TOP-12 words for understanding the culture of Belarusians

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Why is taking off your shoes when climbing onto benches at a protest is not a pamyarkoўnast, but a good thing? Who is driving the bus - Russian vadzitsel or Polish kiroўtsa? What do Belarusians wear - T-shirts, prints or sakolki? How did squirrels change hares and which potato pancakes are correct? We fondly talk about the culture of Belarus.

It is rather difficult to answer the question of what is Belarusian culture. Are these references to the glorious past of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania "hell and morass" or Soviet ideas about the country of partisans, storks and flax?

Is it everyday everyday culture with disputes about condensed milk and pancakes or the high culture of a nationally oriented intelligentsia with arguments about the goodness and quality of the people?

Are these memes and quotes that are understandable only to Belarusians, or stereotypes about Belarus that are widespread outside its borders - potatoes, clean streets, Lukashenka?

Is it possible to find words that would equally well answer the question of Belarusian culture to both Russians and French, or should the choice of words for Russians be different? Finally, if modern life in Belarus is almost completely Russian-speaking, what language should these words be from - from Russian, Belarusian, or maybe from Trasyanka?

It seems that the correct answer is just a little bit.

1. Tuteishy

Near the church. Painting by Ferdinand Ruszczyc. 1899 yearNational Mastats Museum of the Republic of Belarus

In Belarusian, “here” is here, therefore “local” is a tutish. It was difficult for ordinary people who lived on the territory of Belarus until the Soviet era with their national self-identification. In 1903, ethnographer Yevfimiy Karsky wrote: “At present, the common people in Belarus do not know this name [Belarusian].

To the question: who are you? the commoner answers - Russian, and if he is a Catholic, he calls himself a Catholic or a Pole; sometimes he will call his homeland Lithuania, and sometimes he will simply say that he is "hereish" - the local, of course, opposing himself to a person who speaks Great Russian, as if he were a newcomer to the western region."

So, for example, one of the main Belarusian poems begins - "Who are you getki" ("Who are you") by Yanka Kupala, written in 1908 and became the song of "Lyapis Trubetskoy" in 2013:

Who are you?

- Own, tutishy.

The story was about the same with the language: during the census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897, people shrugged their shoulders and answered: "We speak in simple terms."

Undoubtedly, the identification of oneself as “local”, and one's own language as “ours” or “simple”, has been and is found among a wide variety of peoples. However, among the Belarusians, the idea of tutayshastsi acquired the status of a symbol, having gone from critically evaluated parochialism to national national pride, and for more than a century it has remained a topic of controversy: both in 1906 the article “Our“tutayshasts”could have been published”, and in 2010 - "Belarusians:" tutishyya "or a nation?"

In 1922, the same Yanka Kupala wrote the tragicomedy Tuteishyya. The main character of this play does not care whether he lives under the Polish, German, Tsarist or Soviet rule, whether he is Belarusian or not - there would be food and clothing.

Among the characters there are also two scientists - East and West, proving the belonging of Belarus, respectively, to Russia or Poland. Tuteyshast here is unprincipled, submissive readiness to adapt to any power and betray the ideals of the people. The play, by the way, was banned until the 80s.

And 65 years later, with the beginning of the so-called Second Belarusian Renaissance, which largely repeated the processes of the First Renaissance - national building at the beginning of the century (see. Svyadomy), tutayshas changed connotations and became almost synonymous with Belarusian self-identification.

"Tuteishyya" is a literary society of 1986, which united Belarusian writers who have now become modern classics. “I am naradzinsya here” (“I was born here”) is a legendary joint album of Belarusian performers in 2000, called by critics “a historical event not just for the Belarusian song culture, but for the country in general”. TUT.by is the main Belarusian news portal.

“Tuteishyya” is a bar that opened in 2014 (and closed in the same year), which was the first to try “to make the national interior not from straw, spinning wheels and clay jugs, but from the urban culture of the early 20th century”. And there are many similar examples.

2. Spadar

Portrait of an unknown. Painting by Kondraty Korsalin. 1840sNational Mastats Museum of the Republic of Belarus

A polite Belarusian address (the female form is spadarynya, to a group of people - spadarstva). The word spadar itself arose as a result of the gradual simplification of the word gaspadar ("lord, master") - similar to the Russian sovereign from the sovereign.

Linguists have different opinions about the history of this word: its first use in texts is recorded at the end of the Middle Ages, but it was precisely as an address that it began to be used, probably only during the German occupation of Belarus - however, apparently, not very widely …

Over time, the collaborationist stain on the reputation of this word was erased, and with the dissolution of Soviet ideology, the Spadars returned to the Belarusian language to replace the departed Tavaryshes ("comrades") and Gramadzyans ("citizens"), while in Russian their place remained empty.

