fields, including transport and heating. The work in this direction is as follows: new houses are being built with electric heating and electric stoves, production of electric vehicles has begun, and electric buses are actively used as urban transport. For the implementation of long-term plans, the electricity of BelNPP will also be used. The station will also allow significant savings on the purchase of imported natural gas. By Vladimir Velikhov

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

AY CHARITY

HOLIDAY — TO EVERY HOME More than 800 thousand children all over the country took part in the New Year charity marathon “Our Children”

ince autumn began large-scale preparations for, perhaps, the longest winter campaign “Our Children”. According to the resolution of the Council of Ministers dated October 6, the heads of the republican bodies of state administration, local executive and administrative bodies participated in it. And thus, starting from mid-December, during a month, children from boarding schools, family-type homes, those who live in foster and adoptive families, as well as those who were forced to celebrate the New Year and Christmas in hospitals, were congratulated by representatives of the authorities on the holidays and were presented gifts and even were helped to solve persistent problems. Many public associations have joined the charity event. Thus, the Belarusian Peace Foundation in the Gomel region organized New Year’s meetings “Christmas Trees of Peace and Friendship” for low-income children and children with special needs. The baton was taken over by servicemen of the 103rd Independent Guards Airborne Brigade in Vitebsk. They visited the local orphanage with New Year’s gifts. And on New Year’s Eve, the boys and girls who were at that time in the children’s regional clinical hospital were also pleased. From the windows of their chambers, the children enjoyed a spectacular show with lights and music. Children struggling with serious illnesses took part in the charitable action “Christmas tree of desires” in Brest. “Good wizards” from the regional youth union came to them to fulfill the cherished desires indicated in the letter to Father Frost. So, eleven-year-old Ulyana Akhmetova

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

received a life-size doll house, which she had long dreamed of. Although most of the “requests” among the children were related to high-tech devices: children wanted to get multiboards, laptops and other gadgets. Already in the New 2021 year, the National School of Beauty organized Christmas fashion show with the participation of young models from 3 to 16 years old. They represented collections from Chou Chou, Mugako, Fashion Birds, Mari St, as well as Russian and Belarusian designers. Participation in the show was fee-based both for the parents of young models and for themselves: the funds raised were used to buy necessary things and gifts for the childrenpatients of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology, Immunology. Until the Old New Year, children from the most remote corners of Belarus received their long-awaited gifts and congratulations from Father Frost and Snow Maiden. A symbolic and beautiful end to the charity marathon was the New Year’s performance “The Magic World” at the Palace of the Republic and the youth ball at the Palace of Independence in Minsk. About 4 thousand children from all Belarusian regions came to the “main New Year party of the country”. This event was attended by the winners of olympiads, creative competitions and sports competitions, leaders of children’s public associations and organizations, as well as children left without parents, disabled children from large and low-income families, from refugee families. For many, it was a dream — to get to the “presidential” New Year party, because the Head of state traditionally visits it every year. In the Palace

of the Republic, the children were shown an interactive performance with the use of information technologies and then presented with memorable gifts. On the eve of Orthodox Christmas, the organizers held the Belarusian New Year’s ball in the Palace of Independence. It was attended by about 350 people. It was preceded by rehearsals and, of course, a tough selection: were chosen only the most successful and worthy young citizens of our country. At the end of the ball all participants were also presented gifts, among which was a flash drive. It contained not only captured and recently recorded in history footage with the participants of the ball but in general — the entire event that took place in the Palace of Independence. Despite the fact that usually children easily believe in miracles, many admitted that they didn’t expect so much attention from society and a huge number of gifts this year. Probably, they were also affected by the general fatigue due to the long struggle with the coronavirus pandemic. By the way, safety precautions were taken into account during the monthly campaign. The campaign “Our Children” has been held in the country for 25 years. During its holding, new interesting projects, which are initiated not only by adults, often arise and are even implemented. By the way, many organizations promised to help not only during the holidays but throughout the year. Although it was not yet calculated, is already known that the amount of material assistance in the form of the necessary special equipment, souvenirs and sweet gifts, have exceeded 2 million Belarusian rubles. Alisa Gungor

CHARITY

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PRIORITIES

BIG LIFE OF A SMALL TOWN Belarus is a country of small towns. One and a half hundred urban settlements out of two hundred existing have less than twenty thousand inhabitants. Each town has its own history, unique appearance, special destiny. Some of them, such as Turov, Zaslavl or Kamenets, count their biography from the times of Kievan Rus. Others — Novolukoml, Beloozersk, Kostyukovka, formed on the basis of industrial and energy enterprises, are not yet a century old.

Today, small towns are home to about three million people. The well-being of almost a third of the country’s population depends on the economic, social and cultural well-being of these settlements. It is no coincidence that the development of small and medium settlements in Belarus has been declared a top priority. At one time, it was enshrined in the State Comprehensive Program for the Development of Regions, Small and Medium Settlements. The program covered 187 settlements. The implementation of thousands of investment projects (including two hundred of the most important), the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, the reduction of the unemployment rate — the measures enshrined in the Presidential Decree should significantly improve the quality of life in small towns and unleash their economic potential. Yes, a big city has great opportunities, a small city has little. Residents of large cities — Minsk, regional centers — have always been in more favorable conditions compared to the owners of registration in towns or regional center. Not only in terms of access to theaters or libraries,

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

but above all in terms of earning opportunities and job search. Not all city-forming enterprises, which were the main breadwinners of the province’s residents during the planned economy, were able to adapt to market conditions. Many plants and factories have reduced production volumes, and some have closed. Life in some settlements began to fade… Residents of the village of Elizovo, Osipovichi district, are well aware of such realities. Twenty years ago, the oldest glass factory in the country, where most of the local population worked, stopped. There was no other work here. Ever ything changed w h e n a n i nv e s t o r came to the company. Large funds were immediately invested in the modernization of the plant. Old machines have been replaced by modern equipment from European firms. Today, the enterprise produces dozens of types of glass bottles and jars of various shapes, containers, colors. The plant not only fully meets the needs of the domestic market for

By Vasily Kharitonov

OSH.BY

Modern production at a glass factory in Elizovo village

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Dzerzhinsk expands its borders through new construction

These beautiful cars are produced at the factory in Fanipol AN7.BY

glass containers, but also sends it abroad. The employees are paid decent wages. It is noteworthy that with the revival of the enterprise, the village has also changed, in the improvement of which substantial funds are also invested annually. If at the beginning of the 90s about a hundred apartments and houses were empty in Elizovo, then with the revival of the plant, residents of neighboring villages and even townspeople bought up free housing. How to interest capital in moving from the capital to a province in dire need of creating new competitive industries? The stimulus was a decree signed by the President that provided benefits for doing business in small towns. For example, commercial organizations created in settlements with a population of up to 50 thousand people are exempt from income tax and some other fees for 5 years from the date of foundation. When importing technological equipment intended to contribute to the statutory funds of organizations with foreign investments, entrepreneurs are also exempt from value added tax and customs duties. The results were not long in coming. Investments in fixed assets in small and medium settlements have significantly exceeded the planned volumes over a certain period of time. Thousands of jobs have been created. Industrial production in province has increased markedly. New lease of life has begun in the Belarusian province. Although the global financial and economic crisis influenced the development of the national economy, small towns as a whole showed good dynamics. The growth rates of industrial and consumer goods production there are higher than the national average. Investments in fixed assets gave a quick effect. New industries, modern technologies, competitive products, decent wages — everything that was previously only dreamed of in the province is now becoming a reality. Small towns are gradually turning into comfortable places of residence for a person, where he has a job, housing, social facilities and, unlike the capital, clean air and there is no transport problem. In addition, it is their potential that can become the engine of economic development throughout the country. For example, located 30 kilometers from Minsk, the Dzerzhinsky district, on the territory of which there are three settlements that were included in the program — Dzerzhinsk, Fanipol and Negoreloe — have been living without subsidies for several years. This was facilitated by an active inflow of investments and the creation of new industries. In Fanipol alone, about three dozen new enterprises were registered in about two years. Most are industrial. The dynamic development of the economy has changed the regional center itself. Taxes that are deducted for the development of a small town are accumulated in a separate account. This money is quickly invested in the development of the settlement. In short, there is factual confirmation that the foundation of a strong Belarus, the creation of which was declared the main goal of state policy, is indeed dynamically developing regions.

BELTA

PRIORITIES

Ancient Zaslavl takes good care of their monuments

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

SOCIETY

LIVING AND WORKING IN A NEW WAY The pandemic has affected almost everyone’s life. But it has affected the elderly the most. Older people, who have many concomitant diseases are forced to stop or minimize their contact with the outside world. They really miss live communication with friends, relatives and neighbours. Our correspondent visited the Kopyl Territorial Center for Social Protection of Population in the Minsk Region, and saw how they work with their under-the care in today’s difficult conditions.

— We have done everything possible for the elderly not to feel forgotten and neglected. We are introducing new forms of work. In particular, “Home University”, a distance form of work, has proved its worth, — says Svetlana Malinovskaya, the director of the institution. — There are 59 people in our department, including 6 men. The age of the visitors ranges from 60 to 86. There are four hobby groups and seven hobby clubs, and three schools. Due to the sanitary and epidemiological situation, we opened a distance learning school “Home University”. We started by talking to everyone who wanted to enroll. In the end 30 people gave their consent. We sent a written notice to each of them that they were enrolled in the school. This document specifies all the stages of our work. They include the history of Kopyl and the district, medicinal plants, and a healthy way of life, — says Valentina Nikolaenya, head of the day-care department of the Territorial Center for Elderly Citizens. The students’ knowledge of the history of the region and their small motherland is tested. At first, the employees of the center provided them with the necessary information on the topic and tests with the questions to be answered. The first stage began on November 6 and ended on December 22. The participants were then presented with certificates of completion of the e‑learning school and the winners were awarded prizes. At the same time, the

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

Territorial Center for Social Protection of Population staff conducted a survey among the elderly, whether they liked studying at the distance school and what topics they think should be added to the course. And they received a lot of suggestions. I should add that all precautions against covid infection are taken with the help of social mail, both among the elderly and among the staff. Specialists drop notices into the mailboxes where addressees live. — Each topic contained ten questions. One point was awarded for the correct answer. Then the certificates were handed out. In addition, thanks to the sponsors, each participant received a disposable mask and gloves.

Meanwhile, I glanced at the exercise book with the students’ marks. — So you have only excellent students! How do you determine the winners? — The matter is that they all came down to the matter very dutifully — the expert on social work Alla Grigoryevich supported the conversation. — At first wrote down answers in a questionnaire with a pencil and waited for the children to be convinced, that they had done all correctly. And then outlined the letters with a pen. — Our clients took a very active part in the distance school. For example, one 84‑year-old woman called to say that she had completed her task and was ready to hand it in. She only got it yesterday. She would wait impatiently at the window, because she knew WWW.MEDIKFORUM.RU

Home University

SOCIETY

No contact with the elderly has been lost — The coronavirus pandemic has not hindered our work with elderly citizens, we have not lost contact with them, — assured Svetlana Malinovskaya. — In this department people are under special patronage, control and care. Specialists call them every day, ask about their state of health and what they need. By the way, there is a telephone hotline at the center, we fulfill requests all over the district, deliver medicines, food, basic necessities, sanitary and hygienic means. During the first wave of the coronavirus, our beneficiaries had a panic, they refused to attend classes and clubs, admits Svetlana Stanislavovna. Now, thanks to the educational programme, people understand that, in principle, life has not stopped, it continues, and that doctors know how to fight the new disease. But we constantly remind them that first of all it is necessary to take precautions. Not a single elderly person went outside without a respirator, even before the introduction of the mandatory mask regime. During the warm season, the center’s staff introduced outdoor activities. For example, together with staff of the local museum, they conducted guided tours of the city’s streets for one or two people. They told them about the history of a particular street, in whose honour it was named, what historical events took place there, what his-

torical and architectural monuments are situated there. Even if the epidemiological situation does not change, this practice is planned to continue and distance learning will take another form.

A social worker is a kind of a psychologist — There are 116 social workers in the Home Social Services Department, who provide services to 1104 elderly citizens. The work of the social workers, however, has not changed during the pandemic. They visit their under-the care, help them with household chores, cook meals, bring medicines, food and household goods. There are issues that are not part of their duties. For example, to repair something in the house, to fix the roof. In this case they help to find the necessary specialist. — We have four social stations in four villages of the district. There are supervisors here who monitor the work of social workers in the departmental area and ensure that the services are accessible. If complex, emergency situations arise, we do not need to go there, all the issues will be resolved by the inspector, — says Olga Sakovich, head of the social assistance at home. — Grozovo has a definite social protection system in place. In addition to the social center, a group home for elderly citizens was opened in 2017 with a capacity of six people. In a critical situation, we can accommodate up to 11 people there. A social worker comes there every day, cleans and cooks. All social workers are provided with bicycles, personal protective equipment, change masks, everyone understands that they have no right to put the health of elderly people at risk. Social workers have always been a bit of a psychologist, even more so now. They regularly hold talks with the elderly in care about safety rules, wearing masks and gloves when they go out and even when children arrive. They ask them to remind their children and grandchildren about it as well. They also reassure people not to get depressed or panicky. They explain that they have reliable helpers and that they will help to find a way out of any situ-

ation. The social workers do not only fulfil the requests of those who are served at the center. Everyone who needs help calls them and they do not refuse anyone. For example, a call from a citizen was like a cry from the heart, saying that all the family members are sick and there is no one to bring them food. — We haven’t left anyone alone with ZVIAZDA.BY

that on such a day at a set time our staff would come with another assignment. — What is the benefit of this programme for the elderly? — I ask my interlocutors. — It is an opportunity to occupy oneself during a pandemic. The promotion of a healthy lifestyle and active longevity is also important. In addition, they gain new knowledge, useful information. For example, medicinal herbs. We give them information about the properties of each herb, what good and harm it can do to the body. A healthy way of life includes many things — healthy sleep, good quality and proper nutrition, active lifestyle.

their problems, — says Svetlana Stanislavovna. We have no questions about what to do in this or that situation, we have worked out all ways out of the predicament. If there are difficulties in delivering medication to someone, the hospital informs us about it. In other words, we work shoulder to shoulder with our social partners. Public organizations such as regional associations of the Belarusian Union of Women and the Belarusian Red Cross do not leave us unattended. The center takes care not only of the elderly. There is also care for its workers. “We, more than anyone else, have to be in the ranks. If difficult situations arise, we have to help people. As of today, the flows of people in our institution are separated so that they do not come in contact with each other. Different entrances and exits are provided for that. We also take the temperature every morning. In the autumn we vaccinate our staff against seasonal influenza. We also work closely with the district departments of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Internal Affairs and Public Health. The village councils are our best friends as well,” summed up Svetlana Malinovskaya. By Tatyana Lozovskaya

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

POINT OF VIEW

ONE HUNDRED SHADES OF WHITE A random photo on a mobile taken in the medical changing room of a covid zone of a hospital touches the heart. It depicts a captured moment. In the language of gazes, an unusual tenderness is felt. It’s simple: a mother doctor puts her colleague-daughter in a dazzling white outfit and gives a mute instruction. “Zviazda” found the heroes of the photo in the Gomel Region, in the town of Rechitsa.

