Hanna Kondratiuk: Ukrainian events will affect Belarusan mentality, mainly its quest for freedom

A Polish-based author with lots of publications dedicated to Podlasie, the region in the eastern Poland and western Belarus, has recently published an anthology called “Belarus. Love and Stagnation”.

In Poland Belarus is still an enigmatic country. Therefore “Belarus. Love and Stagnation”, an anthology written by Hanna Kondratiuk, published by Poland-based “Fundacja Sąsiedzi”, is worth recommending. In her stories the author seeks to uncover some of the country’s secrets to make it closer. Joanna Koziol has talked to Hanna Kondratiuk about her book.

- In your book, you do not focus solely on Minsk. Why?

- I always prefer such places and situations which have not yet been discovered from a literature point of view. Minsk has already been described. I mean “Minsk: A Guide to the City of the Sun“, a magnificent novel by Artur Klynov. Despite the fact that I have a different perception of this place, I feel myself to some extent a prisoner of the image created by Klynov. Describing Minsk, I would probably draw from his aesthetics and content. Whereas I am interested in the topic and places, which still await to be discovered.

- Weren’t you afraid that unknown places may be not so much interesting for a person who is a newcomer here?

- I believe that it is possible to write something interesting and informative even about seemingly the most boring place. Personally, I never came across anything that could be called an “uninteresting place”. Here a lot depends on the personality of the author, his or her knowledge and experience. The places which I described in “Belarus. Love and Stagnation” were not something random and irrelevant for me. There has always been some sort of a hook: people, important places from a historical perspective, endemic plants, anticipation of changes…

- Is it worth writing about Belarus?

- Definitely, as it is our closest neighbor and the forebear of the Polish culture. I had a special motivation. Belarusans of Podlasie – the region in Poland I come from – are very slightly familiar with the subject of Belarus. We are separated by the border. People either have an ideal image of Belarus or catastrophic one. Some still repeat that it is only in Belarus, where the happiest people live, and everything there is the best… When in August 1999 I have started to publish first stories about Belarus, I have faced resistance and criticism from ideological “experts of the topic”. They were annoyed most of all by description of “alcohol drinking” villages and towns. On the other hand, the situation in the Podlasie villages looked exactly the same. However, some indeed believed that there, in Belarus, it could not be so bad. Why? Because it is so clean there, the most beautiful girls are walking at the city sidewalks and there are good roads.

- You have been accused of distorting the truth?

- It was like this in the beginning of the first series. When I was creating the last one, that was the eighth series of stories about ethnic and literary connections of Podlasie and Rechytska territory, my readers believed even in the wonders which I described, and literary quotations were often confused with narrative and perceived as the most truthful “truth”. Everything pulled a 180! From the very beginning I was showing particular people in a particular place and time. I was writing my stories, focusing on the readers of “Niva”, a Belarusan newspaper. It should be noted that our readers are people with basic or higher education. Therefore, the message must have been straight, easy and precise. And without hypocrisy, which is not less important, because it affects the message harmony and may be literally “felt by the skin”. The readers with basic education are particularly sensitive to these things.

- Were your reports published in Belarusan in the beginning?

- Yes. They were published in “Niva”, the weekly digest of Belarusans in Poland. This periodical has been founded in 1956 and is published until today in Bialystok. All its articles and reports are published in Belarusan. Since 1999, I wrote about 200 stories from different places at different times. The last cyclus of stories from Belarus, which I have already mentioned, was created in 2010. The impulse to write it was the keen interest of our readers, as well as desire to get acquainted with unknown and forgotten heroes and places. Also, I have started to write about Ukraine. Ukrainian spirituality and resilience were the best therapy after hard, exhaustible descriptions of Belarus suffering from the spirit disease.

- Belarus is usually very schematically described in Poland, with the same images constantly repeated: good roads, political system and public satisfaction. Is it possible to write about Belarus in another way?

- I believe that one should not obey the schemes. I am primarily interested in a person, his or her destiny and relationship with the world. I am interested in people’s dreams, their spiritual world, how they cope with reality. Do they see any prospects for themselves? What do they dream about? Writing is a very subjective activity. It is a matter of vision and conscience. As a rule, I do not bother if I write “good or bad”, because these are the criteria of public relations field.

- And how do modern Belarusans live?

- It is believed that in general Belarusans are satisfied by the life in their country. Although emigration rate is paradoxically very high here. In addition, the percentage of suicides is also very high. Over the past 20 years, as Aliaksandr Lukashenka rules the country, there have been about 2.5 million abortions done. It is shockingly huge number of abortions for a country with less than ten million population.

- What has surprised you the most when traveling to Belarus?

- I was overwhelmed by the fact that Belarusans in their own country feel worse than we [the Belarusan national minority – editor's note] in Podlasie. Despite the fact that they live in their own state, they do not have such freedom of expression through their own culture, own language, feeling Belarusan everywhere.

- Ukrainians took to the streets to protest. Is it possible to have Maidan in Belarus?

- In the flashbacks, we see the amazing interconnection of Belarus and Ukraine. Everything that had happened in Ukraine, later also took place in Belarus. It was exactly the same recently. After the Orange Revolution of 2004, Ploshcha took place in Minsk in 2006. Inspiration came from Kyiv. Recently, on January 25, 2014, the Belarusan media reported possible imposing of martial law in Belarus. Lukashenka is most of all afraid of the Kyiv scenario recurrence. The events in Ukraine will affect the mentality of Belarusans one way or another, especially their quest for freedom.

- It is believed in Poland that the current situation of Belarusans is not the best one. In your opinion, how has this negative image of the situation in Belarus was created?

- Life itself gives the answer. None of Belarusan immigrants is willing to return to Belarus. Belarusans of Podlasie, despite the fact that they often praise Lukashenko’s orders, also move to Warsaw or London, but not to Minsk. We may say that something is cheaper there, but it is good information for only those people who are engaged in trade.

- Is it possible to say in this case that Belarusans are unhappy people?

- Belarusans are people who want to survive at any cost and they have their own means to achieve this. Now it is said that in 50 years half of the world’s languages will disappear, and unification of people is expected. I think that complete disappearance and unification do not threaten Belarusans. They will survive because they have experience and some mysterious power to revive “out of nothing”. We sometimes joke that the best times are yet ahead, that we will easily find own place in the post-industrial era… indeed, many Belarusans do not even know the industrial era. So we follow an easier path. Yes, Belarusans will save themselves as a nation, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Reference

Hanna Kondratiuk was born in Podlasie, works in “Niva”, a weekly digest of Belarusans in Poland. She has published many stories about Belarus, Ukraine and, first of all, Podlasie. Author of three books: “W stronę Tarasiewicza” (2002, 2004), “Imperial funeral feast” (2007), “Dziadowskie tournee z Anatolem S.” (2010). In 2005 she has recorded the CD “Zhurylasya Kateryna” with songs and stories. Conducts master classes about journalism for children and youth. Collaborates with literary magazines in Poland and Belarus. Last year she has published “Belarus. Love and Stagnation” book.

Originally published on Eastbook.eu