NUMBER 12

FORUM
SOKRAT JANOWICZ: Giedroyc and Belarussians
Article devoted to Jerzy Giedroyc, the founder of "Kultura" magazine, one of the biggest Polish authorities, who died on 14th of September this year.
JERZY GIEDROYC: Belarus and place of Poland in the Central-Eastern Europe
Excerpts from "Kultura" magazine concerning the Polish-Belarussian relations.
SIARHIEJ DUBAWIEC: Belarussians leave... Belarussians come back....
The author, a well-known Belarussian journalist and "a political dissident raises important questions on the Belarussian identity. The key concepts "homeland" and "freedom" are translated by him as "warm places of consciousness" and "taking responsibility on yourself".
SOKRAT JANOWICZ: Belarus as a European phenomenon
An essay on the origin of the Belarussian nation. The author analyses here the earliest Baltic influences, the development of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and relations with Poland. There is a wider discussion on the religions present in the contemporary Belarus.

THE LITERARY CORNER
Poems by
NATALLA ARSIENNIEWA, great poet, connected with Vilnius, Minsk, finally emigrated to USA; ALES RAZANAU, "a famous Belarussian poet, his poems were published in over 20 countries; ALES CZOBAT, a Belarusssian poet, living in Grodno; JAN CZYKWIN, a Belarussian poet living in Bielsk Podlaski (Bialystok region).
Prose
WASIL BYKAU: In the Farmstead; The Cat and the Mouse
The author, a well-known opposition activist, by many Belarussians regarded as the conscience of the nation. The presented here fables are full of metaphors referring to the contemporary Belarus.
SIARHIEJ ASTRAWIEC: Coffins of the Radziwiłłs; Claustrophobia
Short stories with metaphorical allusions by a Belarus writer living in Grodno.
IHAR SIDARUK: The Crow
A short story. Sidaruk is also the author of a number of plays and a few collections of poetry.
JAN CZYKWIN: Between Vilnius and Rochester
A biographical essay on the creativity of the poet Natalla Arsienniewa.
Drama
TADEUSZ SŁOBODZIANEK: A Bug's Dream
First publishing of a play by a well-known Polish playwright, co-operating with a "Nowy" Theatre in Łódź.
JERZY PLUTOWICZ: Dreams of the End of a Century
A commentary on the Tadeusz Slobodzianek's drama ""A Bug's Dream" in the Russian literary context.

NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS CONFRATERNITIES
SOKRAT JANOWICZ: A Belarussian writer in the post-war Poland
The dilemmas of the writer belonging to an ethnic minority concern not only the Belarussians, though theirs is a peculiar situation. Janowicz analyses relations between artistic creativity and national identity on the individual dimension.
JAROSŁAW TOMASIEWICZ: "Natives" - the patriots of Middle Lithuania
The political postulates of "the natives" referred to the traditions of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, which grouped Poles, Belarussians and Lithuanians. Their ideas became popular again during the inter-war period, the fact described in the present essay.
CZESŁAW SENIUCH: Belarus of the two Mickiewiczs
Adam Mickiewicz is a well-known poet, not to say our front man. Konstanty Mickiewicz (his penname Jakub Kolas), the author of the epic "New Land", also called a peasant "Pan Tadeusz", never achieved much fame. The author of the essay compares both epics finding numerous analogies. Particularly interesting is juxtaposing Konstanty's "peasant" perspective with Adam's "gentry" perspective.
FELIKS GAWIN: Ethnic minorities in Grodno area. Monitoring Report
The report was written this year. It was prepared by the workers of the Community Association "Ratusha" from Grodno. Its subject is the treatment of the human rights of the ethnic minorities, especially as regards the teaching of native languages in Grodno area. The presented data and their critical analysis lead to the conclusion that breaking of the human rights is a common phenomenon in Belarus not only as regards ethnic minorities, but also identity conscious Belarussians.

OUT OF PRINT
ROMAN SKIRMUNT: The voice of the past and the spur of the moment
"What are our obligations towards the present? Where does the voice of the past call us?" These questions asked at the beginning of this century by the author, a landowner from Minsk Guberniya, the prime minister of the People's Republic of Belarus in 1918, seem not to have lost on their currency also today.
IHNAT KANCZEUSKI: On the Immemorial Route
The text was written in 1921. The author draws the picture of Belarus torn between West and East. The only solution he can see in finding a third way.
ZOFIA I ZACHAR SZYBIEKA: Minsk at the beginning of the century
According to the rule that nothing suits the imagination more than recollection of a detail, the author analyses the statistics concerning the structure of Minsk architecture, its transport system and municipal services at the beginning of the century, supplementing the mathematical data with inte-resting observations of local customs. The result is a colorful panorama of the capital of Belarus, a city that has long disappeared.

PERIPHERIES
TOMISLAV OSMANLI: Aunt Rachel's Photograph
"And what is a relative? One with whom you were born, with whom coincidence or family tied you to. Or one to whom life itself has bound you. Maybe, most of all, it is someone you miss. Even from your ancestor's photographs. The ones you have never met. The ones you had just seen. On a photograph. The ones you felt close to. Through the stories that repeat long afterwards. Looking through your family albums. With the photographs, the photo-fixation, the icons, the photo-engravings. Capturing the moment of that glaring net, thrown in the turbulent seas of time".
A lyrical story about Rachel, the Jewish girl, living with "a Macedonian family during the Second World War.
JOANNA TOKARSKA BAKIR: Anti-Pawluczuk
The Wierszalin myth is one of the most interesting legends, originated from the Great Duchy of Lithuania. It is "a story about Eliasz Klimowicz, the usurpatory prophet Ilja from Grzybowszczyzna (the Bialystok area) and his believers who planned to build a new capital city of the world in small Wierszalin. It was the 30. Some of the Ilja prophet believers are still alive, there are some icons as well. Thanks to the theatre group Towarzystwo Wierszalin the Wierszalin's myth is widely known. It is this association that performed the play "Turlajgroszek", awarded in many theatre festivals (among others the Fringe Firste Award in the festival in Edinburgh). One other reason why the legend became popular is a book by Wlodzimierz Pawluczuk titled "Wierszalin. Report on the End of the World" The book appeared in 1974 and very quickly became a cult book. 30 years after that Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, a Polish anthropologist, polemizes with the thesis contained in the book. She analyses not only the development of the legend, but also the attitude and outlook on life of the author of the "Report..."
WLODZIMIERZ PAWLUCZUK replies to her in his letter to the redaction.

CULTURAL CIRCLES
ULADZIMIR NIAKLAJEU: Socrates' Stone
The hero of the text is Sokrat Janowicz - a Belarussian writer living in Poland. The essay describes his cultural and publishing initiatives: "Czasopis" - cultural magazine, the annals "Annus Albaruthenicus", which presents Belarussian writers from around the world, and the most recent initiative: "Villa Sokrates" in Krynki, the writer's home town, to become a meeting place of artists and writers, not only those connected with Belarussian culture.
CZESLAW SENIUCH: nihil
Nihil is a title of an anthology of young writers who founded "new art front". In revolt against the dominant hitherto produced literary output, the young writers mock the language and composition rules. In poetry all formal devices are allowed. Apart from a critical essay we also publish "a choice of the poems written by the members of the vanguard.
CZESLAW SENIUCH: Post-Romanticism
Post-Romanticism of the middle of the 90s is next to postmodernism the main means of expression of the young Belarussian intelligentsia in their protest against the spiritual enslavement. The essay is a report of the debate among culture researchers and poets which took place in Nowopolock.