For the first time in Belarus, a student volunteer squad to combat COVID‑19 of the Gomel State Medical University was sent to help doctors of the Rechitsa Central Discrict Hospital. The volunteers are overwhelmingly natives of the district center, students of the medical faculty of Gomel “med”. Lazarevich became the main “liaison person” for the volunteers in their work in the infectious disease departments of the hospital and their supervisor in the “red” zone. She is a general practitioner and head of the infectious diseases department No. 2 of Rechitsa Central District Hospital. Patients with COVlD‑19 are treated there. Tatyana is also a mother! Her daughter Polina Lazarevich is a third year student of the medical faculty of the Gomel Medical University. Such, as they say in military slang, “newbies” were not accepted to the volunteer squad members till now. But the girl proved that she could be a reliable partner in the common team. Now she studies five days a week as a third-year student (the course is considered the most difficult in the “med”), and on weekends she works in the “covid shift”. Volunteering in the squad is not counted as a training practice and is not paid. Simply helping those in need, Pauline believes, is a natural inclination of her soul. Compassion for people is rooted in her genes. The Lazarevichis are a family

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

dynasty of doctors, well known in the Rechitsa District. After graduation, the girl will start the third generation of doctors. — I had no chance, they say, — Polina Lazarevich laughs when I call her after the classes.

Hospital. My mother, Tatyana Lazarevich, has been working with patients with coronavirus infection since the first wave. Interestingly, my mother is from Mozyr and my father is from Rechitsa. They met at the university, where I now go, some-

On the “avatar” of the call in my mobile, a photo pops up: a very beautiful long-haired girl, a cover model. Even a “hazmat outfit” suits her very well. — Lazarevich is the surname of my grandfather Vladimir Vladimirovich, — Polina explains. — He is a surgeon, headed the Rechitsa Central District Hospital for more than 25 years. Dad is Dmitry Vladimirovich, head of the endoscopic department of Rechitsa Central District

times to the same teachers, — says the student. Any sandpiper is great in his own swamp The Rechitsa volunteer anti COVlD‑19 squad has, apart from Polina Lazarevich, three female 6‑year students of the Gomel Medical University. They also have a local boyfriend — a friend of Polina, also a medical student, who is in his second year at university.

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Password — “volunteer”

POINT OF VIEW Polina Lazarevich also recalls her first independent entry into the “red” zone: — You can be prepared from the informational point of view, but from the psychological one, speaking to a patient is sometimes a challenge for a future doctor, — says Polina about how she, as a student, lacked confidence at first, caused by her lack of experience of such a relationship. — I came to the ward, and there were only elderly people there, and they all could barely hear. At first I was confused, but I pulled myself together, explained everything, repeated it for each person individually, but very loudly. Afterwards I was worried about the visit. The volunteer tells us how happy every team member is when patients make contact: — There are those who ask a lot of questions. You tell them, for example, about breathing exercises and they say,

but also the younger patients, — says the student. She says that in general, the volunteers keep a close eye on the implementation of the recommendations: — I once worked on my own in a ward where there was a married couple, and later, as I was walking in the corridor, I noticed that they were doing everything as I had taught them. It really made things easier for them.

“Why?” They ask you to explain in more detail: how it affects the course of the disease, how the body will react, what can happen if they don’t do rehabilitation. It is more pleasant to work with people like this, because there is a dialogue. Volunteer work is also known to act as a psychological relaxation session for patients. Although crowded wards do not facilitate the release of worries or fears, an experienced person perceives their

ZVIAZDA.BY

— Our job is not to act as nurses or doctors, we cannot give advice or prescribe treatment. Our job is to provide information, education and emotional support to patients, — says Polina. — We explain the peculiarities of the course of coronavirus. We explain why rehabilitation is necessary. We teach how to do breathing exercises and physical therapy exercises. The volunteer draws attention to the fact that they are in charge, among other things, of keeping patients in the right position on the bed. This makes them feel better and promotes a quicker recovery. — It seems there are a lot of reports online today about coronavirus. But when we convey the necessary information to the patients, many say that it’s the first time they have heard about it, as previously they only paid attention to the rules of hygiene and hygiene regime. By the way, it is not only the elderly who respond,

treatment more relaxed. Volunteers help to equip them with knowledge, to understand that a positive emotional state of the patient will help doctors to improve their state of health. — It is difficult to work not with the elderly or the young, but with those who “shut down” and remain alone with the disease, — says Polina.

Reflection to the accompaniment of the train… The student volunteer has already spent three weekends in the volunteer group. Members of the group, sixth-year students, have already started working but there is a common schedule for all of them. Now their shift is once every fortnight. There is always a need for voluntary work. I ask the girl a traditional question: what does the experience of volunteering at the pandemic give you? — I confess to you that when I go home for the weekend on the train, I prepare mentally, I think over what today’s day may bring. Yes, I am afraid, but not of the possibility of contracting the coronavirus. I think all medics are mentally prepared for that. While I am struggling with the fear of “speaking up” in front of patients, I am learning to listen to and hear them, to calm them down in time with an apt response to their questions. After all, I know from my grandfather: awareness and competence are essential for a doctor. You have no right to “infect” patients with your excitement. This kind of work prepares me to master to be a real doctor. Polina recalls what her mentor, Tatyana Lazarevich, teaches the volunteers: — My mother directs us that our work helps to relieve panic anxiety in patients. It is important to convince them that even if 75 % of the lungs are damaged, it is not a verdict. This is a reason to follow the doctors’ instructions firmly, find the strength to fight and change the situation for one’s own benefit. By Natalya Kaprilenko

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

MEDICINE

WHEN THE APPROACH IS HIGHLY PROFESSIONAL Despite the spread of coronavirus infection, N. N. Alexandrov National Cancer Centre continues to treat patients with cancerous tumours. They now see patients from almost all over the country. How has the coronavirus affected the cancer service and should we expect a surge in new cancer cases when the pandemic is over? How are cancer patients coping with COVlD‑19? When will early detection programmes resume and who will be the first to be screened for stomach and lung cancer? About this and other issues we speak with the deputy director for scientific work at N. N. Alexandrov National Cancer Centre, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences Sergey Krasny. service. First of all, many oncological dispensaries in the country were repurposed — partially or completely — to provide care to patients with covid infection. Accordingly, cancer patients who were to be treated there were redirected to us. But this did not overload our center. Now we always have vacant space, as the number of cancer patients

ANNA ZANKOVICH

— Sergey Anatolyevich, how did the spread of COVID‑19 affect the diagnosis of cancer, the work of the Republican Sci‑ entific and Practical Center for Oncology and Medical Radiology, and the behavior of the patients themselves? — This is definitely a big problem. The spread of coronavirus infection affected the work of the entire oncological

Oncologist Sergey Krasny

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

coming for treatment has significantly decreased. This is due to two factors. Firstly, at the initial stages of malignant tumors, most often there is no need to provide urgent assistance. These tumors, as a rule, progress slowly, and in 1–3 months the health status of these patients will not change significantly, so we can wait for a decrease in the incidence of coronavirus infection and treat them in spring or summer. Secondly, polyclinics and district hospitals are now working with great overload and provide care mainly to patients with COVID‑19 infection. Naturally, they cannot engage in routine care, including the diagnosis of malignant tumors, screening has completely stopped. Accordingly, the number of diagnosed cancer patients has decreased. Therefore, there is no large influx to our center. We fully cope with those patients who come to us. Hospitalization is very strictly organized here: everyone must have a negative test for coronavirus infection. In addition, before hospitalization, we do all our patients a computed tomography of the lungs, because even with a negative analysis for COVID‑19, cases with asymptomatic pneumonia slip through. After all, PCR analysis, unfortunately, is not 100 % accurate. In addition, it is valid for several days, during this time a person can get in-

BELTA

MEDICINE

fected. People may undergo an operation, and after that the symptoms of the disease appear — such cases, unfortunately, also happen. Such a patient can infect a roommate or medical staff. Some of the staff at our centre have either been ill or are currently ill. This also causes some difficulties, but we are used to them. The centre has developed a system for dealing with COVlD‑19. Patients who are diagnosed with the infection are immediately transferred to the appropriate specialized institutions, except in cases where they require urgent oncological care. For this, we have a specialized department — isolated, with a red zone. And there we provide care for patients with a combination of cancer and coronavirus infection.

I would like to take this opportunity to say a word of thanks and admiration to all the medical staff who, in these difficult times, are working hard to save our patients without sparing themselves. Believe me, that courage and heroism towards them are not pathos words, but a daily reality. — How do oncology patients cope with COVlD‑19? — As knowledge is being accumulated about the combination of coronavirus infection and cancer pathology, some

rather interesting things are emerging. It would be logical to assume that cancer patients would be sicker and more difficult to tolerate this infection, as it is generally believed that their immune defense is lowered. But it turns out that in some malignancies COVlD‑19 either does not affect these patients at all, or, if they do become infected, the disease is mild. An example is B‑cell lymphoma, where the function of B‑lymphocytes is severely impaired. They do not perform their protective function of producing antibodies. And in coronavirus infection, this is extremely important in terms of the development of a hyperimmune response or cytokine storm. Thus, it cannot in principle develop in patients with lymphoma due to insufficient functional capacity of B‑lymphocytes. Recently, it has been found that patients with advanced prostate cancer receiving hormone therapy also either do not get it, or get it in a mild form. Apparently, the blockade of hormone receptors crosses with the receptors through which the COVlD‑19 virus acts. They also have a mild form of the disease. But in most cases, cancer patients get ill quite severely. Because they are usually elderly people with weakened body. That’s why we put up all the barriers that we can, so that the infection does not spread inside the centre. — You said that screening activities have now been halted. Can we assume

that if the coronavirus infection is on de‑ cline, we’ll get a surge in cancers? — This won’t happen because of the stopped screening. Screening programmes are aimed at healthy people or people who think they are healthy. They are usually diagnosed with stage 0 or 1 during screening. It may take months or sometimes years before the second stage develops. In stage zero (the so-called precancerous stage), the disease develops very slowly. Therefore, no harm will be done because of the stopped screening programmes for a few months, As for the routine diagnosis of malignant tumours, when people go to the doctor with complaints, there can indeed be a problem, because now, unfortunately, the provision of routine care has been temporarily discontinued. And these patients tolerate, even though there are symptoms, and are not examined. And this can have serious consequences: if they come to the oncologist in six months’ time, they may have advanced malignancy. This is a serious consequence of the COVІD‑19 pandemic, a problem that I think is common all over the world. And in a year or two, it could lead to increased mortality from malignant tumours. — Besides the four known screening programmes for cervical, prostate, breast and colorectal cancers, perhaps others will appear?

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

MEDICINE

BELTA

— If the incidence of coronavirus infection decreases, screening projects will continue in all four above mentioned. Apart from that, I think the pilot project for gastric cancer screening will be over by then.

In the first stage, serological tests are performed on patients: blood tests are used to examine the volume and ratio of pepsinogens and the presence of helicobacter. If these factors are present and we see that the risk of malignant tumour or atrophic processes in the stomach is high enough, a gastroscopy is performed. And among the patients who undergo gastroscopy either tumours or pre-tumoural processes are detected quite often. They are given targeted treatment. So the pilot project has shown quite high efficiency, and we hope that when the situation stabilises, we will expand the screening programme for this localization. The lung cancer project has been under way for a year and will last for five years. Patients are given low-dose CT scans, and quite often lung masses are detected at an early stage. These are removed and this reduces the mortality rate from lung cancer. — Who gets into the gastric cancer and lung cancer screening programmes? — For gastric cancer, the target audience are those who have symptoms of the disease. But by and large, those who are more likely to have these tumours should

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

be tested. As a rule, these are people over 40, smokers are also included here. After that, the age range will widen and will include those who have a genetic predisposition, i. e. if their relatives had the same disease. With regard to lung cancer, only smokers fall into the risk group, with a long history of at least 15 years. There is a special formula for calculating this: 15 years of smoking a packet of cigarettes a day. If you smoke two packs a day, you don’t have to wait 15 years — the disease develops faster. At the end of the pilot project, conclusions will be made as to how effective it is for our country and whether it can be used. It is not cheap, as it requires expensive equipment. But misfortune helped. Due to the spread of coronavirus, appropriate CT scanners have been purchased, which will be more available in a quieter period and can be used for CT scans of the lungs of smokers. Hopefully the pandemic will be over before the project is completed and we will introduce lung cancer screening. — Does the liquid cytology method, which was supposed to replace the previ‑ ous cervical cancer smear, work? — While there are no screening programmes, it is used for routine diagnosis. During the transition period, all women were screened using both methods in order to train both cytologists and gynaecologists, because both the system of taking material and preparing smears are completely different. Now the training is over, and if COVlD‑19 is on decline, it will be possible to use liquid cytology more widely. — What should people in their 30s and 40s check? — As for malignant tumours in the 30s, nothing, except cervical cancer, because it has become dramatically younger. It’s linked to the spread of papillomavirus infection. And due to the earlier sexual debut (it is not uncommon to have it at the age of 12–15), we now have 25 and even 20‑year-old women who have cervical cancer. If the body’s defense system is weakened, the tumour may develop not in 10 years’ time but even faster. For this rea-

son, cervical cancer screening is carried out on a large scale from the age of 30. In general, a woman should visit her gynaecologist on a regular basis from the beginning of her sexual life and the doctor will decide when she should have a cytological examination. As for all other malignant tumours, they are quite rare at a young age, so there is no need for targeted screening in this case. From the age of 40 onwards, however, more serious health problems arise, so it is necessary to join various screening programmes. Depending on their age, we include these patients in breast cancer, prostate cancer and other screenings. — But can it happen that a person feels well, and from time to time he/she does some tests, for example, a breast ultrasound, visits a gynaecologist, and then he/she is diagnosed with stage three cancer? — It can also happen, but it is less likely than for those who do not go to the doctor and are not examined, and wait until they get sick. Naturally, no matter how many diagnostic methods we have, none of them are 100 % effective and both falsepositive and false-negative results are possible. Either one is no good. A patient is diagnosed with a suspected malignancy using one method or another, and the diagnosis is corrected during the follow-up diagnostics. But the patient is psychologically traumatized and has a certain fear for the rest of his life. This is the disadvantage of screenings. Such cases occur quite often, but you have to be prepared for this when you go for screening, and not to panic. False-negative results can also occur when the tumour is small and the separability of the method does not allow it to be detected. And then the patient shows up in two years’ time for the next stage of screening, and the tumour is found, or within two years there are symptoms — this is the so-called inter-screening cancer. Unfortunately, these situations do occur, but much less frequently than among people who are not screened at all. By Elena Kravets