Unlike most appeals in other European languages, spadar can be used both with the surname (spadar Yankoўski) and - even more often - with the name (spadar Yagor); and in the third person - with both (spadarynya Nina Baginskaya).

3. Pamyarkoўnasts

In the dungeon. Painting by Nikodim Silivanovich. 1874 yearBelgazprombank corporate collection

It is a hard-to-translate word denoting, as is commonly believed, one of the main characteristics of Belarusians. Dictionaries offer “agreeableness”, “accommodatingness”, “modesty”, “compliance”, “benevolence”, “moderation” as translational equivalents, but this is not the same: "," Obedience "or an obscene analogue of the word" uncooperative ". But pamyarkoўnasts is best illustrated by two main internal anecdotes:

1. Scientists decided to conduct an experiment. They put a stool in a dark room with a carnation sticking out of it. The Russian sits down. He jumps up, swears, smashes the bench to pieces. The Ukrainian sits down. Jumps up, takes out a carnation, puts it in his pocket: "It will come in handy on the farm." The Belarusian sits down. Oykaet, fidget, then thoughtfully says: "And can you, so і treba?"

2. Hang a German, Russian and Belarusian. The German died immediately, the Russian twitched for a long time, but he also died. And the Belarusian hangs to himself and hangs alive. They ask him, they say, how did you survive? The Belarusian replies: "At first it squeezed so hard, and then nothing, got used to it."

When in 2010 the journalist Irina Chernyavko announced a competition for the best idea of a symbol of Belarus for a magnet made of polymer clay, potato pancakes, storks, paddy wagons and others lost by a wide margin to a chair with a carnation.

Belarusians love to be ironic about their pamyarkoўnastsyu. In the humorous news public "Partziya pamyarkoўnyh tsentrystak" (PPTs), which is conducted on trasyanka (see. Zhestachaishe), the prize "Pamyarkoўnasts of the Year" is awarded.

One of the rare catch phrases in the Belarusian language - agul mlyavast і abyakavast da zhytsya ("general lethargy and indifference to life"), borrowed from the television advertising for emergency psychological assistance in the late 90s, fits well into the context of memory (and at the same time sounds great), in the parody "Porrie Gatter.

Nine exploits of Sen Asli "by Belarusian writers Andrei Zhvalevsky and Igor Mytko," a rare foreign calming spell Useagulnaya-mlyavast-i-abyakavast-dazhytsya "is encountered.

Life principles are also a manifestation of pamyarkoўnasts. The last one - alongside

there really was no vine - it is very important for Belarusians, especially the older generation, as part of the concept of stability (it is not for nothing that even the country itself is often ironically called the Island of Stability, quoting Lukashenka).

During the protests of August 2020, Belarusians had many surprised posts on social networks that pamyarkoўnasts, it turns out, has its limits.

4. Shchyry

A soldier with a boy. Painting by Nikodim Silivanovich. 1866 yearNational Mastats Museum of the Republic of Belarus

In contrast to pamyarkoўnasts, which is rather perceived as a negative property, shchyrasts is the main positive quality of Belarusians, and under one word there is a whole set of advantages. Shchyry is “sincere”, “direct” and “open”, but at the same time it is also “cordial” and “hospitable”.

A faithful friend is shchyry, an inveterate lover of something is shchyry, sincere, frank conversations are shchyryya, genuine surprise is also shchyrae. If a person is very grateful, he is not just dzyakue, but shchyra dzyakue, if he works diligently and conscientiously, then it means that shchyra does it.

Even a forest consisting of the same tree species and gold without admixtures will be shchyrym. Sometimes, however, shchyrs are also “simple-minded” and “gullible”, but this is, in general, also to some extent not bad. In general, shchyry is real in all its manifestations, and shchyras is the possession of such a quality.

Paired with shchyrastsyu usually goes another quality - goodness. Godnasts is not only “to use before”, but also “dignity” and “self-respect”, the bright side of pamyarkoўnasts. You must be fit to bear your cross; if you sing songs in the face of danger, then only fit ones.

Taking off your shoes, climbing onto benches at a protest rally is not pamyarkoўnasts (“it is not allowed to climb into a shoe on a bench”), but a good thing (“it is indecent to climb into a shoe on a bench”). And the final stanza of the above-mentioned poem "Who are you getki" is also about good luck:

What would you want?

- Do not be cattle …

By the way, another meaning of godnasts is “title”: an honorary citizen, people's artist, doctor of sciences, master, archimandrite and any other worthy personalities.

