The Belarusian language, Yulia Bukchtanovich speaks of it with sparkling eyes. It is her very own way of fighting against the dictatorship, even in exile. The young woman with long blond hair, originally from Maladetchna, a town northwest of Minsk, found refuge in Poland almost a year ago. Over there, in Belarus, the fierce repression has pushed tens of thousands of opponents like her to flee abroad in two years.
August 9, 2020 marked the start of an unprecedented uprising in the former Soviet republic, born in the wake of the fraudulent re-election of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994. This former director of a Soviet collective farm, who became a despot, has since subdued the protest with arbitrary arrests, torture and bogus trials. So much so that the number of political prisoners now stands at more than 1,300, according to the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna. The forces of order at the boot of the “last dictator in Europe” reign supreme in the streets of the country, and civil society has been locked down. For lack of being able to demonstrate, the revolution now takes an underground form for the few opponents who have remained in the country.
But exiled dissidence did not put an end to its struggles either. That of Yulia Boukchtanovich is on the linguistic front. Faced with the Minsk regime, the use of Belarusian, a Slavic language close to Polish and Ukrainian, constitutes for her “a gesture of resistance”. “Leaving my country, I left behind my house, my friends, my family. But not the language. And it is this which will allow Belarus to differentiate itself from Russia, which will prevent it from disappearing. »
Twice a week, in Warsaw, she offers voluntary Belarusian language and culture lessons for young people. The framework is that of the Mova Nanova language school, which had around twenty branches across Belarus until its forced closure in the country in the summer of 2021. It is now abroad, especially since Poland and neighboring Lithuania, centers of the Belarusian exodus, that these courses continue.
On this late afternoon in July, the cheerful voice of Yulia Boukchtanovitch resounds in the hall of the Belarusian youth center, in the heart of the Polish capital. On the walls and windows of this former branch of a Warsaw bank, converted into a local association, are spread out white and red, colors that have become the emblem of the opposition to Alexander Lukashenko. Monday’s lesson, enlivened by nursery rhymes and coloring activities, is about to begin. In front of Yulia, and in the middle of pencils and drawings, we find Ian, Arseni, Dasha… A dozen little Belarusians, aged four to ten years old and who have arrived in Poland in the last two years.
De facto bilingualism, but a façade
The Belarusian House, another organization emanating from dissidents in Warsaw, also takes part in this effort of “Belarussification” by multiplying presentations of books, conferences, or dictations in Belarusian. It was in adolescence that Ales Zarembiuk, its 40-year-old founder, developed his flame of identity, first by reading books on the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the territorial ancestor of Belarus. But like many of his Russian-speaking compatriots eager to reconnect with their roots, the transition from Russian to Belarusian proved arduous. “Speaking Belarusian with people of my age required tenacity, I was one of the only ones to speak it”, says this activist hunted down by the regime, who won Poland at the end of 2010. “After he came to power, the dictator [Loukachenko] changed all school curricula. When I was in high school, Belarusian language lessons went from 4 hours to 45 minutes. »
Belarusian is certainly enshrined in the country’s Constitution as an official language, in the same way as Russian. But this is only a facade of bilingualism since Russian dominates in the administration, the public media or at school. After two centuries of tsarist and then Soviet domination, Russification has done its work. And continues willingly under the rule of Alexander Lukashenko, in power without interruption for more than 28 years. Considered by some to be the prerogative of the political opposition or by others as the language of peasants, the idiom is only used on a daily basis by a minority: less than 10%, according to a study published in March 2021 by the Center for East European and International Studies, a Berlin-based think tank. UNESCO even describes it as a “vulnerable language”.
A language to reclaim
But the language of Kastous Kalinowski — writer of the XIXe century and hero of the national rebirth – seems to be gradually regaining its letters of nobility. The wave of demonstrations in the summer of 2020 “led to an awakening of Belarusian consciousness not only nationally, but also linguistically,” said Radoslaw Kaleta, director of the Department of Belarusian Studies at the University of Warsaw. Although difficult to quantify, the “growing interest” of Belarusians for their language seems to him undeniable. And Poland paradoxically offers its speakers a more fertile ecosystem than in Belarus.
Many organizations promoting culture have been liquidated in the country, and anyone who ventures to speak Belarusian in public risks arbitrary arrest which can end up behind bars. Because for Lukashenko, homo sovieticus modern times, “the emergence of the Belarusian language and culture represents a danger, it is equivalent to the liberation of minds”, argues Alesia Karolik, a teacher member of Mova Nanova in Warsaw. The use of this Slavic language, like French for many Quebecers, is part of its identity. “It’s not just a way of expressing yourself. There is something sacred about trying to keep a language alive knowing that it may eventually disappear. »
Mikita Melkaziorau, 33-year-old YouTuber, has also chosen to abandon Russian in favor of Belarusian. Well-trimmed beard and tattoos on his arms, the 30-year-old has been perfecting his linguistic transformation for a few months, which began shortly before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The Russian-speaking audience is certainly more buoyant, he agrees, “but as an influencer, I have to lead by example. It is a passive language, which is understood by many Belarusians, but not necessarily used. Internet users now write to me in Belarusian”, rejoices this Warsaw adopted, before adding that “for Putin, everything that relates to the ‘near abroad’ is Russian. Speaking the language is part of our revolution”.
The language issue had not challenged Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa, the face of the Belarusian opposition either, before 2020. Today, the 30-year-old says “try to speak in Belarusian to [ses] children as often as possible. “It’s not always easy, when you’ve been speaking mostly Russian for 40 years,” she admits in an interview with the To have to in June from its HQ in Vilnius, Lithuania. His team also took the step to “80%”. In the event of a democratic Belarus, “reclaiming our Belarusian culture will be essential”, explains this former English teacher, “even if it will take a few generations before we start speaking Belarusian”.
To the east of Poland, it is in Podlachia that the home of the country’s historic Belarusian minority is located, some 50,000 strong. Belarusian has the status of “national minority language” there, and is transmitted from generation to generation, sometimes in different dialects. Radio Racja, a local radio station, broadcasts current affairs and cultural programs there, and the language is taught in several high schools.
But this regional anchoring is at half mast, regrets Alina Vaŭraniuk, who campaigns for the preservation of indigenous Belarusian traditions and culture in the region. In the primary school where she teaches, in Białystok, “no pupil registered [dans son cours de langue] for the new school year,” she laments. A fatality linked to demographic decline and the expansion of the Polish language within this community? Źmicier Kościn, a Belarusian journalist for the regional branch of Polish public radio, foresees another scenario: “Maybe with all these Belarusians who have arrived recently, it will contribute to the renewal of the language here too…”