Notes on Belarusian Culture

(1920-1938)

In the years from 1920 to 1928, before the totalitarian character of the Communist dictatorship had become so baneful for the development of the humanities and cultural life, the Party's influence was practically non-existent Belarusian culture passed through the brief period of its latest renaissance. This devastated country - which had recently been exposed to all horrors of the passing front, followed subsequently by the civil war and several successive occupations - produced within a relatively short time a great number of cultural institutions, such as Scientific Research Institute Belarusian Culture (later on known as the Belarusian Academy of Science), the Belarusian University, a number of pedagogical, medical and technical schools and other educational institutions. Belarusian literature began to develop rapidly and fruitfully. Several literary associations were founded - such as Maladniak (The Youth), Uzvyshsha (Height), Polymia (Flame), Problisk (Gleam), Literaturnaia Kamuna (Belarusian LEF), etc. More than a dozen literary and scientific magazines were published, as well as a variety of art and scientific literature in the Belarusian language.

The Belarusian literary association Maladniak alone had a membership of five hundred writers, testifying to the broad Belarusian cultural regeneration.

It had branches in almost every major Belarusian city. Moreover, many of its writers belonged to other associations. Not only the younger generation of writers, for instance, who belonged to the Polymia literary association but also a majority of the elder writers of the Nasha Niva period - the classicists Belarusian literature like Janka Kupala and Jakub Kolas were members. The Uzvyshsha included Zmitrok Biadulia and the most talented contemporary writers who were not members of any party, who had mastered the art of writing and had acquired their culture in universities of specialized institutions of higher education, such as the Brusov Literary Institute in Moscow. The first graduate of this Institute was Uzvyshsha member Uladzimer Dubouka.

These writers had united to form the Uzvyshsha Association for the purpose of creating a Belarusian literature after the Western European pattern - that Uzvyshsha which ages and the peoples would see, as stated in a Uzvyshsha declaration.

The creative genius of the most brilliant Belarusian poets, writers and playwrights - U. Dubouka, J. Pishcha, Ul. Zhylka, M. Zaretski, etc. - raised Belarusian literature to the top of the all-European Prances.

The renaissance attained a particularly high level in the field of the Belarusian theater. Along with the classics and best contemporary plays of Polish, Ukrainian and Russian playwrights among others, a great number of new Belarusian plays were staged in the First Belarusian State Theater at Mensk, in the Second Belarusian State Theater at Vitsebsk, and in the Halubok Theater. The following plays were outstanding in their profound conception, their national individuality and their dramatic mastery: Masheka, Kastus Kalinouski, The Smith as Voivode by E. Mirovich; Above the Nioman, Near the Terrace and Skaryna, The Son from Polatsk by M. Hramyka; Aprametnaia by V. Shashalevich; Kupalle by M. Charot and V. Terauski, and others. Problems pertaining to the history of the Belarusian theater and music were developed in the art section of the Institute of Belarusian Culture.

Simultaneously, heightened interest was awakened in Belarusian art in history. The works of art experts like M. Shchakatsikhin, M. Kaspiarovich and others, revealed anew the outstanding monuments of the past in the architecture, painting, carving, sculpture, popular ornamental art of Belarus. Belarusian art was considered independent and unique in the history o world art. It was established that Belarusian art under Byzantine and Western European influences had adapted foreign forms to its own character as early as the twelfth century, developing a style of its own on the basis of its own native peculiarities. Many one-apse hexagonal buildings of that period in Vitsebsk, Polatsk and other Belarusian towns bear witness to this fact; the same applies to the special diversity in thirteenth century Gothic, the late architectural renaissance of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (the citadel type church: a combination of the styles of church and castle-fortress architecture) and the late Baroque forms, which in essence have preserved the architectural composition of the renaissance. The independent traditions of Belarusian architecture of the people, in carvings and national ornaments - became the subject of more detailed studies.

