Olga Sienkiewicz on the Power of Belarusian Literature

olga-sienkiewicz-_fot-michal-dabrowski-1240.jpg, default, Olga Sienkiewicz, December 2020, photo: M. Dąbrowski

We talk to Olga Sienkiewicz, a teacher of the Belarusian language, about the fate of the Belarusian minority in Poland and about literature from the borderland of cultures.

Michał Dąbrowski (MD): Where are you from, and what language was spoken at home?

Olga Sienkiewicz (OS): I was born in Klejniki, a village between Bielskie Podlaski and Hajnówka. At home, we spoke a Belarusian dialect. I didn't start learning Polish until primary school.

In our village, only one family was not Orthodox – a family of teachers who were displaced here after World War II, as punishment for fighting in the Home Army. They came from the vicinity of Nowy Sącz. Apart from them, everyone spoke Belarusian in their own way. I believe – and it’s not just me – that this is a Belarusian dialect, but a specific one, one from Podlasie.

The common feature of this dialect and the Belarusian language was the short ‘u’, or ‘Ў’ (e.g. dał – dau [gave], był – byu [was]) and a longer pronunciation of vowels. What was different in the Klejniki dialect from the Belarusian language was the lack of akanie (akanie is the pronunciation of the vowels ‘e’ or ‘o’ as ‘a’, in unstressed syllables).

In our village, as well as in neighbouring ones, the pronunciation was somewhat similar to Ukrainian – that is, having a harder sound, but not completely Ukrainian. Local residents would say choditi, not chodyty.

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Wooden house in Czyże, photo: Andrzej Sidor / Forum

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MD: Did your parents feel Belarusian? Or maybe they described themselves as locals?

OS: They felt Belarusian, definitely.

My dad often spoke to me about history. I know from him that in our village, in the Interwar period, a census was taken in which most people declared Belarusian nationality. Only a few people said they were from here.

MD: What was the reason?

OS: If you say that you’re Belarusian, Ukrainian or Polish, then you immediately indicate which culture and language you are associated with. Localness limits you to something smaller – it’s less of a commitment.

MD: What did the houses in Klejniki look like?

OS: There were wooden ornaments around the windows. Even in poor estates, there was a front garden; lilacs and hollyhocks would grow next to the house. In addition, there was the obligatory fence and bench. This was the yard – it was well taken care of. The land was the most important to people.

MD: Did you learn Belarusian in primary school?

OS: Yes. In the second grade, I signed up for additional Belarusian lessons. In this rural school, you had to declare your willingness to participate in such activities.

I remember that when I came back from the first lesson, I asked my dad: ‘Who am I?’ Władysław Bełza's poem with the excerpt ‘Kto ty jesteś – Polak mały’ (‘Who are you – a small Pole’) had not been taught at school yet. Dad said that we are Belarusians who live in Poland.

MD: Did your family have books at home? In what language?

OS: We had only a few books – mostly religious books in the Old Church Slavonic language. I remember reading The Peasants by Władysław Reymont translated into Russian at home. Later, when I was in elementary school, I asked to borrow Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, but not in Russian – translated into Polish. Our neighbour often came to our house, and we read books together.

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Orthodox church in Klejniki, 2007, photo: Mariusz Olkowski / Forum

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MD: After high school, you decided to study Belarusian Philology at the University of Warsaw.

OS: In the second half of the 1970s, 10 people were admitted to Belarusian Philology, 10 to Ukrainian Philology, and about 100 to Russian at the Institute of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Warsaw. In this way, the context of caring for national minorities was created. The program at the university was subordinated to socialist ideology; later, I had to learn many more things.

Thumbnail — Aleksander Barszczewski, fot. Katedra Białorutenistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego

The classes that were part of the Belarusian Philology programme were conducted by, amongst others, repatriates from Belarus – that is, de facto Poles, who did not care much about teaching the Belarusian language. I felt unsatisfied with such limited, pigeonholed knowledge. The literature was limited to topics that were allowed to be discussed in Belarus, like socialist realism and war. The head of the faculty was Aleksander Barszczewski (pseudonym Aleś Barski), who wrote in Belarusian. A wise, interesting poet – a representative of the Belarusian minority in Poland.

I liked being in Warsaw, but I missed home a lot. Those were different times, 1978 – deep into the years under the communist regime. At that time, students of Belarusian Philology were referred to with contempt – as ‘maidens from the east’.

MD: Was there an underground circulation of books and magazines?

OS: Barely. A breath of freedom didn’t come until the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At that time, magazines started to appear in the Hajnówka Museum, organised by Konstanty Mojsienna – no textbooks yet, but at least there was something to read. Belarusian immigrants, mainly from the United States and Great Britain, began to send to the museum works of emigrated writers that had not been mentioned before. I read a lot then.

MD: Did you go back to your hometown after your studies?

OS: Yes. After graduation, I started working at the Primary School in Czyże. I was a teacher and taught Belarusian. Later, I transferred to Primary School No. 3 in Hajnówka – because there were no teachers there, and few people had completed higher education. I also had a few hours of Belarusian, but few were interested in it then… just like today, what can I say? If a class consisted of 30 people, then 10 attended Belarusian. I also taught humanities – for example, history, which I liked very much. I worked at this school for about 12 years.

