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From: martin Ryle <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: REVIEW: WEEKS ON SUPA,ed. _ARKHIVY BELARUSKAI NARODNAI RESPUBLIKI_
Date: 18 May 2000 04:13
H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by [log in to unmask] (May, 2000)
Siarhej Supa, ed. _Arkhivy Belaruskai Narodnai Respubliki_.
Vilnius-New York-Minsk-Prague: Belarusian Institute of Arts
and Sciences, Inc., 1998. (Belarusian Institute of Arts and
Sciences Bibliographic Series No. 4). 2 vols., 1751 pp.
Notes, maps, illustration, index. ISBN 9986-9219-2-9 (vol. 1),
9986-9219-3-7 (vol. 2).
Reviewed for H-Russia by Theodore R. Weeks, Department of
History, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Archives of the Belarusian National (Democratic) Republic
The Belarusian National Republic (BNR), formed in 1918
and existing for only a few precarious years, has received
little attention in English-language historiography. Even
the English version of the republic's title remains a matter of
some controversy: while "national" would seem the obvious
translation of the Belarusian '_narodna_,' the editor of this
volume and historians such as Jan Zaprudnik in _Belarus at a
Crossroads in History_ prefer the translation "Belarusan [sic]
Democratic Republic." But even Zaprudnik barely mentions
the BNR in his book. Richard Pipes also mentions the
"Belorussian National Republic" one time in his _Formation
of the Soviet Union_.[1] But for all its obscurity, the BNR represents
an important and fascinating chapter in the history of Belarus,
and deserves more attention from western scholars. The present
work will considerable facilitate such research.
This work begins with a helpful bibliographical essay
introducing the reader to the BNR and its archives. Here one
also learns why this rich source on Belarusian national history
ended up in Lithuania (the documents published here are all
from _fond 582_ at the Lithuanian State Archive in Vilnius). The
editor also describes the contents and organization of this _fond_
and explains the principles followed in this publication. This
is not an "archival guide" but a chronologically-arranged
description (or publication) of every document contained within
this archive. At the least a short description of the document is
given (in Belarusian) with an exact archival reference but very
often the entire document is published in its original language and
spelling (including rather mysterious-looking Belarusian written
in Polish orthography).
The documents are in a number of languages with Belarusian,
Russian, and Polish dominating, with some few also in French
and German. The bulk of the documents date from 1917 to 1925
and provide a fascinating "blow-by-blow" account of the fortunes
(perhaps more appropriately, "misfortunes") of the Belarusian
national movement in those turbulent years. Each volume ends
with photographic reproductions of various documents; the entire
work ends with an extremely useful bibliography on the period
citing contemporary periodicals as well as secondary works in
Polish, Russian, Belarusian, and some few even in English. This
is followed by two extremely detailed indexes taking up nearly
seventy pages of tiny print.
Belarus is arguably the least-known and least-researched
newly-independent country in Europe. A first step in redressing
this historiographical lacuna might be a history of the Belarusian
National Republic, a project that would be considerably facilitated
by this two-volume work. Graduate students, take heed!
Notes.
[1]. Jan Zaprudnik, _Belarus : at a crossroads in history_ (Boulder:
Westview Press, 1993); Richard Pipes, _The formation of the Soviet
Union: Communism and Nationalism, 1917-1923_. Rev. ed. (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997)
Copyright (c) 2000 by H-Net, all rights reserved. This
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