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<h1 class="gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title">Soft Belarusisation in Hrodna </h1>
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</p><div class="gmail-submitted"><span class="gmail-author-name"><a href="http://belarusdigest.com/category/author/alesia-rudnik">Alesia Rudnik</a></span> <span class="gmail-published-date">01 February 2017</span></div>
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Mova Nanova courses. Source: <a href="http://dzvin.by">dzvin.by</a> </div>
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<p>On 20 January, the Belarusian jury and TV audiences selected the band
Navi to represent Belarus at the Eurovision Song Contest. For the first
time in the history of Eurovision, Belarus's performance will be in the
Belarusian language.</p>
<p>This is just one of many small steps that Belarus has recently taken
to promote tolerance and respect for the Belarusian language. Following
the Ukrainian conflict, Belarusian authorities are paying more attention
to the role of Belarusian in society.</p>
<p>Today, many Belarusians see Hrodna as a cultural capital of the
country, which actively popularises the Belarusian language through the
service sector. One can find ample evidence of soft Belarusisation in
Hrodna cafes, shops, and the sports sphere. However, use of Belarusian
will remain superficial until the language becomes equal to Russian in
government, media, and education.</p>
<h1>Soft Belarusisation in Hrodna</h1>
<p>In the 1990s, Hrodna was a hotspot for national awakening. The town
had suffered from the country’s largest wave of russification;
authorities closed schools, NGOs, and newspapers. Nevertheless, Hrodna
managed to preserve many national traditions and institutions, including
famous independent newspapers, national movements, and organisations
aimed at promoting Belarusian culture, language, and history.</p>
<p><span class="gmail-image-caption-container gmail-image-caption-container-" style="display:block;width:250px;margin:10px;height:160px;float:left"><img alt="" class="gmail-caption" src="http://belarusdigest.com/sites/default/files/pahodnia.jpg" title="Local movement ‘Pahodnia”, Source: ampby.org" align=""><span style="display:block" class="gmail-image-caption">Local movement ‘Pahodnia”, Source: <a href="http://ampby.org">ampby.org</a></span></span>When
Lukashenka came to power, the national reawakening came to a grinding
halt. The official language policy led to discrimination of the
Belarusian language in favour of Russian.</p>
<p>However, in the aftermath of Russia's aggression in Ukraine, language policy shifted to be <a href="http://belarusdigest.com/story/soft-belarusization-new-shift-lukashenkas-domestic-policy-22434"> more sympathetic towards Belarusian</a>.
This was first became evident in 2015, when Lukashenka mentioned the
policy of soft Belarusisation in a public statement. Additionally, the
position of the state towards history began to move away from Belarus's
role as part of the Russian Empire and the USSR, focusing instead on its
independence.</p>
<p>As a result of the state's new openness towards Belarusisation,
several campaigns and initiatives have emerged which aim to popularise
the national language and culture.</p>
<p>Already well-known in Minsk, language courses such as Mova Nanova are
now attracting more and more students in Hrodna. The courses have
existed for several years and are completely free; a single session
regularly attracts 30-40 people. Popular musicians and writers are
frequent guests at Mova Nanova, and the courses take a flexible approach
to studying Belarusian, involving culture and history.</p>
<p>Another recent campaign, initiated by Hrodna historian Andrej
Vaškievič, actively affixes signs with historical names to various
buildings in the city centre. The historian created a petition and
submitted a proposal to the local toponymical commission, which soon
approved the project. He was motivated by the need for preserving
historical heritage and the Belarusian language in both Cyrillic and
Latin scripts. Soon, in February or March, the historical names of 16
streets in Hrodna will be added to the buildings of Hrodna.</p>
<h1>Does the service sector speak Belarusian?</h1>
<p>In June 2016, Euroopt, one of the largest Belarusian supermarket
chains, opened its first store with signs in Belarusian. The store in
Hrodna is now the first large retailer in the entire country to carry on
business in the Belarusian language. However, the staff can barely
communicate in Belarusian, except for simple phrases.</p>
<p>Several shops and cafes in Hrodna are trying to promote the language
by employing Belarusian-speaking personnel or organising events. For
example, the largest shoe store in Hrodna, as well as several underwear
