Context: November 26, 2025, marked the ninety-fifth anniversary of the birth of Uladzimir Karatkevich, a classic of Belarusian literature and the author of “King Stakh’s Wild Hunt,” “The Black Castle of Alshany,” “Ears Under Your Sickle” and other works. He wrote in Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian.
Political analyst Piotr Piatrouski and host Ryhor Azaronak discussed cultural ties between the former Soviet republics and how they look today during the broadcast of “Azaronak. Directly” on November 26.
“Right now these Banderites are committing sheer horrors in Ukraine — wiping out street names, tearing down monuments and the rest. I wasn’t surprised to hear they went and destroyed Karatkevich. I don’t actually know what they did to the Karatkevich monument, because the president of Belarus, as I recall, back in the late 2000s… in the 2000s or early 2010s, together with Ukraine’s leadership, took part in unveiling a Karatkevich monument in Kyiv. I don’t know what’s happened to it, but I can assume it’s the same thing that happened to streets named after Kupala, Kolas, Tarashkevich and other figures in Poland and Lithuania,” the guest said.
Kyiv does indeed have a monument to Uladzimir Karatkevich — the writer studied in the Ukrainian capital. The monument was unveiled in 2011. But it was not Alexander Lukashenko who attended the ceremony — it was then–Culture Minister Pavel Latushka, who in 2020 openly backed protesters challenging the falsified presidential election results, later left Belarus, took charge of the National Anti-Crisis Management and joined the United Transitional Cabinet of the democratic forces.
As of this publication, the monument remains exactly where it was originally installed. Moreover, in 2023 Kyiv added a street named after Uladzimir Karatkevich as part of its derussification program — the city renamed a street that had previously honored Russian critic Nikolai Dobrolyubov.
Streets named after Belarusian writers in Poland and Lithuania have also not disappeared. There is a Janka Kupala Street in Vilnius, as well as in the Polish cities of Gdańsk and Hajnówka. Hajnówka also has a street named after the writer Jakub Kolas. In Bielsk Podlaski there is a street honoring Branislau Tarashkevich, the author of the first grammar of the Belarusian language — the “tarashkevitsa” standard.
In 2017 the city planned to rename Tarashkevich Street because he had been a member of the Communist Party and fell under Poland’s decommunization law, but the Podlaskie voivode halted the process.Bielsk Podlaski is also home to a Belarusian-language lyceum named after Tarashkevich.
