1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 228. Belarus government support for the activities of Lithuanian Associations in the Grodno, Minsk, Moghiliov and Vitebsk regions of the Republic of Belarus, 1994-2001 and beyond

Keywords

2. Author information:
2.1 Author’s Name
Alexander Gurko

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Belarus State University of Culture
Minsk 220113
Box 80
Belarus

E-mail: hurko@it.org.by

2.3 Date recorded
25/02/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
Involvement of representatives of the Lithuanian minority of Belarus in the planning and implementation of governmental activities aimed at fostering interethnic consensus, protecting and developing the languages and culture of the various minorities. Support by the government of Belarus for the activities of Lithuanian Associations.

3.2 Location
Republic of Belarus. More than 3,000 Lithuanians are territorially concentrated in the Grodno region (25 populated areas). Other regions of compact Lithuanian settlement are in the Minsk, Moghiliov and Vitebsk regions.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Minority : Lithuanians
Target groups: Seven Lithuanian cultural ethnic associations.

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
The State Committee for Religions and Nationalities (SCRN) and its regional branches have a budget to finance the implementation the state national policy and minority activities. In the regional branches there are departments whose task it is to deal with religious and ethnic problems.

3.6 Timeframe
Specific activities were launched in 1994, 1995, 1997. The program is intended to continue.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The Constitution and Legislation of the Belarus Republic recognize the existence of ethnic minorities as a part of the Belarus nation. According to Article 14 of the Constitution the state regulates the relations between social, ethnic and other communities on the basis of the principles of equality, estimation of its rights and interests. Article 15 provides that the state bears the responsibility for the protection of the spiritual and cultural heritage and free development of all ethnic cultures in the republic.

4. Good Practice Description
According to the 1999 census, 6,387 Lithuanians live in Belarus. The chairwoman of the public association Belarus Community of Lithuanians (BCL), director of the Lithuanian Centre of Culture, Education and Information – Virginia Tarnovskaite – estimates that there are in fact not less than 18,000 Lithuanians in Belarus.

In 1990 the governments of Belarus and Lithuania signed an agreement for the opening of the Lithuanian school in the Peliasa village (Voronov district, Grodno region; this school obtained a licence from the Belarus Ministry of Education). The same year the Lithuanian public association Tevine began its activities in Grodno.

In 1995, after negotiations between the prime-ministers of Belarus and Lithuania, the Belarus government increased its support for the activities of Lithuanian associations. In 1996 a monument to Vitovt the Great, a principal of the Lithuanian Great Principality, was opened in Grodno.

Opportunities to study the Lithuanian language, history and culture were created at schools, clubs, libraries and other institutions that operate under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Culture. In the 1999-2000 school year 389 persons studied Lithuanian. The teachers of such classes receive support with teaching methods, and participate in work at local pedagogical institutions. The teachers’ salary is paid by one of the two parties involved– Belarus or Lithuanian – according to the concrete situation.

Republican and local newspapers inform their readers about the activities of the Lithuanian national-cultural associations. Such associations function in the cities of Grodno, Lida, Braslava and Minsk; in two settlements of the Voronov district (Grodno region); and there is also a Lithuanian Association functioning in the Gherviady region.

Virginia Tarnovskaite, chairwoman of the BCL, in an interview with the Belarus Business Newspaper, qualified the state support of Lithuanian community as declarative because of the lack of special mechanisms for the implementation of constitutional and legislative principles. On the other hand, the BCL organized Lithuanian Sunday schools with excursions to the historical places of the former Lithuanian Principality – Mir, Lida, Nesvizh.

Some Lithuanian school libraries are being organised and some teachers from Vilno were invited to Lithuanian schools in Belarus. The financing of these activities comes from the Department on Nationalities and Emigration of the Government of Lithuania and from Lithuanian public associations. Lithuania also financed the building of the Lithuanian house of culture in Grodno, whose opening was scheduled for 18 March 2001.