and sport brands, organise Belarusian culture days. One shop which
particularly stands out and attracts many tourists with its hand-made
souvenirs is Etnakrama, where the personnel speaks exclusively
Belarusian.</p>
<p>However, some shops and cafes limit their understanding of national
identity to aesthetics. For example, the jewelry store 'B'ucik' appeared
after 2014 with a Belarusian name and signs. Nevertheless, addressing
sellers in Belarusian leads to confusion. One of the oldest restaurants
in Hrodna, <em>Karchma,</em> has a traditional Belarusian name and
offers a variety of national dishes. Despite this fact, the menu is only
available in Russian and English, and the staff speaks Russian.</p>
<p>
<span class="gmail-image-caption-container gmail-image-caption-container-" style="display:block;width:250px;height:141px;margin:10px;float:left"><img alt="" class="gmail-caption" src="http://belarusdigest.com/sites/default/files/karchma2.jpg" title="Karchma restaurant. Photo by A.Rudnik" align=""><span style="display:block" class="gmail-image-caption">Karchma restaurant. Photo by A.Rudnik</span></span>When
soft Belarusisation became popular for young people, several popular
cafes partly switched to a Belarusian-language policy. Thus, one of the
most popular cafes is now <em>Nasha Kava</em>; the menu is in Belarusian and staff can speak the language. This trend is also reflected by the appearance of Mova Boxes.</p>
<p>Mova Box (Language box) is a project of the Belarusian mobile
operator Velcom. The idea consists of spreading Belarusian-language
books by putting them in designated boxes. Although the boxes take up
little space, only a few cafes in Hrodna are supporting the campaign
Moreover, cafes which do have such boxes tend to have a generally more
Belarusian flavour.</p>
<h1>Sport teams as language promoters</h1>
<p>2016 has also been a year for soft Belarusisation in the world of
sport. In 2016, the Belarusian national football team changed its
uniform; it now features the national ornament. Nevertheless, police are
still detaining fans sporting non-official symbols, such as the
oppositional white-red-white flag. One of the most successful basketball
teams, Tsmoki, uploaded promo-video in Belarusian which quickly became
popular. It seems that sports teams too are following the trend of soft
Belarusisation.</p>
<p>Nioman, a local football team in Hrodna, has also recently begun
promoting the Belarusian language. For several years now, the team's
social media pages have been increasingly favouring Belarusian language.
Many football fans are starting to carry Belarusian national symbols to
the matches. Recently, the team shared a video in which a Cameroonian
player wishes citizens of Hrodna a Happy Christmas in Belarusian,
pointing to the team's commitment to Belarusian-language policy.</p>
<h1>Belarusian language use remains superficial</h1>
<p>Even though Belarusian language and culture has made significant
gains in recent years in Hrodna, the service sector could still do more
to support the language. Cafes and shops have become the most active
language promoters in the service sphere. Nevertheless, they mostly take
only small steps towards Belarusisation, and their employees often have
no more than a tenuous grasp of Belarusian.</p>
<p>In an authoritarian regime, the effect of Belarusisation strongly depends on the position of Lukashenka, who seems to look more <a href="http://belarusdigest.com/story/lukashenka-trying-emancipate-belarus-russian-culture-19510">more favourably on the Belarusin cause</a>
at the moment. Further logical steps for the Belarusian cause could
include introducing Belarusian education on different levels and
popularising television and pop culture in Belarusian language. However,
until official documents become translated into Belarusian and
officials start to speak Belarusian as often as they speak Russian, the
language will remain a formality.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, an increase of positive trends in language policy is cause for optimism that the language will not be forgotten <a href="http://An%20increase%20of%20positive%20signs%20in%20language%20policy%20indicates%20that%20the%20language%20has%20chances%20not%20to%20be%20forgotten%20by%20the%20nation." rel="nofollow">by the nation</a>.
More and more initiatives are trying to popularise Belarusian in narrow
niches, such as language courses or historical projects. Getting
involved in such initiatives not only contributes to preserving the
language but also engages citizens.</p>
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<div class="gmail-field-content"><p>Alesia Rudnik is an analyst at the Ostrogorski Centre and and MA student at Stockholm University.</p></div>
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