27TH JUNE 1997: 'REFLECTIONS ON BELARUSIAN NATION: ITS HISTORY, LANGUAGE AND RELIGION'. AN INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR VIACHESLAV VERENICH. (Wywiad z profesorem Wereniczem)

The text is a transcript of a conversation with an ethnolinguist Viacheslav Verenich, a professor in the Department of Linguistics of Belarusian Academy of Sciences, the initiator of research on the borderland Polish dialects in Lithuania and Belarus. Recorded on 27th June 1997, it was carried out in Polish with some interference in Russian and Belarussian. The text was prepared without changing the meaning of the statement. However,it was not authorized due to professor's death in 1999.The main subject of the interview was Belarus and Belarussians - their history, culture and language. The crucial question was whether Belarussians are a nation or not. Verenich mentioned numerous historical facts, both from the Belarussian and universal history, as well as contemporary facts and people e.g. politicians. He analyzed current political situation critically, bringing up good and bad points. He did not forejudge it though but pointed out the changeable nature of the process of identity building in Belarus. Expressing his own point of view Verenich let the interviewer - and now a reader - draw his/her own conclusions. The interview includes some facts from professor's personal life which can serve as telling examples of the social and political complexity of contemporary Belarus.