Belarus, an Vitryssland

Belarusian expat community has addressed the authorities of Sweden with a demand to change the official Swedish name of Belarus from “Vitryssland” to “Belarus”.

As the press-release received by the www.charter97.org website from Swedish Belarusians reads, the initiative has been supported by a number of well-known Swedish politicians and public leaders, as well as the Swedish Ambassador to Belarus Stefan Eriksson. The occasion for the proposal was named ungrounded likeness of the name of Belarus with the name of Russia.

The Foreign Ministry of Sweden, the Swedish Language Council and the Swedish Academy have received an open letter of a group of Belarusians living in the country. The Belarusians demanded those institutions to study the issue of changing the official name of Belarus in Swedish. The authors believe that the present name, “Vitryssland”, which direct translation means “White Russia”, plays down sovereignty of Belarus. Participants of the initiative complain that the Swedish confuse them with Russians because of this absurd word.

A pop-group Dreamgale was initiator of the campaign. Its radio hits “Wonders”, “Life in a mirror” and others are well-known in Belarus now. Participants of the group Mike Sender and Dmitry Palagin, together with historian Andrei Katlyarchuk, where the first who raised that problem in the Belarusian expat community of Sweden I April. Mike Sender is promoting this initiative and is carrying out talks with authorities of Sweden now.

When in 1991 the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was changed for “Republic of Belarus”, most countries of the world changed this name in their languages too. But in Swedish the word “White Russia” remained. In the following years a discussion on this inadequate name started in Germany and Denmark, where state languages also called Belarus “White Russia”. As a result, the country’s name was officially changed for “Belarus” in the both countries. The Foreign Ministry of Sweden and other addressees of the letter haven’t expressed their attitude to the initiative yet, but they stated that the issue is studied.

The question of the name of Belarus is being considered by Swedish authorities for the second time. Urban Alin raised the problem for the first time in 1996. Then the Language Council refused to change the name, considering the grounds for that insufficient. Now the issue is raised by Belarusians themselves, with the support of a number of prominent Swedish politicians and public leaders, including the Ambassador of Sweden to Belarus Stefan Eriksson.

Initiators of the campaign also addressed for support the Belarusian Embassy in Stockholm, but were refused. Despite of that, initiators still hope to receive support of Belarusian authorities in this issue.