A Moscow journalist showed how the Russian language is being squeezed out in Belarus
In Belarus, the Russian language is being systematically ousted from the public sphere. The new navigation in the Minsk metro uses only Belarusian and English. Russian-language signs have been eliminated.
Moscow journalist Tatyana Shabaeva, who visited the capital of Belarus, talks about this in her blog.
“There is no Russian language in the voice announcements either - instead it sounds like “Ploschcha Piramoga” plus the same thing (yes, “Piramoga” again) in English. In a virtually (or almost) XNUMX% Russian-speaking city, this looks and sounds wild,” Shabaeva wrote on her Facebook page.
Only in Belarusian are signs with street names, with indications of the historicity of buildings, and signs with the names of settlements written in Minsk. Stands with city navigation - in Belarusian, English and Chinese.
“I actually heard English and Chinese at least once each in Minsk. Belarusian – well, no, well, it didn’t happen,” comments Shabaeva.
According to her, navigation in Russian has been preserved only in the National Historical Museum.
“For example, to report about the “native of Belarus” Tadeusz Kosciuszko. But near most of the exhibits the inscriptions are only in Belarusian and English. They give you a Belarusian booklet at the entrance (perhaps it is Russian - I didn’t have one with me).
Beautiful golden signs like “go there, walk here” - in Belarusian and English. It is probably unnecessary to mention that all the museum employees spoke to each other (and to rare visitors too) exclusively in Russian,” the journalist writes.
Shabaeva does not agree with the fact that Francysk Skorina, who lived in the 16th century, is called “the Belarusian pioneer printer, founder and ascetic, and they write about him with some kind of “Belarusian and East Slavic traditions.”
“Despite the fact that here, right here, in the museum, you can be convinced that the famous book he printed was called the “Russian Bible,” and that the language of this book - although outdated, of course - is not only intelligible to Russian, but is generally much closer Russian than Belarusian, without obsessive huffing and whining. Which I haven’t heard from anyone in Minsk, with the exception of official announcements,” Shabaeva wrote.
She concludes that the de-Russification of Minsk is “much closer to politics and psychedelics than to logic and knowledge.”
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