Attention was again focused on the frescoes, antique icons and old pictures of Belarusian artists. Students of these works were amazed by the existence of interesting and most original objects of antique art. Under the topmost layers, the restorers discovered striking color schemes on Polatsak and Troks frescoes, original in their national character and rich in polichromy, linking them also to Western European art in their free treatment of traditional Byzantine themes. A through scientific study of this pictorial heritage of the past revealed the existence of old Belarusian painting as the special schools of painting in Vitsebsk, Mahiliou and Slutsak. The early style of carving attracted attention by its versatile compositional elaboration, its expressiveness and its monumental features. Examples of the ancient art of jewelry-making which produced such antique ornaments as Cross of St. Euphrosinia of Polatsak (produced by Lazar Bohsha in 1161) were now discovered along with other treasures.

The development of book publishing in post-revolutionary Belarusian suggested the need of studying the practice of old Belarusian graphic art. The studies began with Skaryna's Bible, the Psalms and the Book of the Apostles, the art of the engravers Maxim and Vasil Vashchenak, F. Anhilenka, P. Kamar and the engraving schools of Mahiliou, Suprasl, Vilnia, Niasvizh, etc. The Belarusian artists of the 19th and 20th centuries (V. Bialynitski-Biarulia, Ivan Khrutsky, L. Pihuleuski, the artists Nasha Niva period, the Belarusian renaissance artist K. Kastravitski) were evaluated in a new light.

A knowledge of the past helped to shape the new trends in art: realism (V. Volkau, M. Duchyts and others), impressionism (V. Kudrevich), neo-realism, which followed the path of Western European art from Cezanne to the latest trends in art (M. Filipovich, I. Akhremchyk), decorative arts (A. Maryks, K. Tsikhanau). A strong group of graphic artists, headed by A. Tychyna, was outstanding. The artists were seeking ways to define and formulate a Belarusian national style. All Belarusian art in general, including the art of theater, was pursuing identical goals. In view of the long period of national enslavement that preceded it, this cultural upsurge signalized a definite new renaissance in belarusian culture bringing a revival of Belarusian cultural activities not only within the Belarusian Republic but also abroad. In the Belarusian parts of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland Belarusian schools, theaters, literature and art - which were later throttled by the chauvinism of the ruling circles - also developed successfully during this period.

Non-Party specialists predominated among those who served culture in every field. In those days the Party was still small and weak. In the cultural field it had almost no significant representatives and exerted no influence. An absolute non-Party majority shaped the original national character of the new Belarusian culture, lent in a consciously renascent character and brought the insignificant influence of the Communist elements to naught. Therefore the Belarusian emigration which had taken an irreconcilably hostile position toward the Bolshevik order, believed that the Belarusian SSR could gradually evolve into a real Belarusian state by way of intensified cultural activity in a purely national direction. As a result, political and cultural leaders such as V. Lastouski, A. Tsvikevich, Ul. Zhylka, F. Aliakhnovich returned from exile. They enthusiastically joined in the work to regenerate their country. Without sharing the political views of the ruling Party and with their eyes always on renascent goals, they devoted themselves entirely to the work of such cultural institutions as the Institute of Belarusian Culture, museums, theaters, literature, the study of local lore and other field. True, the prominent Belarusian playwright and theatrical leader F. Aliakhnovich spent seven long years in Solovki at hard labor after working only a few months in 1926 in the Second Belarusian Theater at Vitsebsk; he eventually regained freedom in 1933, when an exchange of political prisoners with Poland took place. The others, however, succeeded in continuing with their work until 1930; their activities in creating Belarusian culture were fruitful and left a considerable mark.