5. Kalykhanka

Dzed Baradzed. Shot from the children's program "Kalyhanka" of the TV channel "Belarus-3"© Belteleradiocompany

The Bible, printed by Francisk Skaryna from Polotsk, the first Belarusian book printer to translate the Bible into the Belarusian version of the Church Slavonic language. Prague, 1517 Wikimedia Commons

Although literally mova means simply “language”, in the Belarusian discourse without specifying adjectives this word is used in relation to the Belarusian language: social posters “ma-ma = mo-va. Love your mom?”, Questions like“How to say “kettle” in mov? (see below), comments under the news - both Russian and Belarusian - from “got our own move” to “yak pryemna chytats navinu on move” (“how nice it is to read the news on move”).

For the Belarusian-speaking intelligentsia, for whom Mova is simply a “language”, such use is annoying (no less than the dismissive Belmova, coming from the school name of the subject), it is associated with colonial thinking: take, they say, a word from the language of the aborigines and designate their language with this word.

And if similar uses like “speak English” at least include the self-name of the language, then for many Belarusian-speaking “Mova” in this sense looks completely insane (“How nice it is to read the news in the language!”) And clearly shows how unnatural the native has become. mova for the Belarusians themselves.

A similar phenomenon is the use of Belarusian words for naming: bath and recreation complex "Laznya", cafe "Kavyarnya", etc.those who speak Belarusian are very reminiscent of Soviet unnamed canteens and baths.

Battles are fought among the speakers of the Belarusian language themselves. The problem is that, in fact, there are two Belarusian languages (therefore, there are the same number of Belarusian “Wikipedias”). The split occurred after the reform of 1933: formally, it was only about spelling, but in fact, the changes affected everything - from grammar to vocabulary.

Therefore, in thematic communities, disputes do not stop about which norm of the Belarusian language should be used: school-official, but spoiled Russification, or pre-reform, but less familiar to ordinary people, as well as about which words can be used, which cannot and what they are in really mean.

The battle of the century: borrowing from Russian or borrowing from Polish, invented neologisms or archaisms returned to use? Garbata is any tea, because tea is Russianism, or is garbata only herbal, and ordinary is just tea in Belarusian? And for its preparation, you need a garbate, a teapot, an embryk or, perhaps, a steamer (and are they divided according to the principle of a kettle for boiling and a kettle for brewing)?

Is the bus operated by a Russian by origin wadzitsel or a Polish kiroўets? Wearing panties or maitki, T-shirts (Russianism, bad!), Tshotki / tyshotki (neologism based on borrowing, bad!) ?).

Write sudzdzya ("judge") and svinnya ("pig") with soft signs (pre-reform spelling - tarashkevitsa; better reflects pronunciation, but the words are more cumbersome) or suddzya and svinnya without them (official spelling is a drug commissar; it is she who is taught at school) ? There are dozens of subjects for such disputes, and there is no end in sight.

7. Zhestachaishe

Alexander Lukashenko is mowing grass on the territory of the official residence of the President of Belarus "Ozerny" in the Ostroshitsky town. 2015 year © Andrey Stasevich / Diomedia

If there were only Belarusian words above, then this is an example of a word in trasyanka: a mixed Russian-Belarusian speech with Belarusian phonetics and mainly Russian grammar and vocabulary.

Trasyanka emerged after the war due to the policy of Russification, as well as urbanization: villagers who spoke Belarusian dialects moved to Russian-speaking cities and tried to speak Russian. Of course, they did not manage to achieve pure Russian and passed on the already mixed speech to their children, who, thus, became natural carriers of Trasyanka.

In Belarusian society, trasyanka is associated with villagers or poorly educated townspeople - factory workers or gopniks from the outskirts. In the 2000s, trasyanka also penetrates into popular satirical culture.

For example, an adult program “Kalyhanka” appears, a parody of the aforementioned children's “Kalykhanka”, which is hosted by Sasha and Sirozha (the latter is the leader of “Lyapis Trubetskoy” Sergei Mikhalok): two simple men discussing topical issues on trasyanka - from wisdom teeth to glamor.

Soon a disc with their songs on trasyanka comes out, the themes and realities are appropriate: the drama in the factory canteen, New Year's with a jar of sprats and a leaky sock, feelings for a neighbor on the porch surrounded by barley and cutlets.

Then the group “Smash the boy's sir” appears - as the name implies, the lyrical heroes here are somewhat different: “I loved the gopar, I loved the kaldyr” (“I fell in love with the gopar, fell in love with the witch”), “The boy in the hand - sio like people” (“One and a half in the hand - everything is like people have”),“Sunset of Roses - my brother and my saceches”(“Pink sunset - my compatriot and brother”).

