Abramchik and Ostrovsky: the struggle for leadership among the Belarusian post-war emigration

The post-war Belarusian emigration, both in Europe and in the United States, was divided into two main groups: the supporters of the President of the Belarusian Central Rada R. K. Ostrowski (Astrouski) and the Chairman of the BNR Rada N. S. Abramchyk. The declassified CIA documents indicate that this was not just a rivalry for the right to speak and act on behalf of the entire Belarusian emigration, but also to receive substantial dividends from close cooperation with the American intelligence agency in the implementation of plans to destabilize the situation in Belarus through the preparation of various kinds of espionage and subversive operations, up to the direct delivery of agents to the territory of the BSSR in the 1950s, as well as in information and propaganda work against the Soviet Belarus. This confrontation took various forms: from accusations of direct collaboration with the Nazis during the war (Ostrowski) to the self-appointment as the head of the Belarusian Folk Republic (Abramchyk). The visions of the future of free Belarus and its foreign policy between these actors differed, as well as the means and methods of struggle for the liberation of the Belarusian people from the communist system. At the same time, both Abramchyk and Ostrowski understood well that in order to strengthen their positions among the Belarusian emigration, close relations with those who built and financed the anti-Soviet policy of the West during the Cold War were important. First of all, it was about the American intelligent services. And here Abramchyk won an obvious victory, and Ostrowski’s main former comrades-in-arms were soon going to move to his camp.

Czech language and the traditional culture in the multiethnic environment (results of the field research of 2019 in Serbia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

The article provides an overview of a field study conducted among Czechs in Serbia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019. The first results are presented, samples of transcribed texts are given. The purpose of the expedition was to collect narratives for the proper linguistic study of contact elements, conversations were conducted, among other things, about the history of the resettlement of Czechs to the Balkans, about folk culture, and interaction with other Slavic and non-Slavic ethnic groups. In the three regions studied, the Czech language remains unevenly due to a number of linguistic and extralinguistic factors. There are very few Czechs left in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Czech is the mother tongue only for elder people living in rural areas. In Serbia, there are several schools where Czech language and culture are taught, and in Romania there are schools where in the primary grades all subjects are taught in Czech. The collected language data is a valuable source for studying local Czech dialects and contact phenomena (borrowings, code-switching). The metalinguistic comments used by informants when they have difficulties in their Czech language during a conversation with a researcher are of particular interest to sociolinguistics.

“The naturalized son of Belarus”: The Mystery of Dr. Dittmann

The article examines the biography of Valentin Dittmann, a lawyer and politician of Baltic-German origin, who became a counselor of the Diplomatic Mission of the Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR) in Berlin. The German-language brochure “Weissruthenien” was published with Dittmann’s active involvement and was considered as the main source of information about this region in Germany for a long time. In a broader context, through the prism of Dittmann’s life and activities, the transformation of the system of ideas and motivations of former Imperial elites after the 1917 revolution became the subject of research. The desire to preserve and improve their social status during the political instability has significantly expanded the boundaries of imaginary. In particular, the elite representatives previously loyal to the throne could drastically change their views on the very idea of a “strong state”. From now on their position ranged from federalism to cooperation with those who were previously considered as “separatists”. On the example of Dittmann, we can follow the peculiar experience of the “homo impericus”, who strove to combine the elitist consciousness inherited from his ancestors with national democratic political views and local (Belo) russian patriotism.

The transculturality in the artwork of Josip Osti

Josip Osti (1945–2021) was a poet, a novelist, an essayist, a literary critic, a translator and an editor. He also wrote over twenty poetry collections. Born in Sarajevo, since 1990 he lived and worked in Slovenia. After he became a recognized poet in his homeland and one of the most important translators of Slovenian literature into Serbo-Croatian, since 1997 he began to write in Slovenian. Soon after, he receives most prestigious awards in Slovenia. The transcultural aspects of Josip Osti’s literary works, both poetry collections and novels, are in the scope of our attention. The author not only lyrically reflects on his transition from one language to another, what this process was like, what influenced him and found its expression in memorable artistic images, but also assesses his literary bilingualism in his prose texts and interviews. Our analysis of his poetry, especially taking into analysis his haikus, makes it possible to understand the peculiarities of Osti’s poetic work in a non-native language, that is, Slovenian. Another important component of the transculturality of Osti’s work is his comprehension of the spaces of Bosnia and Slovenia and of their unique interconnection.

F. A. Malyavinʼs panting in Czech collections

The review deals with a scientific catalog of works by the Russian artist, a native of the peasant family, of Filipp Andreevich Malyavin, published in Prague, which are kept in state and private collections in the Czech Republic. In addition to the actual catalog of works, the book includes scientific articles, reference materials, indexes, bibliography. The book is richly illustrated. The articles explain the reasons for finding a large number of Malyavinʼs works in the Czech Republic, analyze the phenomenon of Russian post-war and post-revolutionary immigration, reveal the details of the life and creative path of the artist, his connections with Czechoslovakia.