LIFE IN SPORTS

SUCH AN ATTRACTIVE, MYSTERIOUS WORLD Rhythmic gymnastics is love. In the case of Belarusian gymnastics we can say that it is also Lyubov Cherkashina. In 2012 she was an Olympic bronze medalist, and now she is a judge, a coach, and the head of the athletes’ commission of the International Gymnastics Federation. Lyubov Cherkashina has let correspondents of “Zviazda” into the attractive and mysterious world of rhythmic gymnastics, as well as into her own. technique, which gave a big boost to the sport. In the 2000s, when Alina Kabaeva “made a hit”, she showed the limitless possibilities of her body, and everyone started to repeat after her, to continue… So rhythmic gymnastics is changing and developing. — How difficult is it for you, as a judge, to evaluate perfor‑ mances with changing requirements? T WIT TER.COM

— Lyubov, rhythmic gymnastics is a sport where every year counts. How did the girls gymnasts spend the year with‑ out competing? — For the gymnasts who were planning to finish their careers with the Olympics in Tokyo, the postponement was a big blow, while for the young girls it was a good opportunity to improve their physical and psychological fitness. We tried to look for the pluses as much as possible. For example, I was finally able to spend a lot of time with my daughter, who is growing up so quickly, and do the things I love. Irina Yuryevna Leparskaya, the team’s head coach, figured out an ingenious way for the girls not to lose their form and their love of gymnastics during the enforced quarantine. First, they made up their own exercises, and then watched previous years’ performances and repeated them at improvised competitions. This project has proved that any generation of gymnasts should have a passion for gymnastics, because champions do not just become the ones, there are always unique elements and a lot of hard work behind them. — Is the rhythmic gymnastics you performed in 2012 sig‑ nificantly different from the today’s one? — Rhythmic gymnastics evolves in cycles and there have always been different requirements. At one time more beauty was required and there was a time when physical training prevailed. Nowadays, more emphasis is placed on the complexity of the accessory. In my days a gymnast would appear on the floor and no one knew her set of elements. Now we can roughly predict what elements she repeatedly uses in her performances. Before, gymnasts were more plastic and graceful, there was incredible harmony between the body and the accessory. The complexity of the accessory is super, for one and a half minutes of a solo’s performance, people constantly admire, but they get tired of it, they need to relax their minds. — What, in your opinion, is the reason for such a change? — Rhythmic gymnastics is a whole world where everything is interconnected: the athletes, the federation, the audience. There is something new with every cycle. Margarita Mamun and Yana Kudryavtseva from Russia showed incredible

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

— Everyone, including the judge, must be professional, regardless of the circumstances. A gymnast performs a huge number of elements, while a judge is not a computer and a human factor cannot be completely ruled out. Therefore, the subjectivity of judging depends on the conscience of each person. When I sit at the judge’s table, I simply watch the performance and give my grade. — Lyubov, what were the most pressing issues the Interna‑ tional Gymnastics Federation athletes’ committee had to deal with this year? — The commission includes representatives from all gymnastics disciplines. First of all, we had to decide how to change our work, we sorted it out and now work online. The most popular question from athletes was the postponement of the Olympic Games. The gymnasts still have time to be selected for the Olympics at the qualifying events. But one country has completely closed all the gyms, while in others they were open and the athletes trained in the usual conditions. And this is wrong, the sporting principle is violated, people are not in equal circumstances. — Are the Olympic licenses of the Belarusian team wait‑ ing in the wings? — Yes, the girls won a full set of licenses. In total there are two single licenses and one group license for the country. Due to the fact that the licenses are not named, we will have to choose who will go to Tokyo the whole next season. Our legendary trio — Ekaterina Galkina, Alina Gornosko and Anastasiya Salas — will compete among themselves for a place under the sun in Tokyo. “The Groupers” will also have to fight. There are six of them, while a group of five girls competes at the Olympics. But training with five is almost suicidal, there must be a substitute. — How is Ekaterina Galkina, the prima of our rhythmic gymnastics? — A gymnast as a woman, as a person grows rapidly, her body changes. It is very difficult to keep yourself within rigid limits all the time. Unfortunately, Katya has problems with her legs. One leg is OK, we are now working on the other one. We hope that Katya has enough time to rehabilitate and return to Olympic racing. Her career deserves a beautiful ending. Of course it is difficult to go through surgeries and almost to be born again. But I think it will make her stronger and build her character even more. — Since 2000 Russian gymnasts have invariably become Olympic champions in rhythmic gymnastics. What can the Belarusian school learn from the Russian one? — It’s no secret that the Russian team is traditionally very strong. It’s a huge country with a lot of talents and each champion is a unique personality who sets certain trends in gymnastics. It’s great that we have such rivals, who help us to constantly raise our level. Yes, we have a smaller scale of the country but this does not prevent the Belarusian school from maintaining its reputation. Everyone knows that Olympic champion

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

AIF.BY

LIFE IN SPORTS

The Olympics 2012 will remain in Lyubov's memory forever

Marina Lobach grew up in Belarus. And now our aspiration to go forward is not diminished. An athlete who does not strive for the first place is a bad one. — Rhythmic gymnastics is a kind of show where appear‑ ance matters a lot. Can we say that there is a gymnastics fash‑ ion industry? — To call it industry would be an exaggeration. But there are certain trends in swimwear. They are often patterned after dresses in fashion magazines. And on a gymnast a cut may look more spectacular than on the catwalk. I like it when they add skirts to swimming costumes, it looks very feminine and, if necessary, hides the figure’s nuances. Some people create paintings on swimming costumes. For example, there is a panther’s muzzle on Alina Gornosko’s leotard. The best leotards are always those of leading gymnasts or those who can afford it, because it’s not cheap. But sometimes a girl, especially a little one, gets lost in a leotard. A gymnast under ten years old should learn and show her physique, not the financial capacity of her parents. — How does the choice of music for gymnastics programs go? — First of all, the composition should be suitable for the age of the gymnast. When a girl wants a song with words in a foreign language, Irina Yuryevna requires translation and un-

LIFE IN SPORTS

SB.BY

Lyubov Cherkashina trains future Olympic stars

— Can a gymnast perform excellently with all four acces‑ sories, or is there still a preference for a one? — Performance at the Olympics is judged on individual allaround, so you have to perform the maximum in all disciplines.

But if you look at international competitions, our women’s singles athletes have the most medals with the ball. During my sports career I was best at balls and clubs. The hardest part is always the ribbon — it may be wet, get tangled, fly in the wrong BELTA

derstanding of its meaning. During the quarantine, the girls themselves chose the music for their exercises. Moreover, they wrote a libretto to it, a story which they then showed in the performance. It’s one thing when you explain where and how to smile and what look to show, and another thing when a gymnast feels it herself. — Does the choice of music relate to the specifics of the ac‑ cessory with which you have to perform? — Most choose slow music for balls and fast ones for ropes. There are almost no “slow” clubs. Katya Galkina once had “slow” clubs and everyone was skeptical about it, but it turned out well. A ribbon is something sublime, like a waltz. The hoop is a fairly universal accessory. Some try to have rhythmic, disco music and the judges are sometimes unsure of how to judge such a performance. A gymnast must be able to listen to and understand music, which, like literature, is perceived differently at each age. — One needs lessons in acting to successfully develop an image during a performance… — At one time, Irina Yuryevna implemented almost an entire acting project. Stage speech teachers came to the girls. The athletes were taught how to behave in front of the camera, in public, how to give interviews. There were classes in makeup. But the girls were taught acting skills not much; each of them puts something into their performances. The athletes are constantly working on their callisthenic. They have a choreographer with whom they learn different types of dances — from lyrical to hip-hop. They can practice the same moves but use them to express different emotions and states. It is also a kind of acting skill.

Relay race of the 2nd European Games "Flame of Peace". Minsk, 2019

direction… Modern gymnastics has become much younger. And female athletes of 16–19 years are very brave. They are not afraid to do things that previously seemed impossible. — In one of the interviews you were compared with Ekat‑ erina Galkina and you said that she is a talented gymnast and you are a “made” one. What does that mean? — Katya has a natural sense of music, body, beauty, cat-like dorsal spine mobility. I often joke at her, I say: “No matter what happens, you always fall on your four legs”. I, on the other hand, had a lot to learn. I am a hardy Capricorn, so my talent lies in hard work, obstinacy and patience of coaches. If you ask what helped Lyubov Cherkashina, everyone would say she is hardworking but not naturally talented. — According to your social media, it looks that your daughter Vera will follow in her mother’s footsteps… — She loves to spend time in the gym, repeats after the girls and dances at home. Vera hears music very well and she has good coordination — I didn’t have that, it’s my husband’s genes. Vitya and I have no aim for her to take up gymnastics. For me the most important thing is to see my child happy. — Lyubov, in rhythmic gymnastics you know all the roles. Which one is the most comfortable and which one is the most difficult for you? — The best is to be an athlete, the centre of the universe, for whom everyone works. The only thing is that it is unpleasant to lose. And then it gets harder, because it’s not just about your life, you have to take responsibility for other people’s fates. Working as a coach, I have realized how hard it is. I admire the wisdom, stamina and patience of the coaches who have dedicated their lives to this cause. By Valeriya Stsetsko

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

BOOKSHELF Our readers are already familiar with the Belarusian writer Lyudmila Rublevskaya. We wrote about an adaptation of one of her novels, The Adventures of Prantish Vyrvich. In the last issue of the magazine we published an interview with her “My characters manage me.” Now we propose to get acquainted with the fairy tale of Lyudmila Rublevskaya, which she wrote for adults. In the cycle “The Crown at the Bottom of a Pool, or Tales from the Farm of Grandmother Yustyna”, each fairy tale is a legend about the origin of a plant listed in the Red Book of Belarus. Herbalist Yustyna explains why a living flower is more important than gold jewelry, and for happiness it is not necessary to have a throne, and why you need to love your land and respect the memory of your ancestors.

SWORDSMAN ERMOL, OR SWORD-GRASS

ou say you were running near the lake and cut yourself on such a nasty, sharp grass … Well, first of all, you are already big enough, and you shouldn’t cry because of a scratch. Now we put a plantain leaf on the cut, and everything will heal. The grass that cut you is not bad at all. The truth is that it is sharp as a blade. Once on the shores of our blue lakes only soft, delicate grasses and flowers used to grow. It was so pleasant to run straight from the forest path into the cool, clear, as glass waves. Do you know that our Belarusian lakes are the most beautiful in the world? Is it not because of this that money-grubbing invaders were constantly drawn to our land? There was a castle on the shore of this lake. Past it, between the lake and the forest, there was a road to the rich and beautiful Belarusian cities. The prince and his soldiers, who lived in the castle, guarded the road from enemies. On the one hand, they were helped by the waters of the lake, on the other — by the wall of an impenetrable forest. The warriors themselves were as strong as carvel pines, and unstoppable as the waves. The most powerful among them was the princely swordsman, a mighty knight named Ermol. In fact, he was not of a knight’s origin at all, but was born in the very village in which your grandparents now live. But Ermol grew up so intelligent and strong that he joined the service of the princely army, at first — as a simple soldier, and then his bravery earned the prince’s affection and, in the end, the knighthood. After all, a knight can be born in a simple hut, and it is not a sword, even forged by the best craftsmen, that gives a warrior

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

strength — but a courageous heart. Ermol led his squad in battles more than once. He saved the life of his prince more than once. Love also knows no titles. No one suspected why the swordsman Ermol so often asked to be on the night watch. They thought he wanted to show how faithfully he served. Only the moon, which looked into the room of the only princely daughter Galena, knew the secret. Ermol and Galena met as often as they could, but seldom enough to make the thirst for a new meeting burn brighter than the brightest torch on the walls of the watchtowers. There is, of course, great power in love, as well as big weakness. The prince received news that again the enemies were going to go through our forest to the capital of the Grand Duchy. So far, there was no dust on the roads, the attack was expected in a few days. As always, Ermol volunteered to guard from midnight to dawn on the tower, which rose above the lake, in which the princess’ rooms were situated. He sent other soldiers to those towers from which the road was viewed. This time, the enemies did not go either along the road or through the forest. At midnight they sailed on canoes to the walls of the castle and threw strong ropes with steel hooks on the walls chipped during numerous sieges. The best knight of the prince Ermol heard nothing. He looked into the bottomless eyes of his beloved, in which the moon was reflected, and he heard one gentle music of feeling. Only when, instead of the moon, he saw the reflections of a fire in the eyes of his beloved, he realized that the irreparable had happened. When Ermol rushed into battle, half of the knights were already killed, the

prince died with an enemy arrow in his neck, and there was no hope of salvation. The swordsman fought like a dozen soldiers. Feelings of guilt multiplied his strength, but also deprived him of discretion. After all, in battle, discretion is also needed — unless, of course, you want to die. Ermol missed a strong blow, and fell against the castle wall, on the shore of the lake, just from the side that he was supposed to guard at night — and overlooked. No, he did not die. But was there any joy for him, when, having come to his senses, he saw the walls of the castle black from the fire, the dead comrades… When in despair he looked back, he noticed something bright on the waves of the lake, just under the window of the princess, it was her veil… Well, the clear waters of the lake are better than captivity and shame… Then Ermol, together with his battle sword, went into the waves, in which the rising sun was already reflecting and in despair he prayed: — There is no excuse for me… There is no measure of my guilt… So, Lord, in redemption, I will forever protect this shore, the waters of this lake from enemies, and I will not rest either day or night, not in heat, or in cold… Words spoken with the fullness of despair do not disappear in vain. Swordsman Ermol turned into tall dark grass that cuts like a real blade. Try to run through such thickets — you will feel the power of the guard. No wonder, this plant was called sword-grass. But don’t fear either herbs or enemies. If you happen to choose between pleasure and heavy duty, remember the swordsman Ermol and the sword-grass.