"Break the boy's sir." "I loved Gapara, I loved Kaldyr"

But the word zhestachaishe itself is not just an abstract trasyanka or a quote from the songs on it, it is Lukashenka.

In fact, he does not speak Trasyanka (his grammar and vocabulary are Russian), but the strong Belarusian accent in his speech could not but become the object of parodies. Zhestachaishe is a word that he often uses, which entered the Belarusian discourse with the meaning of the extreme or maximum degree of anything: the hard fact is one hundred percent, hard metal is very good rock music. Or when something went wrong: zhestachayshy remont (see Dazhynki), zhestachayshy PR.

Among other key words of the era, borrowed from Lukashenka and actively used in everyday speech, are ashchushcheniya (“sensations”; there may be not the tse, but maybe the ashchushchenie of the holiday), hto-ta ўrot (“someone is lying”), nastayashchy ("Real") and perakhivats ("shake up").

Trasyanka (spelled in writing) is often used to parody Lukashenka and some other pro-government people. For example, journalist Ales Piletsky uses this technique in his miniatures from the #daypack series about presidential phone conversations:

- Alexander Grigorievich, hello. Do you hear me?

- Gavars, gavars. Here I am. What happened there?

- Resolution of the European Parliament, Alexander Grigorievich.

- Revaluation in the Europarlamenz? How intseresna.

8. Svyadomy

Participants of opposition protests in Minsk. 2020 year© Sergey Bobylev / TASS / Diomedia

Although literally the word svyadomy is translated as "conscious", now it is more often used in a different meaning. Its history is about the same as that of the Ukrainian word svidomy, better known in Russia: at the beginning of the 20th century, it became an epithet for people with a high level of national self-awareness (in fact, the word svyadomy itself comes from the word svyadomas, "consciousness", which was often used and it is also used in the sense of "self-awareness"; the same root Russian word - knowledgeable).

Such people advocated an independent Belarusian state, for the use of the Belarusian language in life, for the development of Belarusian culture, etc. Probably, the word svyadomy came into active use again in the late 1980s - early 1990s on the wave of anti-communist and often at the same time national -democratic protests, becoming, in fact, in the plural designation of a nationally oriented intelligentsia.

However, after Lukashenko's victory in the presidential elections in the mid-90s, this word acquired negative connotations in the discourse of power: in the speech of Lukashenka and his supporters, almost any opposition began to be contemptuously named, and the presence of this word in a news or analytical article in Russian (but not in Belarusian!) language now unambiguously indicates the quite definite political position of its author. This is such an interesting path of semantic development that this word has passed: from an unambiguously positive meaning in the Belarusian language to an extremely negative connotation in Russian.

The story of the word zmagar ("fighter") is very similar: in the Belarusian language it is used neutrally in any contexts, similar to the Russian "fighter", but in the Russian-speaking pro-government discourse, the word zmagar also began to be used as an offensive name for the opposition, and the neologism zmagarizm denotes Belarusian nationalism in the speech of his opponents.

9. Bulba

Bulbashi. Painting by an unknown Belarusian artist. First half of the 20th centuryPainting gallery "Rarity"

The stereotype about the love of Belarusians for potatoes is so banal and neglected that it is even embarrassing to mention it here. Nevertheless, this stereotype not only lives on the outside, in the ideas of other peoples about Belarusians, but also perfectly rooted inside: Belarusians are happy to joke and make memes about potatoes.

The song "Potato aka bulba" participates in the national selection for Eurovision-2019, the Belarusian office of "Yandex" publishes a study "Jokes aside: what Belarusians are looking for on the Internet about potatoes", in the news public "Tea with raspberry varennem", along with important events, the news is being discussed that Elizabeth II refused to eat potatoes or that residents of one of Kiev's houses planted a flower bed with potatoes instead of flowers.

One more, apart from useagulnay mlyavastsi, Belarusian-speaking idiom, which is used even in Russian speech, is havisya ў bulba (“hide in potatoes”), meaning that something extremely unpleasant has happened. The nickname Bulbashi - although it is also external and is never used as a self-name - Belarusians practically do not take offense: the Bulbash vodka produced in Minsk confirms this.

Potato dishes are also very important, and the main national dish is, of course, pancakes, grated potato pancakes with or without meat or other filling.

The Belarusian media sometimes measure inflation by the pancake index - there was a real hunt for socks from the Mark Formelle company with dranikas on one and smyatanka on the other, because they instantly ended in stores, and prescription disputes (with or without flour, with or without onions onions, etc.) in terms of power are not inferior to the Russian battle of okroshka.

