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News Article: Prominent Representative of the Belarusian-American Community Praises Intellectuals for Their Struggle for National Survival

Vitaut Kipel, a prominent leader of the Belarusian-American community, highly praised Belarusian intellectuals for their effort to preserve national culture at his meeting with the leaders of the Francisak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society (BLS) in Minsk on May 26 [2000]."

"Mr. Kipel defined as a 'historic event' the 1999 national census in Belarus, in which 3,7 million people said they spoke Belarusian daily. In his opinion, this result was a kind of protest of the Belarusian people against attacks on their native tongue, a sign of increased national consciousness."

"The Belarusian-American scholar welcomed the BLS' campaign for the establishment of a Belarusian National University. 'You are promoting very strong ideas which do not have precedents in the history of Belarus,' Mr. Kipel said. According to Mr. Kipel, the Belarusian-American community closely follows the situation in Belarus and hopes that the opposition forces will manage to unite and put forward a respected and consistent leader."

"Vitaut Kipel, a historian and bibliographer who also has a doctorate in biology, was born in Minsk in 1927. He has been living in the United States since 1955. Mr. Kipel has been chairman of the New York-based Belarusian Institute of Literature and Arts (BINIM) since 1982 and deputy chairman of the World Alliance of Belarusians, Batskawshchyna since 1993."

  (Source: BelaPAN, No. 111; Saturday, May 27, 2000; 9:30 p.m.)

Selected Publications by Vitaut Kipel

• Belarusans in the United States, Kipel, Vitaut; 1999.

• Belarusians in the USA, (Title in Belarusian: Belarusii u Z.SH.A.); Vitaut Kipel', 1993. In Belarusian (Cyrillic/taraskevitza).

• Byelorussian Americans and Their Communities in Cleveland, Vitaut Kipel, with an introduction by Thomas E. Bird, 1982.

Selected Publications by Zora Kipel

• The Byelorussian Tristan, translated by Zora Kipel; 1988.

• Article in Zapisy, print edition only, vol. 22 (BINIM, New York, 1996): "Some Observations on English Translations of [Vasil'] Bykaŭ's Work," by Zora Kipel, pages 68-72.

Selected Publications by both Vitaut & Zora Kipel

• Byelorussian Statehood: Reader and Bibliography (1988).