What are we, Belarusians, interested in and what are we proud of?



On December 2 in hotel “Minsk” a presentation of a social survey “What are we proud of: historical memory, national heroes and brands through the eyes of modern Belarusians” took place. It was organized by the campaign “Budzma Belarusami!”. After main reports made by the director of Belarusian institute of strategic researches (Vilnius) Vital Silitsky and the representative of Axiometric laboratory “NovaK” Nadzeya Yafimava a heated discussion took place.

In the introductory speech the coordinator of company of the research – a nationwide cultural program “Budzma Belarusami!” Ihar Lialkou noted: “Today we will present the results of a social survey the main topic of which is a national identity of a modern Belarusian, his or her historical memory, national brands and celebrities. Whom Belarusians respect form the past and from the present, and whom do they want to be like”. According to Vital Silitsky “first presentation was built on the language situation in the country and now we’ve tried to realize how the consciousness of Belarusians does conceptualize, what are the contents of symbols, values and ideals. What is Belarusian national art product like, how do Belarusians spend their free time”. The researchers explored 51,8% interviewers consider themselves Belarusians as representatives of a separate nation, but 41,9% think that they are the part of a triune Slavonic nation: Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians. The origin of Belarusian nationhood for the most of interviewers (38,1%) is the Great Duchy of Lithuania; Polatsk Duchy and Turau Duchy take 17,7%, and BSSR – 12,4%. It goes much beyond “Republic of Belarus” (9,2%) and “BNR” (5%). 56% of respondents consider July 3 to be the main national holiday, for 21,8% of respondents it’s May 9. Very little people noted that New year (4,5%) and March 25 (1,2%) is the main holiday in the country. As for national symbols, 72,6% spoke for red-green flag and RB arms, 7,7% - for white-red-white flag and “Pahonia” arms and “both in equal measure” – 11,2%. 8,2% of the respondents don’t know national symbols at all. Those who “is brought on Belarusian culture and consider it to be his or her own” is supposed to be considered Belarusians in first place – answered 41,3% of the respondents, those “whose parents are Belarusians” – 34,1%, those who love Belarus – 33,9%. And this goes much beyond the answer “those who have Belarusian citizenship (11,5%). 17,7% of Belarusians called Mir Castle and 9,5% called Brest Fortress architectural symbols of Belarus; only 5,7% recalled National Library. The best work by the majority of the interviewers is considered to be “Ludzi Na Balotse” by Ivan Melezh. But the best writers are Yakub Kolas (28,2%) and Yanka Kupala (26,7%). Paplauskaya (8%) was in advance of Tsikhanovich (7,9%) and Darafeeva (7,6%) as the best modern performing artist. Meanwhile 34,6% are completely not interested in Belarusian stage and couldn’t name any Belarusian modern artists. The leaders of not knowing Belarusian stage appeared to be Minsk and Homel. The best band is “Pesniary” who took 39,8%. Meanwhile such a well-known band “Liapis Trubetskoy” took only 3,9%. The most popular historical figures became Francysk Skaryna (24,9%), Piotr Masherau (12,7%), Kastus Kalinousky (7,1%) and Eufrasinnia Polatskaya (4,1%). 6% know about the campaign “Budzma Belarusami!” and this shows a serious popularity which the campaign gained in a year without a possibility to get on television. Ihar Lialkou joked: “We were in advance of Eufrasinnia Polatskaya and now we’ll work to catch up with “Siabry”. The conclusions of the survey are: In a modern Belarusian society there a “desovietization” of a historical world outlook happened. It can be called a “transitional vacuum” – this means leaving old soviet symbols, heroes and ideas, but not forming of new ones. Accepting pre-soviet past of GDL (the main successful brand of the last 20 years) as a historical paradigm isn’t filled with content. The most stable “common” brands are still brands which were formed in soviet times. – The importance of a stable informational “bootstrap” of brands (for example Skaryna and Masherau – avenues and people). – The great amount of people (almost half) is not able to a thoughtful symbolic identification of Belarusian world. – The success of Lukashenka’s rebranding of Belarus on the level of symbols but not content. As for singers: - In spite of the 75% share on television and radio for modern Belarusian singers, the four from the list of favorite Belarusian singers are the singers from the soviet times. Almost 40% of respondents don’t have any favorite Belarusian singer! – Low rating of modern stage artists “stars”. The status of Belarusian speaking alternative is marginal. Among bands there is domination of soviet brands. – Visible presence of Belarusian speaking alternative. Significantly smaller part of the interviewers doesn’t have any favorite Belarusian band comparing to separate singers. Taking part in the discussion Uladzimir Matskievich voiced a doubt about the practicability of this research, because, as the expert noted “this work didn’t give any new information”. The other participants of the discussion stressed that the given research is very important because it will help to improve tactics and strategy of the organizer of the research the campaign “Budzma Belarusami!”. As the observer of the newspaper “Belarusians and market” Vadzim Aleksandrovich correctly summarized, the situation in the country from the point of view of self-identification as people and nation can change only when “Belarusians stop being shy be calling themselves Belarusians”.
Gennadz Lohinau