The tempestuous growth of the national liberation movement and the usurping in Belarusian culture were not included in the plans of the totalitarian dictators. From 1929 to 1930 a systematic persecution of the leaders of Belarusian culture set in, and it has continued up to present day - first in the form of struggle against so-called counterrevolutionary national democratism. With the help of the press, the bolsheviks instigated a campaign against the cultural leaders. Science, the theater, art, literature were the targets of special attacks. A number of artists were accused of worshipping Western bourgeois art and of having a Western orientation. The painters A. Kasteliansky, A, Brazer, M. Akselrod, A. Halubkina, among others, were charged with worshipping French and German impressionists. M. Kerzin and M. Kaspiarovich, the leaders of the Vitsebsk Technical Art School, were accused of developing subjects alien at the working class. Felippovich's paintings were found to idealize the past, to reflect popular superstition and 'kulak' attitudes. The very fact that the artists had organized expeditions for sketching churches and church-plate was identified with goals alien to class interests. The graphic artists were subjected to criticism for their attempts to resurrect the traditions of the designs in Skaryna's bible. The artists M. Lebedzeva, M. Ende, V. Volkau, A. Tychyna and others were accused of having adopted Skaryna's style. Particularly severe criticism was leveled retrospectively against the organization in 1926 of the Belarusian Academic Conference in Mensk. The painter A. Hrube had arranged the conference hall in the Belarusian national style with white colors prevailing. In 1930 it was branded as disregard for proletarian emblems.

The portraits and sculptures of the first Belarusian printer Skaryna and Kastus Kalinouski, the national hero of the revolt in 1863, created by the artists A. Brazer, Z. Azhur, M. Slepian, V. Volkau and others represented, in eyes of the bolsheviks, evidence that the artists had fulfilled the orders of the counter-revolutionary national-democrats, and had slighted the leaders of the proletarian revolution.

The artist Yu. Pen, Ya. Kruher, S. Yudovin and others were flayed for their idealization of the small locality as opposed to the proletarian city.

Under the pretext of combating national democraticism, almost all productions of 1920's were banned from the stage. Even the classic play - Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream - which had enchanted all foreign delegates at the Second Belarusian Theater, was denounced as national-democratic for the principles of its performance and was removed from the theatrical repertoire.

Belarusian literature - as personified by the writers and poets Ul. Dubouka, Ya. Pushcha, M. Zaretski, A. Dudar and others - reacted to this with both overt and covert protests against the ever increasing spiritual oppression. In Ul. Dubouka's poem, The Fluttering of the Purple Sails, written in the form of a discussion, two heroes are described: a mathematician symbolizing the Party and its general line, and a lyric poet, through whom author expresses his own views on the national temper:

Do you think that culture goes

Clad as the executioner of the renowned Paris Commune -

That is, in ridding breeches?

Or in the field jacket

Of another modern executioner?

I don't believe in those ornaments;

I hate them and shall combat them!

Every intelligent reader can easily recognize this only slightly disguised image of a ''contemporary executioner'', this figure of the leader in a field jacket, only too familiar to all Soviet citizens.

The protest against spiritual slavery was echoed by poet Todar Kliashtorny in his poem ''When the Dregs Settle'', where the hero dared to utter words which have become winged:

We walk under the high moon

And also under the GPU.

The opposition temper was clearly reflected in M. Zaretski's novel Kryvichy, K. Chorny's The Earth, L. Kaliuha's Misfortunes of the Zablotsky Family and in dozens of other works printed through an oversight on the part of the censors, before 1930, as well as in works circulated in the form of manuscripts which could never be passed by the censorship.

From 1930 to 1936 several thousand gifted representatives of the Belarusian intelligence were arrested and exiled to concentration camps. Of the more than 500 poets and writers who belonged to the All-Belarusian Literary Association Maladniak, only one - Ya. Yakimovich - remained free. Jakub Kolas is the only member of the Polymia who was well. Of the entire Uzvyshsha only three members are left. No one member of Problisk and only one of the Literary Commune is free.

After short-lived renaissance from 1920 to 1928, the years 1930-1935 were the years of extermination against Belarusian culture.

Compiled by L.Y.

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