Circus, Dajynki And Writing.

Features of the Belarusian glossary.

I read the headline: "Residents of Novaya Borovaya opposed the circus-shapito". And immediately, before reading the news, I start thinking: is it against the election commission, against Lukashenko's administration or against the Council of Ministers? I open the text and am sincerely surprised: it turns out to be against a real circus-shapito. Who would have thought it could happen?

When the country is transformed into a distorted, ugly, artificial entity from fantasy novels by the efforts of the inhabitants of TV screens for many years, even simple words are perceived only in their figurative sense. Belarusians have been calling the CEC "CIRC" since the time of Yermoshina's appearance there. Then everything - election campaigns (however, another definition stuck to them very quickly - election farce), all-Belarusian meetings, conference calls, government sessions, voting in the "tent", parades, Lukashenko's visits to maternity hospitals and canteens, military units and collective farms - began to be called that. Everything that happened in the country - or rather, in the state - was necessarily called a circus. Sometimes it was a circus-chapitot, sometimes it was a circus with horses. And even though I understand perfectly well that in 2025 Novaya Borovaya, even with all its revolutionary experience, would hardly march to protest, still the association "stood against the circus-schapito" is exclusively with something governmental.

By the way, I've always been a bit offended by the circus, when elections and Lukashenko's meetings were compared to it. After all, the circus is the most honest art that does not tolerate any falsity. You can falsify the voting results, but flying under the dome - never. Yermoshina and her followers can get a stack of fake ballots out of the box, but they won't get a rabbit out of the hat. You can lie, fabricate a case, bring fake witnesses to court, but you can't walk the tightrope by fraud. So the circus is honest, unlike the state. But what can you do: if the world around is distorted beyond recognition, the same happens with the glossary. And the word "circus" is associated with anything but equilibrists and tightrope walkers.

When we hear the word "cosmonaut," it doesn't even occur to us that we might be talking about those who are now on the ISS, or even about Gagarin or Armstrong. We immediately imagine an evil dumb creature in a helmet, the bottom of evolution, beating people on the streets of Minsk. And no Gagarin's smile will make us imagine the conquerors of the galaxy dangling in weightlessness when we hear the word "cosmonaut". The niche is occupied by freaks from the squares of our cities.

The word "dazhynki", which has been familiar for centuries in our land, today causes a gag reflex, although it appeared long before the cosmonauts, the Belarusian Revolution of 2020 and even the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. And it always meant a beautiful rural holiday, the end of the harvest, the dance "Talakukha", bread with salt, joy: the harvest has been gathered, there will be no hunger, we will survive the winter, which means we will live happily ever after, work on the land, bake bread and raise children. In Poland Dożynki is still celebrated today, as it was many years ago, without any substitution of distorted meaning. But in our country this word has become a symbol of vulgarity - reliable combine harvesters from "Belaya Rus" receive TV sets as a gift, and Lukashenko sits on a chair and sings along to Dorofeeva. And no Belarusian will utter the word "dazhynki" in decent society, except in a joke or in a swear word construction.

And the most detached from the rest of the world Belarusian word is "letter". In any country it is one of the most popular. An applicant successfully passes the exams and receives a letter of admission from the university. A customer writes a letter to a contractor describing his wishes. A bank sends letters to customers about changes or new offers. It all goes out and comes in instantly, without any letter carriers. "I sent you a letter, look at the mail". And only for Belarusians the word "letter" evokes an association with an envelope in the mailbox - not an electronic one, but an ordinary box in the entrance. A letter must have a censor's stamp on it. And if someone says "there have been no letters from Petya for a long time", it doesn't mean that the inbox is empty. It means Petya's in jail. As, indeed, are all of us, regardless of where we are today.

Irina Khalip, especially for Charter97.org.

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