Authors

Discussion

The paper examines the themes of Belarusian national identity and cultural heritage by looking into the interplay of academic research and political ideology of Soviet and early post-Soviet periods in creating dynamic yet lasting symbols of the Belarusian nation. The three case studies within the Belarus collection of the British Library look at the figures of Frantsysk Skaryna, Kastus Kalinouski and Svetlana Aleksievich, their role in the Belarusian “pantheon” of national idols, and their representation within the Slavonic collection. Taking into consideration the politics of memory, the paper looks into the possibilities and challenges of interpretation of the nuanced history of Belarusian identity for the British Library audience. More general library decolonisation practices are discussed using the specifics of the Belarusian context. The paper argues for a postcolonial approach to collection interpretation, highlighting practices of decentring and re-contextualising, and advocates for historical multivocality in the representation of collection materials.