"Following In The Wake Of A Russian Ship": A Belarusian Was Given Advice On How To Interact With Imperial Visitors

Our eastern neighbors were told to "pack their bags."

"My mother, who lives in Slutsk, was visited by my sister and her husband, who are from Kamchatka, Russia," writes @smyshliaev_kirill. “They hadn’t seen each other in 40 years. Their father is a Crimean Tatar and their mother is Belarusian, so they’re full sisters. Back and forth, word for word, that imperial streak kicks in: “You Belarusians owe us; you’re living off us,” and so on. My mother—a very gentle person—suggested we not bring this topic up anymore. What can you even say to that?”

Social media users responded to the author’s question. The website Charter97.org shares some of the comments:
— Tell them to pack their bags.

— You’re living your life in peace, and then it turns out the bill has already come due.

— I have Russian acquaintances who moved to Belarus during the Soviet era because there was food here, it was clean, and the people were good. So let them go to … with their “they gave us and built for us.” Belarus is one of the few Soviet republics that was given resources, and it multiplied them—and there would have been even more if the Belarusians hadn’t been dispossessed and rotted away in the camps. It’s customary to work on this land, and that was the case long before the ill-fated USSR and the Russian Empire.

— Did they offer marshmallows to the guests?

— The “hopnik” philosophy will live on in the minds of many Russians for many years to come. It can’t be cured. What is the source of strength, brother? It turns out it’s not the truth, but the crowd. Whoever has the numbers is right.

— Apparently, they consider people from neighboring countries to be second-class citizens. And they are the superior race.

— Belarus has always served as a buffer zone for Russia. One in three Belarusians died in World War II. Who owes whom anything?

— Send that Russian ship away for good.

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