English

Authorities in Minsk, Hrodna refuse to rename streets after Vasil Bykaw

The governments of Minsk and Hrodna have rejected petitions backed by a total of more than 112,000 signatures to rename streets in the cities after prominent Belarusian writer Vasil Bykaw, BelaPAN reports.

On July 13, sheets containing 105,000 signatures were delivered to the Minsk City Executive Committee along with a petition for not only renaming a city street after Bykaw but also naming one of the future subway stations after him. The following day, sheets containing 7,414 signatures were delivered to the Hrodna City Executive Committee.

Activists of the "Tell the Truth!" campaign began collecting the signatures on May 9.

In its reply to the petitioners, the Minsk City Executive Committee said that renaming the street after Bykaw would go against the “trend of restoring ancient toponyms” in the city. At present there are no unnamed streets or subway stations that could be named after Bykaw, the reply said.

The Hrodna government rejected the petition, explaining that it had stopped renaming streets in 1999, when 40th Victory Anniversary Avenue was renamed after Soviet-era Communist Party leader Leanid Klyatskow.

Officials of the Minsk and Hrodna city governments are not "stupid, foolish or illiterate not to know who Vasil Bykaw is," Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, leader of the "Tell the Truth!" campaign, said in an interview with BelaPAN on Friday. "Any two streets in the cities, including central streets, would be privileged to bear the name of the great writer. Officials understand this but don’t want to do what we're asking for."

The campaign's activists will now appeal to the Minsk City Soviet and the Hrodna City Soviet to consider the petitions, Mr. Nyaklyayew said.

Vasil Bykaw (1924-2003) is the most well-known representative of modern Belarusian literature. His talent and moral courage that permeates his writings earned him endorsements for the Nobel Prize nomination from, among others, Nobel Prize winners Joseph Brodsky and Czeslaw Milosz.

An open critic of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s policies and a member of the Belarusian Popular Front, he lived abroad for several years (first in Finland and then in Germany and the Czech Republic), but returned to his home country just a month before his death.