Audrey Tykhomirov Belarusian Wine in Ukrainian Bottles

The review analyzes main theses of Valer Bulgakav's "History of Belarusian Na­tionalism" (Vilnius, 2006). Bulgakav explores the problem of Belarusian nation-building in the context of work of the literary scholar and jurist Franoishak Bohushevich and the historian Mikhail Koyalovich, also known as founder of ideology of "West-Rus'ism." The review notes shifting of the emphasis from the traditional identification of the origins of the Belamsian national idea with the work of Belaruso-Polish litterateurs of the first half of the 19th century to the representatives of the "West-Rus'ian" school. These figures looked towards Russia and rejected the idea of independence of the Belarusian nation. The reviewer stresses pronounced elements of reductionism inherent in many of the book's theses and notes considerable influence of the Ukrainian studies, as well as frequent inconsistencies in Bulgakav's argumentation. The book is characterized by an "intellectual rehabilitation" of the "West-Rus'iist" school; combination of several types of narration; refusal to acknowledge Polish influences on Belarusian nationalism (all the same recognizing Polish-speaking F. Bohushevich as a Belarusian). The reviewer describes Bulgakav's monograph as symptomatic of the present state of Belarusian humanities, - distinguished by the search for new conceptions and through the attempts to incorporate local humanities into the Western intellectual field (to a large extent through sometimes problematic borrowings from the works of Ukrainian writers).