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Sokrat Janowicz, Krynki, 2011, photo: Anatol Chomicz / Forum

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MD: Later, you transferred to the General Secondary School with Additional Belarusian Language Classes in Hajnówka?

OS: Yes. Bazyl Dąbrowski, the director at the time, offered me the job. The most interesting professional years for me were those spent working in the high school. At that time, there were already many opportunities for development.

At the beginning, mainly old textbooks issued by the BSSR were available, and materials for lessons had to be photocopied over and over again. In the end, I started making textbooks myself, because I cared about my students. I wanted to pass on the current knowledge and show authors not only from Belarus, but also from Podlasie, like Sokrat Janowicz, Ales Barski, Wiktor Szwed, Jan Czykwin – bards from the Białystok region. I could not imagine textbooks without the works of Uladzimir Karatkiewicz, Wasil Bykau, the forbidden Maksim Harecki or Ales Arłou. These were really interesting pieces and new topics in literature.

Our high school owes a lot to Pavel Latushko, a diplomat who later became the Minister of Culture and Belarusian ambassador to Poland. He provided the school with lots of study materials, magazines – it was a big deal. He also helped in organizing trips to Minsk.

MD: When did you write your first textbook?

OS: The first one was published in 2000, and a more extensive one a year later. I wrote the third one after I retired; I had more time to fine-tune it. I am happy with them.

My textbooks are used by teachers and students in Hajnówka, Bielsk Podlaski and Białystok.

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Textbooks by Olgi Sienkiewicz for learning the Belarusian language, photo: M. Dąbrowski

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MD: Currently, Pavel Latushko supports pro-democratic protests. Are you surprised by their scale?

OS: I admire them. I did not expect them to happen, that it would take so long and on such a scale. Belarusians are probably really fed up with Lukashenka. It seems to me that they are motivated by material issues and human rights more than nationality issues.

MD: How is it historically possible to justify the difficulty of Belarusians in creating an independent state?

OS: Belarus almost never had its own statehood. Let's look at the principalities – when Poland had the Duchy of Polan and Wiślan, there were the tribes of Krywicz and Dregowicz, and later the Duchy of Nowogródek, Minsk, Połockie, Grodno and Turov. The strongest of them was the Duchy of Połockie. Interestingly, Christianity came to these areas not only from Kievan Rus’, but also from Greece.

At the time when Kievan Rus’ was getting stronger, the Duchy of Mazovia was also growing in strength, and it was putting more and more pressure on our territory. It was even said that Drohiczyn was both Russian and Polish. There was always some border between the nations in these areas. Belarusian lands were first under the control of the Kievan Rus’, and then became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, an unusual creation in which all the rulers came from Aukštaitija – so Lithuania – from the Baltic tribes.

MD: The official language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was Old Belarusian.

OS: Yes. The Jagiellonians adopted the Old Belarusian language as well as culture. State documents were written in Old Belarusian – because the Lithuanians had not yet developed their language at that time, and they also remained pagans longer. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy was written in Old Belarusian; it was really important then. Latin was in the West, and here, between Warsaw and Moscow, there was Old Belarusian. Further east, you had ‘rasiejski’, as some say, a language associated with Moscow.

MD: What happened next?

OS: After the Union of Lublin, Podlasie, Wołyń and the Kiev region became part of the Kingdom of Poland. As a result of the Union of Brest, Orthodox believers became dependent on Rome, which also increased Polish influences. Later, the magnate families of Sapieha, Radziwiłł and Tyszkiewicz, who lived in today's western Belarus, slowly became Polonised, as did the nobility. After the partitions of Poland, there were Russian influences here.

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Bronisław Taraszkiewicz & ‘Białoruska Gramatyka dla Szkół’ (Belarusian Grammar for Schools), photo: Wikipedia

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MD: What about the declaration of the Belarusian People's Republic in 1918?

OS: This nation quickly collapsed, but it was then that the white-red-white flag and the Pogoń coat of arms were introduced. Then also, the grammar of the Belarusian language was developed, the author of which was Bronisław Taraszkiewicz. The orthography system developed by him is commonly known as ‘taraszkiewica’. The high school in Bielsk Podlaski is named after him. Interestingly, even in the Interwar period, there was a fairly strong group of Belarusian deputies in the Polish Sejm, including Taraszkiewicz.

MD: And what was the situation of the Belarusian minority in Poland in the Interwar period?

OS: The situation of the minority probably worsened after the May Coup in 1926. Belarusian organisations, such as Hramada, were accused of communism.

Before the outbreak of World War II, during the Orthodox New Year, crimes were taking place in our areas, for example in Nowe and Stare Berezowo. My dad mentioned that in a neighbouring village, there was a Belarusian event that was deemed an illegal gathering; several boys were handcuffed and brought to trial. In the 1930s, the re-Polonisation of the Eastern Orthodox Church began – attempts were made to force the masses to be held in Polish, but for such a rural population, these were incomprehensible actions.

