Authors

Discussion

This paper seeks to examine a Romantic-historical conception of Belarusian nationhood primarily through reconstructing the historical argument of Belarusian national activist Vacłau Łastouski’s 1910 “Short History of Belarus.” Special attention will be paid to the putatively Romantic articulation of the Belarusian nation’s democratic origins both in the Medieval (Kyivan Rus’) and Early Modern (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) periods. To explore the (neo-)Romantic literary significance of the history,  I will conclude with a brief reading of at least two literary texts alongside Łastouski’s historiosophy: including the same writer’s own 1923 story “Labyrinths” and Belarusian national bard Janka Kupała’s 1911 poem “Dudar [The Piper]” dedicated to the author of the aforementioned history.