Papers by Tatsiana Astrouskaya
Białoruś. Od powstania słuckiego po białoruską rewolucję (1920-2020). Dyskurs oporu, 2024
The “long” 1970s can be deemed as the axial years in the history of
contemporary Belarusian cult... more The “long” 1970s can be deemed as the axial years in the history of
contemporary Belarusian culture, which determined its development for the subsequent decades. These years are marked by generous state support of the creative intelligentsia on the one hand, and the increasing pressure of unification on national cultures on the other. This essay asks how cultural resistance was possible in this setting. It approaches the ambivalence of cultural space during the period of late socialism, tackling the fluidity of the boundary between the official and unofficial cultures. It demonstrates, how the diversification of the cultural field took place and
how alternative conceptions of Belarusian history and culture arose from the dialog of official and underground culture in Belarus.
Conference "Thinking Beyond the ‘Soviet Jewry’ Narrative: Localism, Diversity, and Subjective Exp... more Conference "Thinking Beyond the ‘Soviet Jewry’ Narrative: Localism, Diversity, and Subjective Experiences of Jews in the Soviet Republics under Late Socialism" takes place on October 9-10, 2024 at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg, Germany
The 17th edition of the ScholarForum showcases a diverse, thoughtful range of articles from the O... more The 17th edition of the ScholarForum showcases a diverse, thoughtful range of articles from the Open Society Scholarship Programs' community of grantees and alumni. This year's publication has a topic focus of social movements, and a geographical view on Eastern Europe. Many of the articles published exhibit a melding of these two foci, especially as contributors explore the impact of a social movement within the borders of Ukraine.This edition includes an array of highly interesting abstracts and longer research pieces within the Academic Showcase section, which highlights the rigorous work Scholarship Programs' grantees are pursuing. It also features short vignettes on the current professional lives of a selection of alumni in the Alumni Updates section
BRILL eBooks, Dec 14, 2023
Forschungsstelle Osteuropa, 2024
In 1961, at the heyday of Khrushchev’s Thaw, the Bulgarian literary scholar and translator Georgi... more In 1961, at the heyday of Khrushchev’s Thaw, the Bulgarian literary scholar and translator Georgi Vlchev visited Soviet Belarus. During his visit, in Hrodna, he met a journalist and a promising young author named Vasil Bykaŭ. This is where the story of this extraordinary, decades-long friendship started. The Kostezkyj collection of the Research Centre for East European Studies Archives preserves a unique selection of Bykaŭ’s letters to his Bulgarian friend and colleague, which Vlchev carefully stored over years.
Copernico. History and Cultural Heritage in Eastern Europe, 2022
The post-WW II Jewish migration from the Soviet Union (and also after its dissolution) is one of ... more The post-WW II Jewish migration from the Soviet Union (and also after its dissolution) is one of the largest in modern history. Altogether 2.75 million Soviet Jews left the USSR for Israel, the United States, Germany and elsewhere. The position of the Soviet state with respect to emigration was remarkably ambivalent: in some cases, it was allowed and even encouraged, in others, others; it was controlled and strongly limited. The Jewish emigration movement that arose in the late 1960s and continued throughout the 1970s-1980s became an example of resistance and activism within the authoritarian system, which increasingly alerted international attention. In one way or another, it affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and changed the appearance of many cities and towns within the Soviet Union and outside it.
Entdeckungen Ein Blog zu Ostmitteleuropa, 2020
SCEEUS, 2024
Despite being a terrain where major battles are being fought for the minds of Belarusians, the si... more Despite being a terrain where major battles are being fought for the minds of Belarusians, the significance of culture remains underevaluated. The ongoing full-scale war in Ukraine, spanning both physical and media battlegrounds, has spurred a concerted propaganda and disinformation campaign, which also targets the population of Belarus. Facing the failure of its official cultural policies, Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s authoritarian regime is unable to counteract. With official culture offering scant appeal and alternative expressions being marginalised and forced into exile in the aftermath of the peaceful revolution of 2020, there is a growing risk that Belarusian society further gravitates towards Russian popular culture and the influence of Russian state propaganda. Supporting Belarusian culture and identity is vital for bridging ideological divides within the populace and countering Russian ideological influence. Where open political struggle is difficult and dangerous for its agents, cultural resistance can yield nuanced and sustainable outcomes.
Münchener Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur, 2022
Die Jahre 1967 und 1968 markieren den Beginn einer massen- haften Auswanderung von Jüdinnen und J... more Die Jahre 1967 und 1968 markieren den Beginn einer massen- haften Auswanderung von Jüdinnen und Juden aus der UdSSR, von der auch Belarus stark betroffen war. Dass sie in so großer Zahl auswandern konnten, war der vorangegangenen Entspan- nungspolitik zwischen der Sowjetunion und den USA geschul- det. Zum konkreten Auslöser für viele der Betroffenen wurde der Sieg Israels im Sechstagekrieg von 1967. Wie Kriegsteil- nehmer und zeitgenössische Beobachter berichten, trug dieser Sieg zum positiven Bild bei, das jüdische Sowjetbürgerinnen und -bürger vom Staat Israel hatten, und milderte für sie die Schärfe der sowjetischen Propaganda.