The question about the right potato pancakes was even asked to potential presidential candidates in the 2020 elections, and, discussing Viktor Babariko's answer, Euroradio summed up: “But the hearts of those who cannot imagine potato pancakes without flour, eggs or onions are now broken. Because you don't have to joke with potato pancakes. Draniki is serious. This is sacred!"

Perhaps there is only one question that divides Belarusians into two camps stronger than the recipe for real potato pancakes: which condensed milk is correct - Rogachev or Glubokaya? Of course, there are also socks with Belarusian condensed milk.

10. Belarus

Map of Belarus. Minsk, 1918Wikimedia Commons

It is rather strange to find the name of the country in the list of words that help to understand the national culture. Nevertheless, this is precisely such a case.

In September 1991, back in the BSSR, a law was adopted, according to which the country should henceforth be called Belarus, and the name should not be translated into other languages, but transliterated, and from this version.

With some languages this really happened: the English Byelorussia (hence the.by domain) and Belorussia quickly changed to Belarus (a little longer it happened with the name of the language), but in others the transliteration of the Russian name (French Biélorussie) or translation (German Weißrussland, "White Russia"; this name began to be abandoned only in 2020).

In 1995, Russian received the status of the second state language in Belarus, after which this version of the name was already recorded in the official Russian-language document. Nevertheless, in Russia, he took root badly.

For the majority of Belarusians, especially those born in the second half of the 80s and later, the version of Belarus is Soviet, outdated. They are ready to suspect the Russians using it of disrespect and even imperial ambitions.

For many Russians, this is not a political issue, but just a matter of habit and spelling tradition (a joke in March 2020: the Belarusians deliberately bred the coronavirus so that Russians finally remember that the connecting vowel does exist).

In the past few years, a more complex question has been added to the question of the name of the country about the spelling of the adjective and the name of the nationality derived from it: since these are no longer proper names, they are in dictionaries and, accordingly, spelling with a cannot be interpreted otherwise than as a spelling error. Nevertheless, Belarusian Russian-language media are increasingly using versions of Belarus, Belarusian and even Belarusian.

Endless and similar disputes in the comments about how to write the name of the Belarusian state (both sides have a little less than 10 standard arguments in favor of their version) have become so culturally significant that they even got their own offensive name - bulbossrachi (see Bulba) …

In August 2020, during political protests in Belarus, some Russian media and ordinary users who support the protesters opted to spell all three words (Belarus, Belarus, Belarusian) through a, which poet Lev Rubinstein gracefully called spelling empathy.

In not the best quality journalistic texts, you can often find the metaphorical name of Belarus - Blue-eyed (due to the large number of lakes). And in critical informal texts, Belarusians often ironically use quotations from political speeches and social advertising: A Country for Life, An Island of Stability, Kvitneyuchaya (“Prosperous”) and others.

11. Shuflyadka

Belarusian archivist, historian, ethnographer, writer Mikhail Meleshko in his office. Minsk, 1927© Belarusian State Archives of Cinema and Photo Documents

Above there were Belarusian words, words from trasyanka - and now here is a Russian word, more precisely, a word from the Belarusian region of the Russian language. It is no secret that the absolute majority of Belarusians are Russian-speaking, but Belarusian Russian - as in Russian regions - somewhat differs from the literary norm.

In addition to the Belarusian accent of varying strength, which is present among the older generation and residents of small towns, there are several dozen regionalisms in Belarusian Russian: words that do not occur or hardly occur outside of Belarus. The Belarusians are proud of some of them and brag to their Russian friends - the most famous example, perhaps, is a drawer, a "drawer of a table" (in Ukrainian Russian it is also there, but in a different form - a drawer).

Many do not even suspect that most regionalisms are not all-Russian words: a nameplate (“a plaque on a building or office”), golf (“turtleneck”), with more (“mostly”), a tussle (“food that is taken to work or study "), washing - less often the wash, which is also in the Russian regions (" eraser "), hapun (" massive detention by the police "or" excitement in the shops "), lick (" fall, hit, break, go crazy "), fuck with something ("laugh at something"; vernacular), tihar ("security officer in civilian clothes"), give a busk ("kiss"; more often in communication with children), drill ("destroy"; in the nursery speech), mathematics, rusitsa, etc. instead of math and rusichka - and many others.

Some of these regionalisms came into the Russian speech of Belarusians from the Belarusian language (some of them, in turn, from Polish, and there - from German, for example, a shuflyadka and a nameplate), while others - like a chuckle or golf - arose right in the Russian language.

12. Dazhynki

Dozhinki holiday in Glubokoe. 1934 yearNarodowe archiwum cyfrowe