The fate of one university in the context of changing borders in Central Europe (Kolozsvár — Cluj — Szeged)

An example of how epoch-making historical events in Central Europe affected the fate of an elite educational institution is the history of the second Hungarian university, founded in 1872 in the main city of Transylvania, Kolozsvár. This university was forced to leave Transylvania as a result of its reunification with the Kingdom of Romania in December 1918 following the First World War. Romanian professors from the “Old Kingdom” entered the university buildings built in the era of Austro-Hungarian dualism, located in the same city that changed its name from Kolozsvár, to Cluj. They were tasked by the new authorities to facilitate the integration of the region into Romania. The Hungarian University moves within the new borders of Hungary, to the city of Szeged. The creating of this powerful center of elite Hungarian culture became one of the essential directions of the cultural policy of the conservative regime. Its representatives saw the transformation of Hungary into a bastion of high European culture on the threshold of the Balkans as one of the ways to compensate for the enormous national infringement that the Trianon Peace Treaty of 1920 was for millions of Hungarians. The resettlement to Szeged, however, by no means put an end to the history of the Hungarian University of Transylvania. After the second Vienna arbitration for the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary (August 1940), the Hungarian university in Cluj was restored, and the Romanian one moved within the narrowed borders of Romania. In the post-war Romania, under the left-wing authorities, and later the communist regime, which was not interested in aggravating the Hungarian-Romanian contradictions, both Romanian and Hungarian universities functioned in Cluj for a decade and a half, until in 1959, amid the rise of Romanian nationalism, an independent Hungarian university was closed.

An unknown letter of the Suceava Metropolitan Dositheus on the dissolution of the marriage of the hetman of the right-bank Cossacks Stefan Kunitsky (1683)

This is a publication of the letter of the Suceava Metropolitan Dositheus, apparently written in November, 1683. It was adressed to the leader of the Right-Bank Cossacks, Stefan Kunitsky. After being appointed hetman of the Cossacks by the Polish king Jan III Sobieski, he organized an invasion of Moldavia and a raid on the territory of the Budzhak horde in the autumn or winter of 1683. In the letter, Dositheus gave his permission to Kunitsky to divorce his wife, Elena, who was much older than him, and, accordingly, allowed a second marriage. Elena was the widow of G. Lesnitsky, an influential Cossack foreman of the 1650–1660s, and the marriage with her undoubtedly helped Kunitsky in raising his social status: he was part of the entourage of the Right-Bank hetman P. D. Doroshenko, later became a Cossack colonel under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and finally managed to get the hetman title from the Polish king. The published document is a unique source that characterizes not only the political aspect of the Cossack-Moldovan relations in 1683, but also sheds light on the little-studied problem of career strategies and personal interests of individual representatives of the Ukrainian Cossacks in the era of Ruina (1660–1680s), for the implementation of which they used their military and political successes.

Modern Semantic Study of the Serbian Language

This critical review examines the new book by Serbian linguist R. Dragićević. In the book varios questions of grammatical, derivational and lexical organisation of Serbian lanaguge are subject of study based on theoretical and methodological guidelines of “fuzzy” linguistics.

The Slovak “Narcissus” with Croatian roots. Rudolf Sloboda, a writer

Rudolf Sloboda is one of the brightest and most distinctive writers of the generation of the Slovak “sixties”. He was born and lived most of his life in the village of Devinska Nova Ves near Bratislava with a predominantly Croatian population. Sloboda is the author of dozens of works, including novels, stories, short stories, essays, poems, plays, film scripts. In his work, he was based on the original “egocentric” vision of reality and the confessional-monologue type of narration. The themes of his largely autobiographical prose and drama were complex, often painful relationships between people, crisis states of the personality — everything he faced in his own life. The main space of Sloboda’s books is his native village, with its constants and inevitable transformation. The novels of the writer, first of all — “The Narcissus” (1965), “The Reason” (1982) and “The Blood” (1991), reflect the most important stages in the life and mental wavering of the author and his hero: the early youth marked by entering into an unknown social environment and his first erotic experiences; the maturity with family problems and setbacks, psychological crisis; approaching the old age with the extinction of feelings and desires, that lead to inner emptiness. The universal sound of “private” statements about the existential problems of a person, the artistic persuasiveness, originality and recognizability of his style — all this makes the works of Rudolf Sloboda a part of the Gold Reserve of the modern Slovak literature.

On the question of the language aspect of the school reform of 1958: Ukrainian and All-Union realities

The article analyzes the linguistic aspects of the “Khrushchev” school reform of 1958, as well as the reasons and goals of language transformations, which are little studied in the modern historiography. Compared to the interwar period, the situation has changed. In the 1920s, the policy of korenization was carried out in the conditions of the “capitalist environment” and demonstrated an “exemplary solution” to the national question. In 1958, Poland was no longer one of the main enemies, the need for a “showcase” had disappeared, the agents of Stalin’s national policy had left the political scene. The language component of the school reform made it easier for representatives of national republics to get education in central universities and to advance their career. But the language of the so-called titular nation was not completely excluded from the education system, the communication space, and the humanities. It can be argued that there were opponents of the reform (especially among the humanitarian intelligentsia) and supporters of the reform, who took advantage of the new opportunities. The course proposed by the school reform of 1958 was a kind of method of Sovietization and integration while preserving / recognizing the national diversity of the country’s population.