IV. Culture

Belarusian culture developed most notably from the mid-19th century. In the late 1920s, the Soviet regime began to control cultural expression by imposing the dogma of socialist realism, which required all artists and writers to depict only the positive aspects of Soviet society. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, state control of the arts has continued in Belarus. The Ministry of Culture carries out oversight functions such as the screening of written works prior to publication. Studies of Belarusian national culture have been hindered since the mid-1990s because of the state’s reversion to Russian-oriented cultural activities.

A. Literature

In the early 1900s, poets Yanka Kupala and Yakub Kolas promoted the literary use of the Belarusian language, which was banned within the Russian Empire until 1905. Their works are considered the classics of Belarusian literature. Many Belarusian writers were prominent in the 1920s, including Mitrofan Donvar-Zapolsky and Ales’ Harun. By the 1930s “national” literature, which promoted the idea of Belarusian nationhood, was largely displaced by Soviet literature dedicated to the glorification of the regime. This development was particularly marked during and after World War II, when socialist realism was blended with patriotic accounts of the partisans and events of the war.

The main literary figures of Belarus today can be demarcated along generational lines. A senior group of writers includes those who experienced the war, including Vasil Bykov, author of numerous novels about that era and a pioneer of the East European variant of literary existentialism. This group also includes Yanka Bryl, an essayist and author whose works focus more on Western Europe. The middle generation includes poets Rygor Borodulin and Nila Gilevicha and dramatist Aleksey Dudarev. The younger group of literary figures includes poet Leonid Dran’ko-Maysyuk, and Vladimir Orlov and Pyotr Vasyuchenko, who write historical and experimental prose, respectively.

B. Music, Dance, and Theater

Belarus’s opera and ballet companies have long-standing reputations. Their primary venue, the Opera and Ballet Theater (founded in 1932) in Minsk, holds regular and well-attended performances. The popular Theater of Musical Comedy (1970) is also located in the capital, as is the Belarusian Musical Academy (1932). Of the many orchestras in the country, the most prominent are the Belarusian State Philharmonic and the Belarusian State Symphony Orchestra. The state musical repertoire is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture.

The leading drama theater in Belarus is the Yanka Kupala Belarusian State Academic Theater (1920), located in Minsk. Other major theaters include the Gorky Russian Theater (1932) in Babruysk, and the Yakub Kolas Belarusian State Academic Theater (1925) in Minsk. The avant-garde Minsk theater Vol’naya Stsena (Free Stage) opened in 1990 to focus on Belarusian drama and classics.

C. Libraries and Museums

The National Library of Belarus, noted for its selection of Belarusian literature, is the country’s largest library. This and other large libraries are located in Minsk. In addition, there are about 5,500 smaller libraries in the country.

Museums in Belarus include the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, the Belarus State Art Museum, and the National Museum of the History and Culture of Belarus, all located in Minsk. Several museums are dedicated to renowned writers such as Yakub Kolas, and others focus on Soviet-era political figures such as Petr Masherov. A small museum in Minsk denotes the meeting place of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) in 1898; after a split into two factions, the Bolshevik wing of this group eventually evolved into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.