At a distance: Belarus – a turning point?

Belarus is much closer to us than it seems at first glance, not only because of its common history. But perhaps we do not know so little about any other of our neighbors. In Poland, Belarusians remain a mystery, although we have been cheering for their democratic insurgency for many months.

However, our neighbor country is much more than just the last old-style European dictatorship. While in the Belarusian issue of Herito, we tried to share our experiences and knowledge and show a country that is extremely dear to us on many levels, during the conversation with Dr. Nelly Bekus and prof. Jacek Purchla, we looked for answers to the questions about how Belarus has changed over the last 30 years? How to talk about the common Polish-Belarusian heritage and is it possible not to deal with politics only during protests and revolutions? How to encourage Poles to visit and learn about Belarus on their own?  What is the dominant vision of Belarusian history? We would like this conversation to become a kind of guide to contemporary Belarus and an encouragement to explore it further on your own.

The meeting took place on Thursday, May 6th, 2021, at 19.00 on the ICC profile on Facebook.
Meeting held in Polish.

Dr. Nelly Bekus – graduate of the School of Social Sciences in Warsaw, lecturer at the University of Exeter in Great Britain, author of the book "Struggle over Identity the Official and the Alternative Belarusianness".

Prof. Jacek Purchla – lecturer, one of the world's leading experts in the field of cultural heritage. He conducts research on the development of cities, social history and art history of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the theory and protection of cultural heritage. Author of over 400 scientific papers, including many books. Founder and long-term director of the International Cultural Centre, where to this day he manages the Institute of European Heritage. In 2015–2020, he was the chairman of the Polish UNESCO Committee, and in 2016–2017, the chairman of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

The meeting was chaired by Bartosz Sadulski, editorial secretary of Herito.