The Oxford Handbook of Soviet Underground Culture , 2024
The chapter dwells on the cultural landscape of Soviet Belarus, one of the national republics of ... more The chapter dwells on the cultural landscape of Soviet Belarus, one of the national republics of the USSR, most strongly transformed by post-war industrialization and urbanization as well as cultural and national standardization. The focus lies on the late 1960s and the 1970s, the time when the first informal groups of literati and artists got together, and the alternatives to the utopian project of Soviet socialism (which was seen rather as dystopian) were formulated and realized in literature and art. One of the alternatives that are discussed in more detail is the construction of the national counter-utopia, an ideal nation-state relying on partly discovered and revised, partly imagined, and invented historical tradition.
Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, 2010
Татьяна Островская «Не нужно себя обманывать: образ других народов или собственный образ, который... more Татьяна Островская «Не нужно себя обманывать: образ других народов или собственный образ, который живёт в нашей душе, зависит от того, как в детстве нас учили истории». М. Ферро Введение Следует признать, что белорусская история, преподаваемая школьникам,-явление уникальное. Трудно представить, что за относительно короткий промежуток времени, около 20 лет, оказалось возможным столько раз и столь радикально переписать историческое прошлое. Тем не менее мы приходим к такому выводу, изучая современные учебники по истории Беларуси для белорусских школьников. Эти изменения не могут не оказывать влияние на представления молодых белорусов о самих себе и своей истории.
Belarus Research Network on Neighbourhood Policy, 2023
Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West, 2024
Nach der Revolution von 2020 hat sich der Widerstand in Belarus in den digitalen Raum verlagert. ... more Nach der Revolution von 2020 hat sich der Widerstand in Belarus in den digitalen Raum verlagert. Damit ist er grenzüberschreitend geworden und hat eine größere Reichweite gewonnen, zudem bleiben die zahlreichen emigrierten Oppositionellen involviert. Gleichzeitig bleiben traditionelle Menschenrechtsaktivitäten wie die Dokumentation von politisch
motivierten Gerichtsfällen oder das aus der Sowjetunion bekannte Schreiben von Briefen an politische Gefangene relevant. Mit dem Samisdat hat sogar eine analoge Praxis aus der Sowjetzeit ein Revival erlebt.
Jewish Studies in the Digital Age, 2022
The article offers an example of an argument-driven data analysis of 120 petitions issued in 1971... more The article offers an example of an argument-driven data analysis of 120 petitions issued in 1971-1972 by a Soviet Jewish emigrant from Minsk by the name of Ernst Levin (1934-2016). In Levin's case petitions became a principal instrument of his struggle for emigration from the Soviet Union, which lasted altogether 582 days. Probing ggmap and ggplot2 packages available for R programming language on historical data, this study intends to visualize and consequently reconstruct the way and intensity of Levin's communication with Soviet authorities and international organizations. In doing so, it approaches the emigration as a process, scaling and visualizing its durability. Displaying and highlighting the changes in the tactics of petitioning over time, the presented in the article graphs and visualizations allow considering Ernst Levin's emigration efforts from a multi-dimensional perspective of political and public actors, places, organizations, individual decisions and collective actions.
Journal of Applied History, 2022
Since 1991 memory politics in Belarus has undergone several shifts, conditioned by the alteration... more Since 1991 memory politics in Belarus has undergone several shifts, conditioned by the alteration in international and inner policies and the whims of political elites. During the last two years, the civil protest movement and recently, the Russian war in Ukraine afresh prompted the re-interpreting of the past. In this revised interpretation, the already central place of WWII has become even more pronounced. The history of this war has been turned into a weapon by which Belarusian pro-governmental historians and propagandists attempt to combat the “collective West,” the NATO, the Ukrainian and Belarusian nationalists, and the émigré diaspora alike. This paper aims to outline the portrayal of Ukraine and Ukrainians in Belarusian memory politics (in school textbooks and, since 2020, on Telegram). It asks about the place Belarusian southern neighbour and, until recently, the “brotherly people” occupied in the official Belarusian historical narrative, shaped by the mythologisation of WWII.
Eastern Europe Unmapped, Beyond Borders and Peripheries, 2018
This chapter reflects on the change of the cultural landscape in Belarus in the late 1980s. It dw... more This chapter reflects on the change of the cultural landscape in Belarus in the late 1980s. It dwells on the last generation of the Soviet intelligentsia - the generation of the 1980s and their search for the new non-Soviet culture, in form and content.
