“The Belarusian-Jewish Utopia”: An Overview of the Problem

The lecture presents the concept of ‘the Belarusian-Jewish Utopia’. It includes, firstly, special line in Belarusian literature from the late 1890s and, secondly, a separate line in historiography appeared in the early 1920s. The author looks thorough Belarusian political writings in the 1890s ‑ 1920s, as well as historical writings since the early 1920s until now paying attention to the image of Jews. The lecture concentrates on several attempts of Jewish activists to establish contacts with the Belarusian People’s Front in 1989-1994 and analyses steps to establish the Jewish Department in Skoryna National Scientific Educational Center in the first half of the 1990s. The lecture explores archival materials from Belarusian State Archives of Literature and Arts (Minsk) and the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus.