Featuring historian Aleh Trusau
At the beginning of autumn 1739, the wife of a poor landowner, the owner of the village of Chyzova in the Dukhavshchyna district, Darya Vasilevna, who was expecting a child, had an unusual dream – the sun rolled towards her. Soon after, a son was born. He was destined to live just a little over 50 years. But what a life it was! The inscription on the magnificent funeral catafalque stated:
“…the most diligent son of the Fatherland, the unifier of Crimea, Taman, and Kuban into the Russian Empire, the founder and creator of victorious fleets on the southern seas, … the founder and creator of many cities, the patron of sciences, arts, and trade…” And this was no exaggeration. Indeed, he was one of those people who constitute the glory and honor of Russia and Smolensk. His name is Prince Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin-Tauride.
Viachaslau Rakitski: “Is it really true that Prince Potemkin was Belarusian?”
Aleh Trusau: “Not only Prince Potemkin. The entire Smolensk nobility is, by origin, Belarusian, and Potemkin’s ancestors have lived in Smolensk since the 16th century.”
Rakitski: “And why should Belarusians today include such a not very attractive figure, not very unambiguous even for Russian history, in their history, in their consciousness?”
Trusau: “We need to know the founder of the Black Sea Fleet, the founder of such cities as Kherson, Sevastopol, and Simferopol. And, by the way, Potemkin was the owner of Krychaw. In Krychaw, there stands a three-story palace built by this prince. So this figure belongs one hundred percent to Belarusian history.”
Rakitski: “And how did he consider himself?”
Trusau: “It is hard to say. But the entire Smolensk nobility knew the Belarusian language well. During the 1897 census, 65-70 percent of the inhabitants of almost all districts of Smolensk identified themselves as Belarusians. And at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of people who identified themselves as Belarusians had already reached 75-80 percent. This is the statistics of the Soviet era.”
Rakitski: “And nevertheless, this is a short period in the history of time. The history of Smolensk spans centuries. And the lands of Smolensk have changed hands many times – sometimes joining the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, sometimes the Russian Empire.”
Trusau: “The Smolensk lands are ethnically pure. They have been inhabited primarily by Krivichs since ancient times. Even the famous Soviet academic Boris Rybakov wrote that ‘Smolensk is the state of Krivichs among Russian lands.’ The Krivich origins of Smolensk were not denied even by Soviet historians. And if the Krivichs are not Belarusians, then who are they?”
Rakitski: “Historians could not refute this, but we know well that sometimes rulers try to outsmart history, and for a certain time, they seem to succeed. At least, they outsmart the same historians. So how did it happen that there was no aggressive Russification in these lands, which was the policy of the Russian Empire?”
Trusau: “Smolensk was incorporated into the Russian Empire in parts. The first part, along with Smolensk, finally entered the composition of Muscovy after the mid-17th century war when in 1667, Smolensk was handed over to Moscow in the village of Andrusovo. However, it was handed over together with the entire population. And the Belarusian nobility, in order not to lose their possessions, swore allegiance to the Russian tsar, and the tsar did not evict them, as in other regions, to Siberia or the north. Later, when the next part of Smolensk – Mstislavl – was taken after the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, all active Russification went westward. They first Russified Mogilev, Vitebsk, and Minsk, and a little later – Grodno. And Smolensk seemed to be forgotten because the nobility served faithfully, all converted to Orthodoxy. The Smolensk people remained Belarusians, moreover – they were reinforced by the population brought from central Belarus.”
Rakitski: “So who is to blame for the fact that Smolensk did not get Russified? The nobility served faithfully to the Russian tsar. The nobility accepted Orthodoxy.”
Trusau: “And then, in the second half of the 19th century, this nobility would take the most active part in the Belarusian revival.”
Rakitski: “Why?”
Trusau: “Because Smolensk was the center of the Belarusian humanitarian environment. In the 15th-16th centuries, all Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicles were created in Smolensk. Here, the famous Razivila Chronicle was written, which has about a thousand illustrations. Smolensk was a cultural center of medieval Belarus. The Russians always demanded from their neighbors to give them Smolensk and Kyiv. They believed that if they took these cities, then all the so-called ‘Russian’ lands, which means Ukraine and Belarus, would become Russian.”
Rakitski: “Let’s return to the figure of Potemkin. Could it be that suddenly, under certain conditions, he would feel himself to be Belarusian? And what would happen then?”
Trusau: “If, for example, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had strengthened, and if Augustus Poniatowski, who also has Belarusian roots, had been a strong king, then it is not excluded that under certain conditions Potemkin, with all his territory and all this nobility, would have returned to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as has happened more than once with the Smolensk nobility. They constantly chose a stronger ruler for themselves and more than once switched from east to west and from west to east.”
Rakitski: “And Potemkin would start conquering new cities for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Belarus?”
Trusau: “I have no doubt. Moreover, the entire Smolensk nobility was very militant. They even received a commendation from Peter the Great because they fought separately from the Russians, having their own dragoon regiments. By the way, the Smolensk nobility, together with the Polotsk, took Izmail.”
Rakitski: “How and when did the residents of Smolensk come to have Belarusian self-awareness?”
Trusau: “It came in the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the well-known figure Nasovich. Living in Smolensk, in Mstislavl, Nasovich created the first large Belarusian-Russian dictionary. And in this dictionary, we see the Smolensk dialect. Then let’s take the Haretzki dynasty, which comes from Bahatskawshchyna in the Smolensk district. And even in Soviet times, we find there outstanding figures who did not deny their Belarusian origin. For example, the outstanding poet Alexander Tvardovsky. The very surname indicates his Belarusian roots, that he is from the Smolensk nobility.”
Rakitski: “Why did such unique processes for Belarusian history occur here, in the very east of Belarus?”
Trusau: “They occurred on the border of two cultures. Even from the collection of Kirkor’s proverbs, it became clear that the most popular proverb there was ‘fear the Muscovite – the Muscovite is worse than the devil.’ Smolensk was constantly attacked by representatives of Eurasian culture. Smolensk and Vilnius were two pillars of Belarusian identity. Chronicles were written there. Temples were built there. Belarusian history was created there. And the final loss of Vilnius and Smolensk at the same time, which happened in 1919, led Belarus to decline, which was characteristic of it throughout almost the entire 20th century.”
Rakitski: “We read historical literature published in Russia. We hear through Russian media that Smolensk is ‘an ancient and truly Russian city.’ When did it become such?”
Trusau: “The first attempt to name it as such was made at the very beginning of the 16th century. This is in 1503-1504, when the Russian authorities, then called Muscovite, made claims to Smolensk and Kyiv. It was from this time that they everywhere called this city ‘truly Russian.’”
Rakitski: “I arrive in Smolensk. I see this city. But I do not see Belarusian identity in it. What happened to this city in the 20th century, which reflects in our consciousness?”
Trusau: “In the 20th century, the last rise of Belarusian identity in Smolensk occurred in the 1920s. At that time, the Belarusian Soviet government raised the issue of transferring part of Smolensk into the BSSR, and there were certain agreements in this regard. These were border districts or counties, and there were Belarusian-speaking schools, newspapers published in Belarusian. Perhaps by the end of the 1930s, four or five districts of Smolensk would have become Belarusian. However, Stalin’s repressions began. And then the terrible war completely hindered this. The front stood there for two years – from 1941 to 1943. And the indigenous population of Smolensk was either physically destroyed or evacuated far away to Siberia. And people from all over the Soviet Union began to populate Smolensk. Only 29 thousand residents of Smolensk now call themselves Belarusians.”
Rakitski: “What happened to these lands at the end of the 20th century?”
Trusau: “Whenever a revival begins, Smolensk actively participates in it. This also happened at the end of the last century. In 1990, I was part of the Belarusian parliamentary delegation that met with deputies of the Russian parliament from Smolensk in Moscow and negotiated with them about the possible return of part of Smolensk to Belarus through a referendum. At that time, the USSR had just adopted the Law on Referendums. And we were surprised by the enthusiasm of all the Smolensk deputies on this issue. They, as it turned out, knew their ethnic origin well. And they said to us: ‘Guys, as soon as there is a referendum, we will go to Belarus, because life is better in Belarus.’ And had it not been for the rapid collapse of the Soviet Union, it is possible that we could have accomplished what our predecessors failed to do in the late 1920s – to return at least a few of the most Belarusian districts of Smolensk. The most interesting thing is that as soon as Lukashenko and Yeltsin invented the so-called union state, the elite of Smolensk immediately proposed to establish the capital of this so-called union state in Smolensk. They even showed memorial plaques stating that it was there that the BSSR was created.”
In negotiations with ambassadors of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1503 and 1504, Russian diplomats stated that an eternal peace with the Grand Duchy could not be signed as long as Russian lands remained under the rule of Lithuanian princes:
“It is not just our homeland, which cities and volosts are still with us: and all of Russia, Kyiv and Smolensk and other cities… by God’s will, from ancient times, from our ancestors our homeland.”