BOOKSHELF

“THE GREY LEGEND” BECOMES MODERNITY Kirill Zadvorny, a student of the Belarusian Academy of Arts, has illustrated one of Vladimir Korotkevich’s novels “The Grey Legend” (there is another title — “Roman Rakuta”) is a historical story that Vladimir Korotkevich first published in the magazine “Plamya” in 1961. It tells the story of Konrad Tskhaken, commander of a unit of Swiss mercenaries, who received an urgent order to come to the estate of his master, Alekhno Kizgayla. An hour later Tskhaken learnt that a peasant rebellion had broken out in the area. It was led by local nobleman Roman Rakutovich. The Swiss were surprised that the reason for Roman’s hatred was the fact that Kizgayla had not released Rakutovich’s sweetheart, a simple peasant. Page after page I return to the familiar artistic space of the legendary tale of the classic of Belarusian literature. On the coated paper I find black and white images of ancient walls, of battle armour… And an image of a pitchfork, which was probably the weapon of many, many of our ancestors. Foreign warriors, invaders — they were always equipped, always had the upper hand. And what was left for the locals?! Just to take axes, scythes, pitchforks in their hands, in their hard, powerful, strong hands, and win… The man by the ladder huddled, but did not run away. They threw down the ladder, however, but did not run away. Silently, they stood on the slope in a formation of three platoons. The others turned the abandoned ladder into a pile of splinters. The light shattered suspiciously in them, and I suspected something was wrong even at that moment. The riders, portrayed by Kirill Zadvorny, give the well-known and from an artistic point of view very tense text even more “speed”. One gets the feeling that it is not just artistic empathy, the unity of word and image, but a sense of extraordinary dynamism and even a certain presence in the events described in the work. The young book designer (Kirill has an artistic background, having designed about a dozen books for PH “Zviazda”) had time to read and comprehend “The Grey Legend”. He wants to be precise, but he is also guided by the emotional nature of his perception of the work. Looking at Kirill Zadvorny’s artistic reading of the works by Vladimir Korotkevich, it is impossible not to mention the works of such “book designers of Korotkevich” as Mikhail Basalyga (his design of the novel “Christ Has Landed in Grodno”) and Pyotr Drachov (“Black Castle Olshansky”). No, the young creator is by no means repeating the solutions found by his predecessors! He is looking for his own way. At the same time, there is a clear tradition behind Kirill Zadvorny’s work.

The last illustration that completes Kirill Zadvorny’s layout (it’s a pity that no book publisher managed to publish “The Grey Legend” with the young artist’s design before the 90th anniversary of Vladimir Korotkevich!) is handcuffs thrown on the bloody ground or floor… We read in the story by Vladimir Korotkevich: “The Grey Legend” was filmed. The main roles in the joint Soviet-Polish film were played by Ivars Kalniņš, Alla Murina and Lembit Ulfsak. The story was translated into Russian. The composer Dmitry Smolsky wrote an opera based on the tale. There is a reason for the publication of “The Grey Legend” in illustrations by Kirill Zadvorny as in 2021 it will be 60 years since the publication (April issue of “Plamya” in 1961) of the legendary work of the Belarusian classic. By Nikolay Berlezh

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

EDUCATION

VOICE IN COMMUNICATION SPACE The new “Explanatory Dictionary of the Belarusian Language” will have 250 thousand words. The previous dictionary had 97 thousand words

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orks of modern authors and classic literary heritage cons olid ate society, influence the formation and development of individuals. Literature teaches critical thinking, enriches the Belarusian language, and helps to preserve it. These thoughts were expressed by the participants of the recent press con-

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

ference “Language of the Belarusian classics and the web.4.0 society: interaction and transformation, popularization in mass media”. — Culture, language, literature, humanitarian sphere, science and education have always been the core of the existence and functioning of the state and development of the society. I want to say that our classical heritage is not limited only to the classical heritage proper, with the works by Yakub Kolas, Yanka Kupala, Bogdanovich and others. Classical traditions are very actively followed in our modern Belarusian lit-

erature. Both in the Belarusian-language and Russian-language literature, — said director of the Yanka Kupala Institute of Literature, Doctor of Philological Sciences Ivan Saverchenko. — If we take modern authors, I observe their civic position, and see that they are aimed at consolidating the society, at creative labor. That is the writer’s mission. We sometimes do not notice it, but it is literature, belles-lettres, that has an impact on a person’s maturity, on the shaping of their world view. Finally, we live in such a global world, where literature is an important factor for international dialogue. One can visit another country, but many learn about their neighbours precisely through literary works. People from other countries learn about the life, problems, and achievements of Belarus through our works. Literature is the foundation on which people can and should be united into one family. In turn, Director of the Yakub Kolas Institute of Linguistics, Igor Kopylov, said that today the popularization of the language of the classics and language preservation are very topical issues not only for our country, but for the entire world community. This is evidenced by numerous forums, con-

EDUCATION ishment of the lexical composition and the definition of linguistic norms. — Neologisation and borrowing of words are still a topical issue. For instance, the new explanatory dictionary, the first volume of which is scheduled to be published by the Institute of Linguistics next year, will be about 250 thousand words, which is a good proof of that,

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ferences, where scientists from around the world are trying to find solutions. Why is this so important? — The language of every nation is a unique instrument for understanding and describing its environment, an important means of communication and transfer of knowledge. It is a repository of the historical and social experience of a nation. It acts as a centralizing factor and a means of selfidentification. In general, no nation or state can exist without the national language. Despite this, almost half of the world’s languages are in danger of extinction today, according to UNESCO. Many languages are losing their meaning in various spheres of public life, including science, culture, media, politics, business and tourism, — said Igor Kopylov. — 600 languages disappeared during the 20th century. And unfortunately, these processes are going on. If they continue, according to pessimistic UNESCO forecasts, about 90 per cent of existing languages may disappear. According to the scientist, the main challenges of today that have a significant impact on the language situation include the processes of globalization, the blurring of cultural boundaries and the loss of cultural differences. The liberalization of education, the development of social networks and public information space have also had a negative impact on the norms of literary language at different levels. Today, a fundamentally new information environment has emerged. But there are no authorities, no norms and no boundaries of self-expression. And here it is important to remember that the loss of national languages leads not only to the loss of traditional spiritual heritage and the continuity of knowledge, but also to the loss of global cultural diversity. It is the work of writers and the popularization of their work in the media that play an extremely important role in the development of the Belarusian language and the formation of its norms. Publicistic writing has no less influence on the replen-

since the previous five-volume dictionary contains over 97 thousand words. By comparison, even the Oxford dictionary has 190 thousand words of the literary English language with a history of thousand years. So our language is not poorer, but even richer in terms of vocabulary, — says Igor Leonovich. — I would also like to draw attention to a very important aspect. Today it is very important to use the language in cyberspace. Because the presence on the Internet is one of the main conditions for the preservation and popularization of the language. In the researcher’s opinion, the Belarusian language has good prospects in this

direction, as it is present in Wikipedia, in social networks, and online libraries. Linguists also make their contribution, e. g. they create electronic versions of dictionaries. The Institute of Linguistics is also preparing a consolidated collection of Belarusian accents. — Studying classical examples of the literary word is one of the most important stages in literary education. Nevertheless, from time to time we hear the question: why should we study classic literature? And in response to it I have several arguments. Firstly, the study of classical literature is one of the most effective ways to develop linguistic intelligence. Reading classical literature develops both active and passive vocabulary and helps to develop erudition, communication skills and self-actualization of the personality in the future. Secondly, classical literature is an effective means of learning about one’s environment. The works by Kolas, Kupala, Bogdanovich, Goretsky and other Belarusian classics help students understand that there is no absolute truth in the world. Their works which are discussed at school develop critical thinking. Classical literature provides models of behaviour in various situations. Through classical literature the cultural codes of understanding the inner world of Belarusians are laid down. This is an important moment to preserve oneself in the global world, — said Vyacheslav Korotkevich, head of the department for monitoring the quality of education of the National Institute of Education during the discussion. — The authors of curricula and teaching aids do their utmost to ensure that our future generation learns to think critically, to have a taste for beauty, to enjoy the style of a writer through classical literature. As we can see, although there are problems, they can be solved by joint efforts. And thus, contribute to the preservation and development of the Belarusian language and its presence in the global cultural and information space. By Elena Drapko

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

FILM SCREENING

JOIN MEMORY RETURN Five unexpected facts about the film “Farsi Lessons”: what makes this film special?

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Last year the film “Farsi Lessons” appeared at the Berlinale and the Moscow Film Festival, and if not for the pandemic, it would have declared itself at dozens of film festivals around the world and gathered viewers in cinemas… It is the result of coproduction of Russia, Germany and Belarus. The film was shot by an American director who was born in Ukraine, Vadim Perelman. Filming took place in Belarus. The plot is one that compels

comparison with such world famous films as “Schindler’s List”, “The Pianist”, “Life is Beautiful”. The Holocaust. Fascism. Victims and executioners. Humaneness and inhumaneness. And the issue of historical memory, which is extremely urgent for Belarusians. Well, let’s remember what makes this film special.

1. The screenwriter found the plot at the age of fifteen Ilya Tsofin, a Russian screenwriter, says that he found the plot for this film when he was fifteen years old. He read a Soviet magazine — he can’t even remember exactly which one, perhaps “Around the World”. There he had read a story about a Jew, a prisoner of a fascist concentration camp, who in order to survive, passed himself off as a Persian and taught the Persian language to one of his guards, not knowing it himself, inventing it as he went along. That story stuck in his memory, the character aroused admiration — you have to be almost a genius to be able to make up a believable language like that, to keep the words and rules in your memory so that you don’t get disclosed… As time passed, the famous screenwriter Ilya Tsofin wrote a screenplay based on that story. The famous producer and director Timur Bekmambetov became interested in it and started negotiations with the studios. As Tsofin told Berlin radio, however, the famous film studio made it a condition that he had to provide proof that the story was real! The screenwriter searched through all the Soviet journals in Moscow’s Leninka. He could not find the publication that had got into his memory when he was a teenager. He hired someone to continue the search — in vain. And then it turned out that the story had literary origins, i. e. namely, a retelling of a story by the GDR writer Wolfgang Kalhaase “The Invention of Language”, which can sometimes be found under the title “Persian for Capo”. The copyright was bought, but Kalhaase claimed that it was based on a true story! Tsofin gave the story its own flair. The Belgian Jew Gilles Kremier, along with the other victims, was driven in a truck to the execution site. In the truck, one of his fellow victims exchanged a sandwich for a book of Persian fairy tales. It was this book that

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

FILM SCREENING tury, there was the adventurer George Salmanazar, who posed as a native of the island of Formosa — Taiwan. He was even hired by Oxford University to translate religious literature into Formosa (which Salmanazar did not know). And he did! On the net one can find the prayer “The Lord’s Prayer” in the Formosan language translated by Shalmanazar. The most famous, however, inventor of non-existent languages is Tolkien, the author of Hobbits and Elves. An accomplished linguist, he invented 15 languages spoken by the peoples of the fantasy environment for his literary project. Two of them, Quenya and Sindarin, the language of the Elves, Professor Tolkien developed to such an extent that even today it is possible to learn them and communicate in them with the same “Tolkienists”. Burroughs invented the monkey language Mangani, spoken by Tarzan. Richards Adams, in his fairy tale “The Hill Dwellers”, developed a language “lapn” for his characters, in Jonathan Swift’s book Gulliver in the Giant’s Land had to learn the local language “guingnm”, which had no words for human faults. Tolkien, incidentally, in 1931, prepared a paper on how to construct languages correctly. There are three necessary points to keep. Language needs history. Language needs to be aesthetically pleasing to the ear. Language needs grammar. The filmmakers were enthusiastic about the creation of pseudo-Persian. A young linguist from Moscow State University, Anton Kirov, was hired to develop fake-Farsi according to all the rules. There’s grammar, orthography, and a dictionary of six hundred words. It is true that in the film it is said that under the guidance of Gilles, Koch learnt two and a half thousand words of fake-Farsi.

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would save Gilles’ life, it served as a confirmation that he, swarthy and big-eyed, was not a Jew but Persian. And the head of the “food section” in the concentration camp, the cook Klaus Koch, just needed a Farsi teacher — Klaus dreamed of opening a restaurant in Tehran.

The name of the concentration camp where the action was taking place is very provisional in the film — “Jedem das Seine”, translated as “To each their own”. And the specific place remains on a symbolic level, “somewhere in Europe”, which means it could have taken place anywhere. But the shooting took place mostly in Bobruisk, and the locals were involved in the crowd scenes. The base for the extras was located in one of the buildings of the Bobruisk fortress. The residents of Bobruisk turned into prisoners with yellow stars on their chests and their escorts; they were joined by residents of Minsk, Osipovichi and Zhlobin who also wanted to take part in the shooting… Some scenes were filmed in the forest near the village of Dumanovshchina. There were some shootings in the quarry in Mikashevichi that belongs to “Granite” enterprise. By the way, directors love to shoot films there — it is atmospheric, picturesque… Depth of a hundred meters, rocks, stones, waterfalls. As if it is not in Belarus. The concentration camp “prisoners” worked there using wheelbarrows and hammer picks. By the way, they say that the pieces of scenery used during filming can be seen today in the Bobruisk fortress — they were presented to the city.

3. A real unique language was invented for the film, based on the names of Holocaust victims The thing that broadens the film beyond the genre and turns it into a philosophical project, is that a non-existent language, fake-Farsi, was specially created for it. Everyone knows Esperanto, invented by the Polish ophthalmologist Zamenhof. But there were fictional languages in history that were passes off as existing one, e. g. conlang. In the 18th cen-

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2. The shooting locations were the Bobruisk fortress and the Mikashevichi quarry

It is within the artificial language that the concentration camp cook and the prisoner can go beyond the scope of their roles. Koch writes poems in fake-Farsi. “I love you” in this language sounds like “Or bar onai au”. And a surprising detail: to create the language, Gilles uses the names of the concentration camp prisoners from the ledger he was assigned to keep. In this way he turns the artificial language into a

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huge memorial. And at the end, when, with Koch’s help, he manages to escape and is taken to antifascists, he is asked if he can remember the names of any of the victims of the camp, Gilles answers that he can remember 2840 names. The entire vocabulary of pseudo-Persian. And the filmmaker also made such a memorial in life, suggesting that the linguist should use the actual list of names of Holocaust victims when making up words. These are already Borgesian constructions: as long as Klaus Koch believes he knows Farsi and speaks it, the names of those murdered will be heard.