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Baltic Journal of Art History, 2020
The scope and content of public debate in the USSR increased radically with the onset of perestro... more The scope and content of public debate in the USSR increased radically with the onset of perestroika. Culture happened to be at the very epicentre of this debate, as it lay at the intersection of collective and private. Socialist culture claimed to be an intrinsically ‘serious’ and ‘genuine’ setting itself against the ‘trivial’ and ‘superficial’ bourgeois culture of the West. The CPSU used socialist realism to promote and encourage monumental genres in literature, music, art and architecture. The late 1980s challenged the established notion of culture. In the BSSR (Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic), arose a group of young intellectuals (for the main part literati), who called themselves the Tuteishyia (Locals), and who saw it as their task to provoke a revolution in the field of culture. They explored previously neglected genres of mass culture such as the comic, detective novel, erotica, and rock music, thus questioning the ‘sacred’ status of literature and art. Simultaneously, they pushed the boundaries between the local and the global (looking for worldwide connections with Belarusian culture), past and present (rehabilitating authors and ideas rejected by Soviet censorship). Relying on publications in the leading intellectual journals of the time, this paper seeks to grasp the main features of the structural transformation in the field of Belarusian culture that happened at the turn of the 1980s–1990s. Staying away from teleological, lineal interpretations, we emphasize the discrepancy, contradiction and multilayering of the change as understood by Foucault and Skinner.
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Papers by Tatsiana Astrouskaya
contemporary Belarusian culture, which determined its development for the subsequent decades. These years are marked by generous state support of the creative intelligentsia on the one hand, and the increasing pressure of unification on national cultures on the other. This essay asks how cultural resistance was possible in this setting. It approaches the ambivalence of cultural space during the period of late socialism, tackling the fluidity of the boundary between the official and unofficial cultures. It demonstrates, how the diversification of the cultural field took place and
how alternative conceptions of Belarusian history and culture arose from the dialog of official and underground culture in Belarus.
motivierten Gerichtsfällen oder das aus der Sowjetunion bekannte Schreiben von Briefen an politische Gefangene relevant. Mit dem Samisdat hat sogar eine analoge Praxis aus der Sowjetzeit ein Revival erlebt.
contemporary Belarusian culture, which determined its development for the subsequent decades. These years are marked by generous state support of the creative intelligentsia on the one hand, and the increasing pressure of unification on national cultures on the other. This essay asks how cultural resistance was possible in this setting. It approaches the ambivalence of cultural space during the period of late socialism, tackling the fluidity of the boundary between the official and unofficial cultures. It demonstrates, how the diversification of the cultural field took place and
how alternative conceptions of Belarusian history and culture arose from the dialog of official and underground culture in Belarus.
motivierten Gerichtsfällen oder das aus der Sowjetunion bekannte Schreiben von Briefen an politische Gefangene relevant. Mit dem Samisdat hat sogar eine analoge Praxis aus der Sowjetzeit ein Revival erlebt.
і культурнага развіцця, не кажучы ўжо пра альтэрнатыўныя ідэі
і праявы нязгоды, надавалася толькі абмежаваная ўвага. Гэта яшчэ болей датычыць такое з’явы, як пазацэнзурныя выданні, так званы «самвыдат», што надзвычай рэдка асацыяваўся з савецкай Беларуссю. Інтэлектуальная апазіцыя і культурнае іншадумства займалі і працягваюць займаць важнае месца ў гісторыі краінаў Цэнтральнай і Усходняй Еўропы.Такая гісторыя патрэбная і Беларусі.
This book is a pioneering attempt to challenge this dominant narrative by shifting the focus from political opposition to a variety of cultural resistance practices. In the political and economic peripheries of the Soviet Union, such as Soviet Belarus, communication channels were largely severed and state control was intensified. In this context, the struggle for cultural and national autonomy emerged as one of the few available means of dissent.
Post-war Soviet Belarus was home to outstanding intellectuals such as the war novelist Vasil Bykaŭ (1924–2003), anti-war and anti-nuclear activist Ales Adamovich (1927–1994), Gulag prisoner and poet Larysa Heniush, and Zianon Pazniak (b. 1944), a radical anti-Soviet thinker advocating for Belarusian independence as early as 1974 and many others. These individuals provide exceptional cases for consideration within the broader context of East- and Central European nonconformist thought. Their ideas laid the groundwork for the unprecedented cultural and political revival during the perestroika years and remain relevant to Belarusian society's ongoing struggle against authoritarianism and Russian military and cultural expansion today.
By examining the rise and circulation of nonconformist ideas beyond the timeframe of late socialism and exploring the blurred boundary between the center and periphery, the underground and official publishing, this book calls for a long-overdue rethinking of Soviet dissent.