ABSTRACT
The concept of Central Europe as elaborated by Milan Kundera is a powerful speech act that invokes a crucial layer of the local experience. The victimizing narrative of a kidnapped Central Europe lay the foundation for a whole set of successful identity politics in the post-Cold War period. Though its underlying historical experience is indeed crucial for the region, the narrative also unavoidably remains context specific. The local story of "Europe" has been a bit different. The key task of Belarusian nationalism, from the time of its birth in the 19th century, was securing Belarusian cultural and linguistic identity in resistance to the imperial practices of "making Russians" and achieving emancipation from the conditions of social inequality in the Russian Empire. The contrast was traditionally emphasized between legal institutions of the Great Duchy, the flourishing of education, freedom and culture versus the despotic "Eastern" or "Asiatic" Muscovy, which passed on its essential traits to subsequent incarnations of Russian statehood.