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FILM SCREENING

4. The director accidentally caught the Bobruisk fog

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The people of Belarus who took part in the shooting were looking forward to the mass release of the film despite the pandemic so they could recognize themselves in the impressive footage. The nature of Belarus is recognizable there, too. Although, thanks to the “magic crystal” of art, it is sometimes difficult to do it. For example, there is a scene in the film when Gilles, accompanied by his camp escort, goes out to throw out the rubbish, and everything is obscured by an almost surreal fog. When Vadim Perelman was asked in Rossiyskaya Gazeta how he managed to achieve such an effect, he replied: “It was a miracle. We were shooting in Bobruisk and we had other shoots scheduled for that day. In the kitchen. While everyone was getting ready for them, I went out for a smoke. Looked at this road. And there behind the trees, about 20 meters away, there were the “soviet” garages that had been there since the 1960s. They were orange and red — we didn’t even point the camera there, we didn’t see them. So I went out and looked at them… and I was stunned. I quickly ran to the radio: “Everybody, over here! Get the camera over here! Where’s the barrel?” The waste barrel wasn’t even supposed to be in the shot that day. I said, “Hurry up, find it, fix the wheels. It will all be gone soon!” The costumes were differ-

ent too… Everyone was running around. It was the beginning of the shift — seven or eight in the morning. By 10 or 11 we’d filmed everything. And usually fog is dispelled by the sun. But it stayed there all day. And then we also filmed two scenes on the parade ground — when the soldiers are walking away in the morning.” “Very lucky” is how the director describes his affair with the Bobruisk fog.

5. The script was written in Russian, translated into English and German was used on set The language issue and preservation of the historical memory are painful and topical for the Belarusians at all times. How many times we were forced not to be ourselves, the Belarusian language was concealed, we were ashamed or afraid to use it… On the other hand, here, at the crossroads of European routes, cultures and confessions met, were used in the same places. This multiculturalism was also formed on the set of “Farsi Lessons”. As already mentioned, the film is a project of three countries and the director is an American of Ukrainian origin. The cameraman Vladislav Apelyants is from Russia, the performer of the role of Gilles Nahuel Pérez Biscayart is Argentinean and the performer of the role of Koch is German Lars Eidinger. The script was originally written in Russian by Ilya Tsofin. Subsequently, it was translated into English. But on the film set, mostly German was used. We know about the presence of Farsi. The main theme is the Holocaust, the fate of the Jews. But Vadim Perelman says the film is about human interaction and trust. And the filmmakers also wanted every viewer to memorize at least one word of Gilles’ fictional language — so as to join the commemoration. By Lyudmila Rublevskaya

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EXPOSITION

LOCAL JERUSALEM “Local Jerusalem” exhibition of Jewish cultural objects opened in Minsk The tableware produced by Belarusian craftsmen was in great demand far beyond the borders of our cities. Unfortunately, the names of those craftsmen are forgotten today. Although, at the same time, they can be valued by our neighbours. For instance, the jeweller from Shklov, Israel Yoselevich Zakhoder. In 1851 the master from the Mogilev District opened his workshop which fulfilled mainly Moscow orders. Naturally, after the Jews were allowed to overcome the border of sedentary life (provided they were merchants of the first guild and owned the sum of 50 thousand rubles), the master moved closer to his clients. In the workshop, which he opened in Moscow, 40 people worked. The demand for the crockery it produced was growing. But in 1881, by order of the new governor-general, Jews were banned from Moscow and Moscow province, and within 3–12 months were ordered to leave these territories. Then the master moved to Ukraine, near Berdichi. The items made by Zakhoder’s were awarded at international exhibitions, and goods from his factory were exported to Turkey and Austria-Hungary… The Torah at the exhibition is arranged according to tradition. In the synagogue, for example, the holy book of the Jews was placed facing south, towards Jerusalem. ETHNOMUSEUM.RU

The Mikhail Savitsky Art Gallery has launched an exhibition of items of Jewish culture “Local Jerusalem”. The exhibition features dozens of silver items as well as other 18–20th centuries exhibits from the private collection of Igor Surmachevsky. One of the most valuable rarities is a herbarium with herbs and flowers from Jerusalem which dates back to 1890. Pilgrims used to bring such souvenirs from the Holy Land. And this rarity was kept in an orthodox family. Yes, things do tell us that peoples interacted. And studying different cultures gives us a better understanding of our shared history. — My childhood was spent in symbiosis with different traditions. Among my relatives there were Orthodox, Catholics and Jews. Naturally, it was reflected in my collection, which is called “History of Belarus”. Today only a small part of it is exhibited, — Igor Surmachevsky said when opening the exhibition. Since the 16th century Jews started to settle down in Belarusian towns and villages in large numbers and had a great influence on the local life: they were engaged in various kinds of crafts and trade. In Minsk, for example, at the beginning of the 20th century, they headed many bank offices, founded industrial enterprises, and owned the majority of hotels. Nonetheless, they continued to preserve their culture, language, and religion. By the beginning of the Second World War almost half of the population of the capital was Jewish, and they lived in different parts of the city. The items in the exhibition offer a glimpse into their homes and traditions. The core of this collection is a collection of silver kiddush cups. More than a hundred of them are exhibited. On Fridays, wine was poured into such ritual cups (it was believed that it should be poured to the brim of the cup, because it symbolized prosperity). The ritual kiddush, thanking God for the forgiven feast days and the Sabbath, was performed in every Jewish home or synagogue. It is worth taking a closer look at the patterns on the kiddush cups — on them the craftsmen carved a cityscape. Such images on cups are typical of our lands, while in European museums kiddush were mostly decorated with plant ornaments or sacred animals, which numbered twelve. Masters often tried to depict Jerusalem as they imagined it to be, since many people had never been to the city and had never seen even the pictures of the city. That is why artists created their own Jerusalem on kiddushs, reflecting familiar urban landscapes. By the way, an 18‑century engraving that shows what Jerusalem looked like, can also be seen at the exhibition. It’s impressive to see how the craftsmen meticulously made to fine limits the finest detail of the intricate designs on the silver tableware. Cityscapes, images of synagogues, could be found on sugar bowls, decanters, plates and butter dishes. The heyday of this art came in the middle of the 19th century and after the persecution of Jews in the 1880s it all went downhill.

The Torah was placed on expensive fabrics (including Persian carpets). And when stored, it was covered with expensive material (it could be makats or, as Igor Surmachevsky found evidence in Polish archives, Slutsk belts). Another rarity tells us that Jews paid special attention to education. There are tzedakah boxes, i. e. money-boxes, at the exhibition. They were given to adolescents when they turned 13 years and one day. Young people used them to collect money for their education. A separate section of the exposition is dedicated to everyday culture of Minsk Jews — there is a kitchen, copperware and an interior installation. By Elena Dedyulya

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WHERE DID THE GHOST COME FROM IN THE TOWN HALL

OR WHAT DID THE 18TH CENTURY LEAVE FOR MINSK? In the 18th century It would have taken you less than ten minutes to walk from the outskirts to the centre of Minsk. Yes, the city was small at that time, with only five thousand inhabitants, but by the end of the century its population grew by another thousand. To compare: at that time 20 thousand lived in Vilno, 7 thousand in Mogilev and 3 thousand in Novogrudok. Unfortunately, we know little about the events that took place in the city two hundred years ago. Just think: there hadn’t been a war in Belarus for about 80 years — there hadn’t been such peaceful centuries before. And life was thriving in the city. The town hall was the seat of the town council, supervised by the councilor. It consisted of a council and a lava. The former dealt with public affairs, the latter was responsible for criminal cases. The lava could only try ordinary citizens, but it was difficult to influence the nobility. This is why

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there were many disputes at that time. The gentry bought lands inside the town and once they were bought, they fell out of the town’s jurisdiction. It led to serious problems. When a nobleman bought two plots on different sides of the road, he merged them, thus blocking the town’s tracks. The village headman was appointed by the king. Naturally, this position was taken by a big nobleman, who was often ready to sacrifice the interests of common burghers, so as not to quarrel with the richer and more influential masters.

Minsk was also the seat of the voivode, for the town was the centre of the voivodeship. Every two years tribunals were held there, at which representatives of rich clans appeared. It is easy to imagine that serious political games were played here… One can learn about the18‑century secrets of the capital during the author’s journey held by the guide Timofey Akudovich. Within the project “Drawing closer” he teaches to notice details, to read history from the objects that have survived in the city, and to admire it.

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The journey begins on Oktyabrskaya Square. More precisely, we get to the ancient Yuryevskaya (onsite the modern House of Trade Unions there was the Uniate Church of St. Yury) and Dominikanskaya Street. If you happen to stroll next to the Palace of the Republic, you might imagine that one of the city’s most beautiful buildings used to stand there, surrounded by a garden where pears imported from Europe used to grow. Allegedly, it was from here that they spread throughout Belarus, and the variety was named Sapezhanka. This two-storey palace belonged to the Sapieha family. During the Great Northern War Peter the First stayed there for several months, as the Russian emperor decided to annoy his rivals. The fact is that the Sapieha family were among those who did not support their eastern neighbour, but sided with Karl the Twelfth. From here Peter the First planned a series of events. There was another important secret about the building. The parents of the future Empress Catherine the First served in the palace, after which the couple moved to the Baltic States, where their daughter was born. She grew up to be a beauty and, despite her not very noble origin, she managed to win over Peter the First. Back in the 1920s the building stood on Yuryevskaya street, but it was badly damaged and destroyed during the war. There is a sign behind the Palace of the Republic reminding today that the ruins of one of the largest Minsk churches of that time, i. e. the Dominican Church, are hidden under the ground. The place is now empty, and the question of restoring a temple comes up from time to time.. Old sources recorded that the church was built on a “hoof tax” — they said that when the warriors returned from war, the Dominicans asked money “for God” as a sign of gratitude for saving their lives. A gold piece was paid for every hoof of a horse. The order was very rich: when the

monks were completing the building of the monastery, to produce bricks they rented a brickyard near Minsk in St. Peter and Paul Church. Until the 19th century, it was rumored that somewhere in the dungeons, the Dominicans hid treasures (there was also an underground passage here). And in the 90s of the 20th century journalists recorded a story told by taxi drivers who many times had seen a dog running across the road with a torch in its teeth. One might think it’s not a big deal. But the thing is, a dog with a torch is a symbol of the Dominicans. The story goes back to the old days about a fight between monks, which apparently happened because of schoolboys who had first studied at the Jesuit college and then “switched” to the Dominicans. But after the fight, the students were forced to return to their previous place. At the time, the monks determined certain fields of work for themselves. Some healed, others taught, the Dominicans were engaged in printing, they devoted a great deal of attention to theology. One of the most influential preachers at the time was Priest Obłaczyński, and crowds gathered for his speeches. During one of his anti-drinking sermons, the theologian mentioned perhaps the most vicious troublemaker of the town, the debaucher Michał Wolodkowicz. The nobleman then took revenge on the priest — during another service he drove into the church with a barrel of wine, gypsies and bears. Obłaczyński then warned that Wolodkowicz would surely pay for such an act. Naturally, the priest did not succeed in frightening the reveler. Wolodkowicz got away with everything, for he was known as a friend of the magnate Panie Kochanku. But who could have imagined the terrible expiation…

Crime and punishment Michał‘s brother Józef Wołodkowicz was also a troublemaker. One day he quarreled with his old neighbour Jacynicz over land. How could Jacynicz compete with the young merchant, especially when he had such influential friends? The old nobleman

ordered his servants to put a pile of straw in the middle of the yard and thresh it, and he walked around asking, “Whom do you beat?” And the servants were supposed to answer “Wołodkowicz”. After a while the young neighbour invited Jacynicz as if to make peace, but ordered his servants to seize the “guest” and beat him in the yard, and to answer the question “Whom do you beat?” with “A heap of straw”… Of course, the old nobleman could not bear such an insult. He went to court, turned to different authorities, he even managed to get Wołodkowicz to pay the fine and stay under house arrest in a monastery for a few months. Only the punishBELTA

The Emperor, the treasure and the “showdown” of monks

Sculpture of village headman with keys near the Minsk town hall

ment was too mild — at the monastery, for which his family had previously donated money, Wołodkowicz used to walk with his entourage. Eventually the old nobleman appealed to the tribunal, and then the games of the elite began. The Czartoryski, wishing to annoy Radziwiłł, insisted on Wolodkowicz’s guilt. Józef ’s brother

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LINK OF TIMES

Generally, the 18th century was a time of serious shifts in all the spheres: scientific discoveries, new music, dances and fashion. Whereas in Europe the changes were slow, in our land the baroque style stayed for a long time. The men, who adhered to the Sarmatian style, did not want to adopt European fashion with wigs and silk tights for a long time. Women were more flexible, they quickly grasped the secrets of European beauties. At the beginning of the 18th century, they got rid of the black colour that had been popular in the previous century, their clothes became more revealing. Etiquette became more elaborate, more cutlery appeared on the tables. a place to stay. Thus, the Radziwiłłs built a palace onsite the modern-day Hotel Europa. Another important event for the provincial town were sejmiki, which brought together the nobility. Naturally, they solved serious problems, but also tried to have fun. The first cafes might have appeared in Minsk in the 18th century. At any rate, coffee, the beverage fashionable in Europe, was present in all wealthy households; some even had a servant, who made cof-

By Elena Dedyulya JAZZCLUB.BY

Michał Wolodkowicz was also present. Indignant at the decision, he drew his sword, attacked the tribunal and even accidentally cut up a crucifix. After that he encountered a funeral procession, turned it around, made a lot of noise and got drunk… The Czartoryski decided to use such an opportunity to do more harm the Radziwiłłs — they applied to Vilno for permission for a serious punishment. The friends informed Wołodkowicz that he was going to be killed. Only he did not believe him. But Michał was punished. The ghost of Wołodkowicz is said to haunt the town hall. It is one of the most tragic stories of that time — for the first time a nobleman was executed — without a confession — and why? For drunkenness and unbridled temper? It is no coincidence that memoirists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries referred to it so often; it is recorded in several variations.

fee. But tea came to the Belarusian lands only in the nineteenth century. Great emphasis was placed on education. To the right and left of the Church of the Virgin Mary (now Liberty Square) there was a Jesuit college and school. It was here that new teaching methods were used. The Jesuits are said to have invented the classroom-lesson system, as well as various methods of stimulating learning, and they were the first to decide that children should have PT lessons. The Jesuits owned a whole block in Minsk, you could even make a separate museum dedicated to this order. Another old buildings, i. e. the Pshezdeckis’ Palace, has survived in Liberty Square. Today, the Mikhail Savitsky Art Gallery is situated there. Anthony Pshezdecki was a middle-class nobleman. He managed to make a good career, all because he was loyal to the Czartoryski princes and was generously rewarded for his services. In the 18th century the city was still densely populated with wooden houses, so it suffered greatly from fires. But there was a strict rule: if a house burned down, the owner had to build a brick house in its place, otherwise he could be ousted from the city. Therefore, in the 19th century, Minsk began to change its appearance.

