The Belarusian national revival ( be, Беларускае нацыянальнае адраджэнне) is a social, cultural and political movement that advocates the revival of

Belarusian culture The culture of Belarus is the product of a millennium of development under the impact of a number of diverse factors. These include the physical environment; the ethnographic background of Belarusians (the merger of Slavic newcomers with Baltic n ...

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

, customs, and the creation of the Belarusian statehood at the national foundation. In the early and mid 19th century,

Jan Czeczot Jan Czeczot of Ostoja ( be, Ян Чачот, ''Jan Čačot,'' lt, Jonas Čečiotas, 1796–1847) was a Polish romantic poet and ethnographer. Fascinated by the folklore and the traditional folk songs of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a c ...

, Wladyslaw Syrokomla, Wincenty Dunin-Marcinkiewicz, Jan Barszczewski and several other writers, most of whom represented the local nobility, created the first literary works in modern

Belarusian language Belarusian ( be, беларуская мова, biełaruskaja mova, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language. It is the native language of many Belarusians and one of the two official state languages in Belarus. Additionally, it is spoken in some ...

. Their works were written in local rural dialects and ignored the traditions of the written

Old Belarusian language Ruthenian (Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly ...

from the period of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...

. In the second half of the 19th century, leftist national clubs emerged among Belarusian students in the major universities of the Russian Empire, i.e. in the

University of St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the ...

. These clubs issued several illegal publications, for example, Homan with demands for autonomy or independence for Belarus.

Ignacy Hryniewiecki Ignacy Hryniewiecki or Ignaty Ioakhimovich Grinevitsky). (russian: Игнатий Гриневицкий, pl, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, be, Ігнат Грынявіцкі; — March 13, 1881) was a Polish member of the Russian revolutionary socie ...

, the assassin of

Tsar Alexander II of Russia Alexander II ( rus, Алекса́ндр II Никола́евич, Aleksándr II Nikoláyevich, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ftɐˈroj nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvʲɪtɕ; 29 April 181813 March 1881) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finlan ...

, according to some historians, was one of the creators of the Belarusian faction in the Russian socialist movement

Narodnaya Volya Narodnaya Volya ( rus, Наро́дная во́ля, p=nɐˈrodnəjə ˈvolʲə, t=People's Will) was a late 19th-century revolutionary political organization in the Russian Empire which conducted assassinations of government officials in an att ...

References

{{National revivals Belarusian nationalism Political history of Belarus 19th century in Belarus 20th century in Belarus

See also

References