My mum said that she learned to read in Polish because she spent two years in a Polish Sanacja school. My dad, in turn, had the opportunity to attend Orthodox religion lessons. During that time, Belarusian was not taught in schools.

MD: And during World War II?

OS: From 17th September 1939, there were Russians in Podlasie who brought teachers with them. Lessons were taught in Russian, but Belarusian language lessons also existed. This state of affairs lasted until June of 1941 – that is, until the German invasion of the USSR. After the arrival of the Germans, the Belarusian lessons continued.

MD: What did declaring Belarusian nationality mean during the war?

OS: There were times when people were afraid to admit it.

During World War II, my mother's brother studied at the railway technical school in Białystok. It was 1941, and the Russian authorities were here. In his documents, it was written that he was Belarusian. Right away, he was drafted into the Red Army.

My dad told me another story. For 18 months was in forced labor in Olsztyn, which was then East Prussia. He worked at the mill, he was there with a friend from the village. It was the end of the war – January or February 1944. The Russian front was approaching. They were also warned not to say that they were Belarusians, because they would be sent to the army. Another issue was that in Russia it was a time of collectivization – something quite foreign to the mentality of the people of our territories, who were attached to their piece of land. The brother and his friend walked home from Olsztyn.

What was the political climate like in these areas after World War II?

OS: Between 1946-1947, people from nearby villages were persuaded to leave for Belarus. Our family did not want to leave Poland, and only a few people left the village.

After the end of World War II, the border between Poland and Belarus changed, as a result of which several villages, such as Opaka, were almost divided in half. These shifting borders and official languages in the 19th and 20th centuries created a specific character, but did not allow many people to define their identity.

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House in Nowogródek where Adam Mickiewicz lived, 1939, photo: National Digital Archives

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Nowogródek, dom, w którym mieszkał Adam Mickiewicz, 1939, fot. Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, NAC

Let us stop discussing what separated people and move on to what Poland and Belarus have in common.

OS: The best example of someone who connects these two nations is Adam Mickiewicz. To this day, some do not know why Mickiewicz wrote " Oh Lithuania, my homeland!" He meant the land between the Grodno region and Minsk.

Did Mickiewicz speak Belarusian?

OS: He must have heard it and probably understood it, and while in Paris, he even tried writing in Belarusian.

In the capital of France, during his lectures on Slavic literature, he spoke favourably about the Belarusian language, he mentioned the Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that we discussed. He spoke about the Belarusian language as 'the old Slavic Haworka', the least changed language. He believed that it was the most harmonious Slavic language.

Are Belarusian influences visible in his work?

OS: The rites of the forefathers are based on the beliefs of the Belarusian people. 'Świteź', 'Świtezianka', 'Lilie' are also based on local legends.

Who, apart from Mickiewicz, inspired these regions?

OS: Ryszard Kapuściński was inspired by Polesie, Pińsk, 'Polesie mud'. In his 'Calendar and the Hourglass', Tadeusz Konwicki goes back to his childhood and wonders what language he communicated in – Polish or Belarusian. During the war, he was hiding in a peasant, Belarusian hut. We should also mention Czesław Niemen, Eliza Orzeszkowa and Czesław Miłosz.

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Pocket edition of Maksim Bahdanowicz’s poetry, photo: M. Dąbrowski

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What is the history of works written simultaneously in Polish and Belarusian?

OS: In the mid-nineteenth century, during the Romantic Period, with the advent of a certain fashion for folk, new literature emerged in Belarusian. Initially, it was written in Polish and Belarusian, or Belarusian and Russian, as if no one had the courage to start writing only in Belarusian. It was, among others, Jan Czeczot, a friend of Mickiewicz, with whom he studied in Vilnius. Later also Jan Barszczewski and Tomasz Zan.

In Belarusian literature, almost everyone has pseudonyms. Maybe this Belarusianness was a bit hidden, unfashionable, sometimes unnecessary, maybe it was interfering with something. The real name of Jakub Kołas, considered a classic of Belarusian literature, was Kanstancin Mickiewicz.

What Belarusian writers do you recommend?

OS: While preparing proposals for the matura exam, I sent the piece "Apokryf" by Maksim Bahdanowicz, one of the classics, who died at the age of 26, to the Central Examination Board. The lady who supervised the exam preparation process told me delightedly that it was such a beautiful piece that she bought a dictionary just to understand everything.

Are Belarusian writers translated into Polish?

OS: 'The Anthology of Belarusian Poetry' is available, and there are many translations of Yanka Kupala, Maksim Bahdanovič, and Maksim Tank. With them you can start your adventure with Belarusian poetry.

The White-Red-White Banner of Polish-Belarusian Literature

When it comes to prose, Vasil Býkaŭ – who was nominated for the Nobel Prize together with Wisława Szymborska – is someone whose work is definitely translated. His works are very eloquent and quite drastic. I can read them when I am relaxed or when I really need to experience something. Býkaŭ wrote, inter alia, about the times of collectivization, labor camps and exiles. This type of prose was banned for a long time, it was not printed. Uladzimir Karatkievich, the author of the Belarusian historical novel, is also translated.

Belarusian literature is really strong. It's worth reading.

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In Our Own Way

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