Infrastructure The Tribunals — the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s greatest court — were held at the castle. Cases concerning the territory of eastern and central Belarus were decided here. Sessions dragged on for months, which meant that all arriving guests had to be provided with lodging and entertainment. The magnates built themselves houses to have

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

The Sapieha Palace used to stand on this site, now here is the Republican House of Trade Unions. Minsk, 2020

NAME IN HISTORY

LATIN SONG OF THE BELARUSIAN SOLOMON The first person to call himself a Belarusian was a poet born 460 years ago “Stop, stranger, whoever you are, and forgive the small and the great, the greater and the lesser. You will find that eternity under God is nothing, in an instant the significance of great things collapses and is destroyed.” The poet, born 460 years ago, included these words in his poetry collection — in Latin, of course, because Latin is the language of the universal, something by which the educated people of Europe recognized each other… And in the acts of the University of Altdorf for December 2, 1586 he recorded himself as “Solomo Pantherus Leucorussus” — Solomon Pantherus the Belarusian. And this is also how he called himself in his correspondence with his German friend Konrad Rittershausen. Thus, Solomon Rysinski went down in history as the first to call himself a Belarusian and his country — Leucorossia, Belarus.

Knight with a sword in the moonlight 460 years since his birth. Of course, because of such a time veil not much can be seen. Even the place of birth of this man was named differently — most probably, the poet and thinker Solomon Rysinski was born into the family of a poor nobleman Theodore Rysinski in the estate of Kobylniki in the Vitebsk Region. His coat of arms was “Ostoja” — a knight’s sword

between two crescents, the memory of how the knight Ostoja destroyed an enemy camp in the moonlight. But Solomon was destined to conquer with words more than with a sword. He was, however, born in times of war, and was brought up undoubtedly as a nobleman. Future warriors were not allowed to be excessively spoiled — in infancy some were awakened by a shot in the ceiling, they could be sent at night with a certain task, for example, to pluck a couple of ears from a neighbouring field. So that they would have no fear and would get used to following orders without hesitation. When a duke or king declared a mass mobilization — a nobleman was to leave feasts, hunting and a young wife and immediately join the army. If it’s a matter of honour — wash it off with blood, if your manor is attacked — defend it… But it is clear that Solomon also had a thirst for knowledge since childhood… He was sent to a foreign nobleman’s court to receive elementary education. There the bright lad was noticed by the courtiers of Duke Jerzy Radziwiłł — it seems we are talking about the future bishop of Vilno, the son of Mikołaj Radziwiłł Czarny. This is evidenced by the fact that Jerzy Radziwiłł was studying at the University of Leipzig, and Solomon Rysinski was also sent there with his support. At that time Jüri was still, like his father, of the Protestant faith, but later he and his brothers became staunch Catholics.

In the meantime, poor but smart Solomon entered the University of Leipzig, its church in 1545 was consecrated by Martin Luther, the spirit of the Reformation was alive there and medieval scholasticism was replaced by humanism.

Alongside Seneca and Reformation There is no doubt that Rysinski absorbed all the progressive trends and knowledge, and he could not get enough of it. After all, he subsequently entered the University of Altdorf near Nuremberg. And of course, his poetic gift helped him to fight his way — at that time every educated person was supposed to be able to write an ode, an epitaph, a madrigal. It was not for nothing that together with the mentioned friend Rittershausen Rysinski he commented on the Roman poet Ausnius, on Ovidius, Plautus, Claudianus, analyzed the letters of Seneca. He wrote in Latin, used Polish… But he also wrote in his native Old Belarusian. Researchers found three of his epigrams in the Vilna editions of Mamonichi: “On the coat of arms of the most illustrious Ostafi Wołłowicz…” (1585), “On the coats of arms… Lew Sapieha” (1588), “On the coat of arms of the Grand Duke… Teodor Skumin” (1591). He also translated from Belarusian into Latin the poems of another Byelorussian poet of his time — Andrzej Rymsza.

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NAME IN HISTORY

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Let anyone doubt the antiquity of the history of Belarusian literature… One can imagine how in the context of ripening national ideas, in the crossroads of Europe, the young thinker Rysinski comprehended his belonging to a particular nation and the place of that nation. He didn’t consider himself a Pole, a Lithuanian or a Russian. That is why the term “Belarusian” was needed. As a proof, researcher Oleg Latyshonok quotes Rysinski’s letter to Rittershausen about the use of possessive adjectives: “Even now Moscovites, Belarusians (Leuсorussi) and most of Lithuanians use it often”. It was there, in Altdorf, in 1587, that Rysinski published his first book — “Epistolarum Salomonis іbros duos”, letters to relatives, deceased and fictitious persons. Above all Rysinski put the skill to express the thoughts beautifully: “I warmly love those who appreciate and respect the dignity of this gift, so, on the contrary, those who either do not understand or despise such a wonderful display of art, I reject and believe that they are hardly worthy to be called people.”

A teacher for wealthy heirs A man of science, courtesy, and even a poet — the tycoons were willing to go to great lengths to get him as a teacher for their offspring. Let me remind you that Symeon Polotsky, a Belarusian, when he came to Moscovia, impressed everyone with his poetic prowess, among other things, and became the tutor of the future Peter the First. Solomon Rysinski also began a career as a domestic tutor. He tutored youngsters and accompanied them abroad. Finally, he came to Krzysztof Radziwiłł nicknamed “Perkūnas” and became court poet and mentor to his son and, later, grandson. It was about the powerful Perkūnas, who earned his nickname for the “scorched earth policy” he used during hostilities, that Andrzej Rymsza wrote his poetic tale.

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The Radziwiłłs, as we understand, were not known for their meek characters. When Rysinski came to Perkūnas’ court, and scholars believe it was in 1596, the prince was married for the fourth time. He had a son Janusz by his second marriage to Katarzyna Ostrogska, who died soon after giving birth. The third time Perkūnas married was to Katarzyna Tenczyńska, who was older than him and had children of her own. She was the widow of Slutsky

to be protected from the onslaughts of her husband’s relatives… No one gave permission for the marriage, the Pope did not respond as Perkūnas was a stubborn Protestant, his coreligionists all over Europe also refused… So Krzysztof Radziwiłł didn’t give a damn about all the conventions and got married. If we count, we will see that at the time Rysinski appeared in Christophe Perkūnas’ court, he was about 26 years old, while Janusz Radziwiłł was about 17. Not such a big age gap, and Janusz was probably educated in Europe at the time. So the educational talent was probably directed towards Perkūnas Radziwiłł’s youngest son, also Krzysztof, by his marriage to Katarzyna Tenczyńska, who was born in 1585.

At the crossroads of magnate intrigue All the studies say that Rysinski was not just an educator and court poet, but for Perkūnas he became an advisor, a like-minded man in Calvinism and in the fight against the Arians. Arianism — a branch of Protestantism — was then in force in the principality, Krzysztof Radziwiłł nicknamed "Perkūnas", and on the lands of Jan Kiszka, the at whose court Solomon Rysinski worked first husband of Perkūnas’ fourth Prince Jerzy Olelkowicz, and had immense wife. It is said that Perkūnas also sought a wealth. And in 1593 a widowed Krzysztof scandalous marriage in order to dissolve Radziwiłł Perkūnas married for the fourth Kiszka’s will, to drive out the blasphemers time, to Elżbieta Ostrogska, which caused and to close the Arian schools and printa scandal not only in Lithuania’s lands ing houses on the lands received with his but in the whole of Europe. It is not that wife’s dowry. the fourth marriage was considered a sin Rysinski, a good polemist, could not and a special permit had to be obtained help participating in disputes with the for it. But Elżbieta was a birth sibling of Arians. Nor could he stay away from the Perkūnas’ second wife, Janusz Radziwiłł’s events surrounding the marriage of Janusz aunt. This was considered incest. Radziwiłł and Sophia of Slutsk, the grandIt took Perkūnas a long time to get daughter of Perkūnas Radziwiłł’s third permission to marry — and not because wife, Katarzyna Tenczyńska. An orphan of any love at all. It was because Elżbieta and wealthy heiress, Sophia was a most Radziwiłł was the widow of Jan Kiszka, tempting bride for the greedy magnate. But the vaivode of Brest, and had huge estates, her guardian Hieronim Chodkiewicz and with Perkūnas being their guardian. Such Radziwiłł Perkūnas, recent friends, quara tempting piece, and under his nose… reled over her dowry (Chodkiewicz approElżbieta was also interested in the marriage priated something of his under-the-care’s

NAME IN HISTORY

Two Krzysztof, two Janusz, one Solomon Radziwiłł Reformers opened schools and printing houses… And Rysinski took full advantage of this. In Lubcha he printed a book about the deeds of his lord, Krzysztof Radziwiłł, adding a poetic description of the Livonian war. He published a collection of eulogy poems in which he glorified the actions of the Radziwiłł family. In 1618 he published the world’s first collection of Slavonic proverbs and sayings, 1800 of which he had collected over three decades. He recorded them in Belarusian, translated them into Polish and Latin, searched for their analogues in old Roman and Greek… About half a thousand of those proverbs are still alive in Belarus! Although the title says “Polish”, it is established that Rysinski collected them in the surroundings of Slutsk and Niasvizh. That’s what needs reprinting, translated into modern Belarusian! In those years when Solomon was writing and publishing books, his guardians were engaged in a war with the Swedes. Perkūnas, having won several glorious battles, died in 1603. Krzysztof Radziwiłł and Janusz showed themselves to be capable military leaders. And Janusz raised a nobleman’s rock against the king. But in those turbulent times, Solomon Rysinski had one more important thing to do. In 1612 a son Janusz was born in the family of Krzysztof Radziwiłł, Janusz’s younger brother, who was in love with Anna Kiszka. His tutor was also Solomon Rysinski.

We must admit, one can get confused by the names… That’s why sometimes there are statements that Rysinski brought up the son of Krzysztof Radziwiłł Perkūnas Janusz, since his childhood. But we are talking about Perkūnas’ grandson. Janusz Radziwiłł graduated from the Calvinist Gymnasium in Slutsk, its charter had been made by his teacher, and also went to study to Leipzig and Altdorf universities. But he went abroad at the age of sixteen, a year after Solomon Rysinski’s death. Janusz, a grandson of Perkūnas, will go down in history as a staunch defender of the idea of independence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as the one who exclaimed at the Seim — “The time will come — the Poles will not come to the door: we will throw them out through the windows”, alluding to the events in Prague, where German Catholics were thrown out the windows of the parliament by Czech Protestants. He defended the rights of the non-Catholic population, formed an alliance with the Swedish king in the hope of establishing an independent principality, and died, having been poisoned and declared a traitor.

Nothing but books Apparently the philosopher poet did not have a family of his own. And despite all his scholarliness, he did not gain any special favours. It is interesting that at the same time Rysinski is almost the only thinker of that time, who remained secular. A testimony of the poet’s death in 1625 in the village of Delyatichi in the Novogrudok District has survived: “On the first Thursday after St. Martin, in the afternoon, when he was sitting at the table, paralysis took him and his tongue was caught. Then at night he had a hard kaduk forty times. He did not lose his memory or his vision, which was clear from his gestures when he was reminded by priest Romanowski, who allowed him to be strengthened in faith and hope and about different things. He drank different water, he could not swallow more on Sunday evening and still he had a kaduk, though

not so hard and not so thick until his death. And on Monday at dawn on Tuesday at six o’clock in the presence of landlord Naborowski and priest Romanowski, who gave prayers, and with other young people he fell asleep in the Lord, quietly, after groaning heavily.” The first man who called himself a Belarusian was buried in Lubcha. His pupil Krzysztof Radziwiłł ordered to “erect a ZVIAZDA.BY

dowry). Janusz was kicked downstairs in his bride’s house and a war nearly broke out. It is said that the prayers of Sophia, who is now recognized as a saintly saint, helped to resolve the conflict peacefully. Sophia died without leaving any children, and Solomon Rysinski wrote a very beautiful epitaph on her death. Through this marriage, after the death of Sophia in 1612 Radziwiłł received Slutsk. Rysinski lived and worked there for a while.. It is known that Janusz set up a Protestant school in Slutsk, and Rysinski made its charter.

The first Belarusian Solomon Rysinski wrote over a thousand books

high and nice stone pillar over Pan Rysinski ‘s grave and to set a marble table in it, and to build a nice mound at the back near the pillar”. The only wealth left after Rysinski’s death was books. However, they say there were more than a thousand of them, rare editions and manuscripts, and the library was comparable in importance with the Royal one. The researcher Evgeny Poretsky writes: “Creative heritage of S. Rysinski, who from humanist-commentator and researcher of antique literature and teacher of ancient languages was able to rise to the heights of humanism, i. e. to find the sources of wisdom in the folk language of his native land, has not been studied until recently… To analyze Rysinski’s work today and to publish his works is to bring back to Belarus one of the authors of the high cultural monuments of the past”. By Lyudmila Rublevskaya

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST

ARCHEOLOGY IS AN INDISPUTABLE THING The office of the research laboratory of archeology of the Mogilev State University named after A. Kuleshov is fully stocked with current finds. Mogilev archaeologists have accumulated as much as 70 kilograms of useful material. The tables are piled with small ceramic crocks, where local experts in some unknown way identify the bottoms, rings and even patterns of pots of the Iron Age. Discoveries are born here As I watch the eyes of the instructor and his students light up, I realize there are discoveries. First of all Alexey Avlasovich takes me to the table where the most valuable things found on the current excavation site, i. e. the settlement Ageyevka in the Mogilev Region, are situated. — This is the place where people used to live from the third century B. C. to the second century A. D. Generally, we were looking for items of the Iron Age, but suddenly came across burials of the 17th century, — says the historian. — The fortified settlement remained unoccupied since the 2nd up to the17th centuris and 15 centuries later our ancestors started to dig tombs there. We found human bones and ceramics every time. And so throughout the whole settlement. Nothing was left of the coffins but nails. A small cross was found on a baby, and clothes clasps were found in another grave. Valuable finds from the period of the Iron Age include a bronze jewellery for women and a spindle whorl. Archaeological excavations are always attended by first year students, but this year we had a lot of volunteers from other courses. Pavel Vasilyonok and Darya Logvinova, third year history teachers in training, took part in excavations not for the first time. — It is interesting to plunge into this life, to live in the field, — says Pavel. — I want to understand how it was there, in the past. — So we came here again to look at our findings, — adds Darya. — Gradually you start to distinguish, where there is a bottom, a wall, and a corolla of the pot. It is great. — There will be enough work for us till spring, — Alexey Avlasovich smiles. — Exactly here archeological discoveries are made. Some moments during excavations can be unclear. And if you lay out the material, each shard is examined, cleaned, then

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much becomes clear. All of this will come in handy for our studies and scientific research.

They were looking for Slavs, and found ethnic population No written sources have survived on Ageyevka, so all hopes are set on archeologists. And they have already found out a lot. Ancient people lived in timbered houses with a gable roof, dug on average one meter into the ground. There was a stone hearth in the centre of the dwelling. It is known that the population was engaged in agriculture, also raised cattle for their needs. The main hope of the current expedition was not only to investigate the Iron Age settlement, but also to find traces of Slavs. For example, there are signs of their presence in the 5th century in Mogilev itself. This is the same Pelageyevka (Zmeyevka) near the Dubrovenka River in the city centre. The most striking difference between the Slavs is pottery. They had their own tradition of moulding and shaping pots — elongated, resembling a tulip bud with a slightly bent corolla. — Unfortunately, we could not find Slavs in Ageyevka, it was inhabited by an ethnic population, which can hardly be attributed to any ethnos. The bronze wire ornament that we found could have been an ethnic trait, or it could have been imported. These people used pots with a rough, coarse surface and a slightly bent corolla. There might have been a nail notch on the edge as decoration. These are signs of the Zarubinets culture, i. e. third century B. C., second century A. D. Our material confirmed the already existing tradition and overturned the theory that a more northern archaeological culture of hatched pottery reigned there. We were convinced that in the Mogilev Region, the greater influence was not hatching, but the Zarubinets

IN SEARCH OF THE LOST ZVIAZDA.BY

The Bobruisk Region is very promising where many sensational finds have been made. One helmet of the tenth century is worth a lot. — Last year Bobruisk became the archeological capital of Belarus because such an amount of weaponry items found there in one year has never been found in the history of sovereign Belarus. Axes, swords of the end of 10th — beginning of 11th century — it was the time of Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko and his sons, — Alexey Avlasovich says. — I wonder where these items came from, what processes took place there. Perhaps there was a chronicle battle, or maybe it was a city we don’t know about. So many items of highstatus weaponry can’t be accidental.

Where did the Belarusians come from? Lately, there have been a lot of disputes about the origin of the Belarusians and our country. Most often, historians and political scientists refer to annalistic sources. But archaeology is an indisputable thing.

These are the jewelry worn by women in the Iron Age

culture. The latter then disintegrated and its remains became one of the elements in the formation of the Slavic ethnos. I would like to find a settlement in order to understand on the basis of which tribes the Slavs were formed. While there is a controversial issue here. Theoretically, it was the Kyiv archaeological culture, which partially survived the arrival of the Huns, and some remnants of the Zarubinets culture. This time, archaeologists learned more about the defensive earthworks. There were three of them in Ageyevka. — We cut through the rampart and saw that it had been restored five times,” says the historian. — Supporting logs were placed. And we also came across paving stone blocks. Just imagine, the Iron Age and such a civilization. It was, unfortunately, badly ruined by the graves.

— The Belarusians as a people were formed in the 16th century, — says Alexey Avlasovich. — Those monuments that we study are either related to the Old Russian nation or to the beginning of the Slavic ethnos. It is difficult to speak about the Belarusians there. But those who claim that there was no Belarus in the tenth century are wrong. No, there wasn’t, but there were state formations, social structures, which were the first states that gave rise to our statehood. We are studying it now. Not everything is recorded in written sources. Based on them, we can understand the relations among the principalities, the political background Archaeological materials, on the other hand, are unbiased. We excavated them and saw, for example, that Slavs lived here in the V century and there were no Germans. There are no Baltic materials on the territory of the Mogilev Region at all. In the Vitebsk and Minsk Region there are, there the Slavs invaded the Baltic territory and assimilated it. But we had no Balts. There is archaeological material that confirms this. Archaeology peeks in where written sources and objective material are lacking.

To find the battlefield of Radimichi with the army of prince Vladimir

By Nelli Zigulya BELTA

Among the archaeological sites that Mogilev archaeologists have explored in the past few years there are the burial mounds in the Belynichi District, including the Golovchensky Castle, which was destroyed during the Great Northern War. During excavations in the Slavgorod District archaeologists came across burials of vigilantes of the 10th century from the Radimichi tribe who opposed the prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko. — Of course, the annalistic event, when it happened, is the year 984, — Alexey Avlasovich says. — There are different points of view about where the battle took place. Some people think, that in the Gomel Region, others that in the Bryansk Region, and we think, that it was in the Mogilev Region. It was the basic version and now it has been confirmed. The found burials prove that it was on the river Peschanka in the Slavgorod District that the princely army defeated the Radimichi. It remains to find the very field of battle. But we are already very close to it.

Fragments of the residence of the Polotsk princes of the 12 century

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

EXHIBITION

BELTA

WHAT DOES GREEN SMELL LIKE?

WMESTE.BY

The answer to this question can be found at an unusual exhibition “The Way to Colour”, which has opened at the Palace of Arts in the capital. For the first time, paintings by blind artists are on display here. One would think, how can a person who has been blind since birth work with paints? But the young people are proving that art can be accessible to everyone.

Secrets of perception How do you feel yellow? What does red taste like? What does green sound like? If you try to find answers to these questions, you’ll get the key to understanding unusual paintings. Young artists convey a feeling through their work. Yellow — it’s the warmth of sunlight on your skin, sand rustling under your feet. Red can be reminiscent of love, courage, triumph, sweet or tangy, or salty like blood. Green smells like mowings, mint, pine. It’s easy to guess what a “barefoot” painting looks like. And how can touch, friendship, serenity, character, clouds, soul be painted? All these themes are “put” on canvases. This exhibition helps to look deep into things, to get into a special world of perceptions and emotions. And for viewers it’s a great opportunity to see the world in a different way. And who knows, maybe the works of blind artists will initiate new stories in contemporary painting?

As a rule, for people who were born in the dark, the names of colours are hollow words. But not for those who start painting. For painters, colours smell, flow between fingers, feel, sound. Each colour has certain associations, which may not be the same for different people. Irina and Sergey Bondarovich

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EXHIBITION BELTA

new ideas, develops methods, and actively searches for tools to help blind people get into art. The team uses a variety of tools in its work. A wooden frame with stretched fishing line allows the blind artists to be guided on the canvas. PVA glue, thread, plastic, masking tape help create defined borders, outlines, shapes and compositions. The colour circle is “adapted” for the blind — it’s printed volumetrically on a 3D printer. The elements of clothing and fragments of fabric are used, which for young artists serve not only as a texture that can be touched, but also as part of the composition.

Magic flashlight

WMESTE.BY

By Elena Dedyulya

WMESTE.BY

The Velonisa Art project was launched at the premises of specialized school No. 188 for visually impaired children in the capital. Its curators guide blind artists on how to handle colours. In the future, there are plans to create an art territory where blind people of different ages can learn, meet, experiment, fulfill themselves through painting, and possibly earn money in this way. “Our project is not about getting together to have a good time. It gives people an opportunity to fulfil themselves and expands the opportunities to perceive the world around them,” says Irina Bondarovich, the project’s founder. However, the choice of professions for visually impaired people is very limited, while projects like this allow to erase the boundaries and inspire people to search for new roads, chances and discoveries. These works are a starting point for blind people on their way to the land of colour. There has never been a painting school like this for the visually impaired in the world. It concentrates entirely

Belarusian IT specialists developed the “Flashlight” device specially for the project, which allows blind people to recognize colours. It consists of a colour sensor and a microcontroller that processes intensity measurements of RGB waves. After processing, the “magic” lantern “transforms” the colours into melodies. This is how visually impaired people who don’t know colours can use music and associations to represent colours. The device is currently being tested. Participants of the first Belarusian art studio for the blind are working with it. In the future, the Lantern is planned to be available to all. Even today, the BlonicaArt team is ready to share their achievements. The works of unusual artists are posted on social networks, and blind people are very much looking forward to feedback, ask to be read out what thoughts their works evoke in people. Paintings of unusual artists can be purchased. The money raised will be spent on the development of the project.

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

THEATRE

HAVING COME IN A DREAM “THE NUTCRACKER” ACQUIRED NEW COLOURS It is unlikely that Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, writing an instructive Christmas story for the young children of his friends Fritz and Mary, could have assumed that the story he invented would become a timeless masterpiece. Just think: Pyotr Tchaikovsky composed music for the ballet “The Nutcracker” based on Marius Petipa’s libretto, which is a rephrasing of Hoffmann’s story made by Alexandre Dumas Senior. And how many great musicians, choreographers, artists, performers and writers have joined the aforementioned creators over the past centuries!

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In October 2020, “The Nutcracker” appeared on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus. In this case it is both a revival and a renewal because Maestro Valentin Elizariev has made a new version of his own production. For seven years “The Nutcracker” hadn’t been performed in the Bolshoi Theatre — and this is a necessary attribute of New Year holidays! The last performance took place on January 16, 2013. And the very first performance was staged by Valentin Elizariev on April 15, 1982. And the choreographer admitted that he had seen his idea… in his dreams: — After the production designer showed me a model of the performance, that night I dreamt about the entire first act. I woke up, got out of bed and, fortunately, I managed to record it. By the way, when Valentin Elizariev studied at the Academy of Russian Ballet in Leningrad, he performed the role of the Nutcracker, so this performance is especially dear to him. In addition, the maestro believes that there is no musical score more difficult for the choreographer than the score of “The Nutcracker” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, although there are those who perceive it as music for children. Well, each masterpiece has more than one depth. And how far you go in your cognition depends not only on the author, but also on your capabilities. Almost the same group of creators worked on the new version of the ballet, only instead of the conductor Alexander Anisimov there is Vyacheslav Chernukha-Volich. The same artist Evgeny Lysik created a fantastic performance. They say that one day he

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made a model of a play out of crystal, which, unfortunately, got lost. But the crystal, festive, mysterious radiance of the ballet remains. Performing a part in such a famous work is both a joy and a great responsibility. Many stars of the Belarusian ballet used to dance in “The Nutcracker”, leaving their performance in history. In the premiere performance in 2020 the role of Masha was performed by Irina Yaromkina, the Nutcracker-Prince — Oleg Yaromkin, Yury Kovalev performed role of Drosselmeyer, aka the Mouse King and Master of the Dolls. The role of the Nutcracker Toy, which Valentin Elizariev used to dance in his youth, was performed by Karina Malakhovskaya. Today there are four groups for each part, because there are many young people in the troupe, and they need to be given the opportunity to prove themselves. It is also interesting that People’s Artist Lyudmila Brzhazovskaya, the first performer of the role of Masha, worked with the dancers. After a victorious battle with the ominous Mouse King, Masha and the Nutcracker fly on toy horses against the background of a fairytale tree, up to the light… Is it realization of a fancy or just a dream of an offended girl? Each spectator will have their own answer. In fact, the work contains many sad, very serious connotations. Just remember the snowflake chorus, which embodies the voices of dead angels. But both young spectators and adults leave the hall with a promise of happiness in their hearts and a sense of festivity. This means that everything has been a success. By Lyudmila Ivanova

CULTURAL EVENT

IN THE CAPITAL - GUESTS FROM THE REGION

The National Art Museum of Belarus hosts an exhibition “Artists of the Molodechno Region”

he basis of this exposition is made up of exhibits from the collection of the Minsk regional local history museum. In total, the exhibition presents more than 60 paintings and graphic works of artists whose life and work are associated with the city of Molodechno. The exhibition itself is dedicated to the Year of the Small Motherland. It must be said that the Molodechno region, rich in cultural traditions, occupies a prominent place in the history of the Belarusian fine arts of the 20–21 centuries. The Molodechno artistic community deserved attention to itself. The current exhibition at the National Art Museum of Belarus partially fulfills this role. The exposition presents the work of different generations of artists. All of them are not only talented masters, but also bright individuals who have found their own creative path. The genre range of the exhibition is also very wide: landscape, portrait, historical and everyday genres, book illustration. The older generation of Molodechno artists is represented in Minsk by the works of J. Rozdzyalovskaya and M. Axelrod. Yadwiga Rozdzyalovskaya (1902–1992) was a pupil of the art schools of Lublin and Warsaw, an honored cultural worker of Poland, at one time — the organizer and head of the fine arts studio in Molodechno. At the exhibition she is presented as a delicate and tact-

ful portrait painter. Meer Axelrod (1902–1970) was a graduate of the Moscow Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops, a student of V. Favorsky, P. Pavlinov, S. Gerasimov, K. Istomin. The next generation of artists is represented by the works of K. Khoroshevich and L. Dudarenko. Konstantin Khoroshevich (1927–2013) is a graduate of the Minsk Art School, a student of famous Belarusian artists Konstantin Kosmachev and Algerd Malishevsky, a bright, original landscape painter. Leonid Dudarenko is an honored art worker of Belarus, laureate of the prize “For Spiritual Revival”, a painter of a wide genre range, a master of portrait, landscape and still life paintings. The third generation of Molodechno artists is represented at the exhibition by Alexander Pashkevich, Yuri GerasimenkoZhiznevsky (1948–1997), Nikolai Ovchinnikov, Vasily Lazovsky (1953–2015), Alexander Grishkevich, Sergei Pisarenko. It should be mentioned that in recent years the National Art Museum of Belarus has held several personal exhibitions of Molodechno masters (L. Dudarenko, N. Ovchinnikov, Y. GerasimenkoZhiznevsky). Now, for the first time, visitors to the museum have the opportunity to comprehensively acquaint themselves with the work of artists of this region. By Veniamin Mikheev. Photo by Author.

