Famous Historian Aleh Latyshonak Addresses To Poland's President

The situation with the monument to Tadeusz Kasciuszka requires attention at the highest level.

Belarusian historian Aleh Latyshonak addressed to President of Poland Andrzej Duda with an open letter. The letter relates to the incident with the unveiling of the monument to Tadeusz Kasciuszka in Solothurn, Switzerland.

The website Charter97.org publishes the translation of the renown historian's letter:

''Dear Mr. President!

The current year has been named a year of Tadeusz Kasciuszka by the Seym and the Senate of the Republic of Poland. You noted that anniversary is held under your honorary aegis. This anniversary is marked not only by the Poles, because Tadeusz Kasciuszka rised the peoples of the entire Rzeczpospolita of the Three Peoples to defend their country.

There was a song of the Belarusian insurgents of the year 1794.

After the defeat of the uprising, the Belarusian people reckoned Kasciuszka as their legendary hero who fell in the struggle with Moscow "there under the White Stock."

Even today, the memory of Tadeusz Kasciuszka is alive among the Belarusians. In 2004, the estate was restored in Meracheushchina, where he was born.

This year, the Union of Belarusians of Switzerland decided to immortalize Kasciuszka’s monument in full growth in the city of Solothurn, where he died. The inscription on the monument was to be in Belarusian and German and sound: "Tadeusz Kasciuszka, the outstanding son of Belarus from grateful compatriots". Unfortunately, the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Switzerland, Dr. Jakub Kumoch, addressed the mayor's office and blocked the placement of the inscription on the monument.

The mayor relented, so there will be no inscriptions in the Belarusian language on the monument. This does not mean, however, that the issue that casts a shadow over the Polish-Belarusian relations is closed. It is unclear why the ambassador did not like this inscription. In the end, it is obvious that Meracheushchina is located at the territory of Belarus. Let me remind you of the same obvious thing: when Kasciuszka was born, Meracheushchina was not in Poland, it was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian and Zhemotsky, which together with the Polish Crown formed the Rzeczpospolita of the Three Peoples. The Belarusian term "compatriots" (which was used in the inscription) does not even suggest that the monument was erected by Kasciuszka's countrymen), only by people from the same state at the current territory of which Kasciuszka was born. The inscription in no way denies the Polishness of Tadeusz Kasciuszka.

On the other hand, denying that Kasciuszka is "the son of Belarus" in today's meaning means nothing more than the fact that the ambassador does not recognize the existence of Belarus.

Dr. Jakub Kumoch represents Poland as Ambassador, as well as personally as a member of the National Development Council under the President of the Republic of Poland, an expert on foreign policy. How should Belarusians throughout the world understand his behavior?

In Bialystok, we, the Poles and Belarusians, have been talking for years about establishing a monument to Tadeusz Kasciuszka in the market, which is named after him. A handful of Belarusian emigrants managed to create such a monument (for their money!), In far-off Switzerland. If Poland opposea the initiative of such people, instead of supporting them, we will never live to see the day when the Minsk cadet school named after Alexander Suvorov will be named after Tadeusz Kasciuszka.

Sincerely, Honorary Doctor of the Uniwersytet w Białymstoku Aleh Latyshonak.

President of the Belarusian Historical Society in Poland

For the attention of:

respected Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski

respected Minister of Defense Antonia Matserevich