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

PERSONALITY IN ART

ARTWORK AS A CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION WITH THE VIEWER Mikhail Rogalevich is one of those Belarusian artists who left a unique mark on the national fine arts

oday it will not be an exaggeration to say that the art of Mikhail Rogalevich touches the most intimate in the souls of people — the genetic striving of Belarusians for spiritual purity, sublimity, admiration for the beauty of life and the dignity of the human person in it. But it’s hard even to imagine that an artist who was destined to go through incredible trials by fate, who got orphaned as a small child in the pre-war period, will be able to preserve faith in human and humanity in his soul, and even speak about it at the top of his artistic talent. Where did the artist get his spiritual energy and strength from? Maybe they gave them a towel embroidered with small horses — the only relic and all the legacy that remained from the parents. It is not for nothing that we see it in many works by Rogalevich. Or maybe he was inspired by the only surviving picture of his mother — a very young girl with long beautiful hair and light eyes. The artist dedicated several paintings to her. In his paintings, he glorified the quiet, complex, at times contradictory, but largely filled with popular optimism and inner enlightenment, life of former peasants who moved permanently from the village to town. Rogalevich was the first,

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

M. Rogalevich. Self-portrait

and perhaps the only one among Belarusian artists, deeply and consistently, from year to year, to reveal this topic, speaking through painting about the achievements of spiritual culture that a rural Belarusians brought to urban life — a tradition-filled cult of family relations, optimistic percep-

tion of the world, kindness in relations with people. The artist began to exhibit his first works on this topic at republican small exhibitions back in the 1960s, when most of his colleagues, often ashamed of their peasant origin, dedicated their works to

reflecting industrial processes. The theme of sincerity, the majestic beauty of human relationships in the family was one of the leading in the work of Mikhail Rogalevich. His artistic activity is also distinctive because he was the first among Belarusian artists to reveal through art the truth about the tragedy of the people, which he himself experienced during the repressions in the pre-war years. These were rather intimate pictures that revealed the pages of his personal biography, the personal tragedy of Rogalevich and his parents, the pain of which did not subside for a minute. But at the same time, these were truthful, painful, bold steps towards great truth. Without a doubt, he is one of the most profound in the meaning of creativity and figurative imagery of contemporary artists. It is also obvious that his paintings bear the essence of the Belarusian mentality, concentrated on the priority of family and family relations in a person’s life. It is not in vain that the first personal exhibition of Mikhail Rogalevich in 1983 became a sensation. Almost the entire Palace of Art in Minsk was occupied by his paintings. More precisely, more than a hundred paintings and about the same number of graphic sheets (only a part of his creative achievements) filled the space of two floors of the country’s largest exhibition pavilion with the energy of images and colors. It was an unprecedented intellectual “fireworks-

PERSONALITY IN ART performance” of the harmony of vivid emotions, deep feelings and experiences, unprecedented before that time within the walls of the gallery — the artist’s piercing confession to his compatriots. Until that exhibition, little was written about the artist: his art did not fit into the notions of socialist realism and stereotypes of evaluative standards, polished over the years. However at the time of the exposition, other moods were already beginning to arise in society. An amazing thing is that the work of Mikhail Rogalevich received due support. After Minsk, his exhibition was successfully displayed in Molodechno and Mogilev, Gomel and Vitebsk. The press responded to the events with the publication of detailed articles-reviews. Rave reviews, in particular, were published by the weekly “Literature and Art”. Rogalevich’s high critical appraisal was adequate to his work, which, with its purity and openness, confidential conversation with the viewer, simple attitude to life, was perceived as a breath of fresh air, as something unusual but very necessary. At the same time, the magazine “Mastatstva” in one of the issues told about the work of Rogalevich on almost all of its pages — an incredible event which never repeated again. The National Museum of Art had never paid so much attention to one artist before — a large-

scale exhibition “Song of Life” was located here on two floors. There could have been more, but collecting all the iconic canvases in one place turned out to be problematic. Yes, he was naive and courageous. When he was the first in Belarusian art to raise the topic of Stalinist repressions, and when he recreated on canvas the life of new townspeople who had moved from the village along with their grandfather’s customs and gullible openness. He painted red-headed babies, lovers on a rearing up horse, countless apple trees and apples, long-necked women with bouquets of roses — but not the portraits of leaders and not industrial landscapes. Neither at the time of “developed socialism”, when it was a common practice, nor later, when many of its creators became ironic over the bygone era and its values. Rogalevich’s art has been evaluated and re-evaluated many times. Including in the most literal, monetary sense, although in principle he himself did not sell a single work to private collectors. Only a few canvases and only to state museums, and he immediately painted — no, not copies, rather, versions of paintings that had gone into museum collections. From the point of view of some, he was

M. Rogalevich. Still life 1977 year

a genius, others considered him a dropout — not even because of his education limited by a diploma from the Minsk Art School, but by the manner of painting stylized as primitive folk art with its bright colors and spontaneity of village carpets — “malyavanka”. In an ingenuous desire to tell about everyone he loves, without fear of looking sentimental. However, no other canvases recreate the past so visibly and documentarily. Despite the conventionality of the drawing, all everyday details in the paintings of Mikhail Rogalevich are accurate and recognizable, the landscapes are concrete, and the portrait images are extremely similar to the people he portrayed.

At the personal exhibition of Mikhail Rogalevich at the National Art Museum

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

PERSONALITY IN ART the right to choose any free route once a year and went to where he spent his early childhood. In the first transportation, Anna Rogalevich, the mother of the future artist, was allowed to go with her son. There he became seriously ill, but by some miracle she was able to return home with him. In 1937 — a new arrest, the son ended up in an orphanage. He escaped, wandered for a long time, but by the end of the war he managed to get to his relatives — the family of his father’s brother, who was shot in the same 1933. Apple trees bloomed pro-

Near the artist's works that do not leave the viewer indifferent

People were not fictional — always real and loved. He made many sketches for each of his paintings. He left to posterity a huge number of graphic works, many t imes more t han p aint ings. “His graphics are another planet,” art critic Tatiana Garanskaya is convinced. — In terms of its level, it is quite possible to compare with the amazing drawings by Vrubel, for example. They are so virtuoso — Rogalevich really was a high-class professional. He went through a colossal creative path, born as an artist in the era of “severe style”. Although in his early works we see the bright features of expressionism: all feelings are naked, the colors are dramatic, saturated. He painted his wife as often as Modigliani painted his muse Jeanne Hébuterne, only the hands on all the female portraits by Rogalevich are different: inelegant, overworked. Sometimes he associated himself with Van Gogh — his road to art and recognition was just as long. Family for Rogalevich was an absolute value. The real beginning of the life of the red-haired boy was completely different than on most of the canvases that he painted. The reason why his father was sentenced to death, and his mother — to exile to Siberia, remained a secret for Mikhail — he himself was not even a year old then. Both were from old noble families, but all that was left to their son was

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a few photographs and a towel embroidered with horses. Years later, he more than once introduced this towel into the space of his light works. After the parents were acquitted, they were compensated for the cost of the house that had been taken from them in the 1930s. With this money, Rogalevich built a cooperative apartment, moved into it with his family from the barracks and got his first studio — right at home. However, after a few years, his daughter Lyudmila Protskevich recalled, he was ready to give up everything: — Art did not feed my father’s family, and in 1978 we planned to move to Sakhalin for work. Almost everything was ready — the apartment was rented out, the containers were collected. Suddenly, almost on the doorstep, he received a letter with a proposal to join the Union of Artists. All things were immediately unpacked. We never left anywhere. Joining the Union of Artists was more important than any money. He himself was satisfied with everything and with the absence of everything. Fanatical artists, as a rule, are unpretentious people, and Mikhail Rogalevich was definitely one of them. Even when he could afford some things, he preferred to pour the soup into the same aluminum bowl. All his life. Rather, it wasn’t just a fad, though. Mikhail painted cold stones and stormy Siberian rivers in his early landscapes from nature. Working on the railroad, he used

fusely in their garden then… Before the art school, Mikhail Rogalevich managed to acquire more than one profession. He worked in a foundry, as an excavator, a rail-layer. He met his beautiful wife not in a romantic setting, but at a construction site, where both worked. His muse was very earthly, very reliable. With her, Mikhail got what was most important to him: family and the opportunity to become an artist. This muse took over the whole life. Her portraits and other paintings by Rogalevich began to appear at all

PERSONALITY IN ART exhibitions. True, he did not wait for titles, and a full-fledged workshop did not appear immediately. However, Tatyana Garanskaya had a place to bring the students to introduce them to the artist, whose work literally discouraged with its diversity: — Mikhail Rogalevich spent most of his creative life at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences, where he worked in such a funny position as a graphic designer. But thanks to this, he had at his disposal almost an entire floor, where

group and personal exhibitions of the artist, some were acquired by museums. The peculiarity of those works is that they reveal the artist’s view of scientific workers as people, on the one hand, ordinary people, and on the other, often defenseless in front of life and its everyday problems. The artist endowed each of his heroes with archaic earthly beauty, which has nothing to do with secular representations, but is associated with the physical and spiritual originality of the prototypes of the paintings. Through capacious artistic images, the creator identified people who were close and dear to his heart and himself with images of nature, which he painted a lot and soulfully. Mikhail Rogalevich also painted the image of a hardworking woman subtly and sincerely, as an important accent of his own art. On such works as “Belorusochka”, “Present”, this image appears self-sufficient, detached from thematic cycles. On others, it permeates the family cycle of work and carries a cosmic feeling of respect and admiration for the dignity of women workers (“Mistress”, “Evening”, “Morning”, “They’ll go to reap”). This becomes obvious when you look through the legacy of the artist’s graphic works, where a series of drawings made on the themes “the one that sews”, “the

one that knits”, “the one that washes”, “the one that cooks”, “the one that reaps” and the like… Each of them is an example of a virtuoso drawing, a clearly expressed nature, a strong energy of strokes and tonal spots. Based on this, you understand that paintings are only the visible part of the iceberg of Mikhail Rogalevich’s colossal creative potential. The artist admires the figure, movements, harmony of a woman in her eternal pursuits and deeds. In some paintings, the artist raises a woman to monumental grandeur, in others — gives her the figurative characteristics of the goddesses of ancient mythology, who “spun the threads of life” or “solemnly sorted out the beads of time.” It is those works where the artist guessed and clearly, symbolically showed the viewer something intimate, deeply hidden in a woman, but truly worthy of glorification, are Rogalevich’s noticeable creative heritage. The image of a hard worker, a keeper of family warmth dominated Rogalevich’s paintings for a long period. But gradually the artist gives preference to a woman as a symbol of splendor, her unearthly creation. The process of idealizing the image of a woman unfolded throughout the entire creative path of Mikhail Rogalevich. That is

An apple tree in the spring is M. Rogalevich's favorite character for many paintings

there was a study-studio, a warehouse for his paintings, and a grateful audience. There Rogalevich created a whole gallery of portraits of representatives of Belarusian science of his time, and in the hall of the institute his works were constantly exhibited, which he changed all the time. He just didn’t sell his works, he never looked for profit from his work. Mikhail Rogalevich painted portraits of both ordinary scientific workers and famous professors and academicians. Many of these works were exhibited at republican

M. Rogalevich. About time and about myself

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

PERSONALITY IN ART why it seems to many that the artist painted the same model, and in this he is consonant with Botticelli or Modigliani. Indeed, there were few prototypes of his female portraits — his wife, daughter and mother. However, there was another synthesized, deduced as a formula, image — Muse. The most idealized female images are Anna in the painting Anton and Anna, in the plot about lovers in the “Tree of Life”, to a certain extent in “What a wonderful world”, where the artist poeticized the image of a girl that does not even run, but soars above the ground with a flower in her hand. Finally, the ascension itself took place in the plot of the painting “Birthday”. But the defining division between the real, life image of a woman or girl and giving it an unearthly, cosmic significance occurred at the stage of the artist’s creative comprehension of the image of a mother who died in Stalin’s camps during Mikhail’s childhood. He repeatedly, like an icon, painted her

portrait, peering into a small, miraculously survived passport photograph, on which a young woman with beautiful curly hair, Anna Rogalevich-Alenskaya, was captured. This is how a series of portraits “My mother” appeared, later — the paintings “Mother in a distant land” and “Memories”, imbued with high drama. In the painting “Memories” a vivid metaphor appears, which later did not disappear from a number of dominant archipelagos in Rogalevich’s art — a bush of crimson-red roses. The artist associated the image of this flower with sharp thorns with unbearable pain and his memory, as well as with the memory of an entire people about the bitterness of many losses during the wars in every Belarusian family. Quiet, modest, even shy — this is how many remember Mikhail Rogalevich. However he persistently refused collectors. When he fell ill, his wife was scared. Not for the fate of his very impressive collection

Minsk gallerist Alexander Ivanov is a great admirer of the work of Mikhail Rogalevich

БЕЛАРУСЬ. BELARUS 2021

of paintings, which it was not clear where to put, but for him He hardly understood what was happening around him, and she still hoped to cure him. She sold paintings without bargaining. No one — not the children, not her husband’s friends — dared to argue with her. “About time and about myself ” — so he called one of his later works. Two trees on a cliff, tightly bound by branches. Equally defenseless under the pressure of the wind, although only one has bare roots. His wife did not survive him for long. However, the paintings turned out to be stronger than time. As well as the image of an apple tree, which, without exaggeration, became not only the starting point of Mikhail Rogalevich’s work, but also his original brand. The artist painted dozens of works with blooming gardens and panoramas of spring. Painting apple trees in bloom, he was looking for his own soul in the renewal of nature. For him, it was an opportunity for spiritual relaxation, since he himself lived a difficult and in many senses tragic life. Yes, Mikhail Rogalevich often conceived a picture as a metaphor for a person who, like that tree, has to be in constant fluctuations between earth and sky, between existence and life. The artist believed that in order to live, not exist, and wait for a clear sky, you need to look for support, primarily spiritual. Since Rogalevich’s art is basically autobiographical, the title of one of the main works of the artist — “About time and about myself ” goes well with it. A drama unfolds on the bank of the river: one of the two trees that has moved away from the common heap of their own kind finds itself on the edge of a cliff and is about to fall into the seething stream of the river, the roots and trunk are already hanging in space. But it is securely supported by the steep branches of a neighboring tree. They, as if embracing, are strongly intertwined, and it seems that the terrible clouds of a thunderstorm are beginning to disperse, and between them the long-awaited breakthrough of the clear sky appears and sparkles… By Veniamin Mikheev. Photo by Author.

M. Rogalevich. Girl and sunflower. 2000 year

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In the capital - guests from the region

What does green smell like?

Artwork as a confidential conversation with the viewer

Archeology is an indisputable thing

Where did the ghost come from in the town hall

Such an attractive, mysterious world

Join memory return

Big life of a small town

When the approach is highly professional

Living and working in a new way

New horizons of opportunities

For the sake of peace and kindness