The
Journal of Byelorussian Studies
Vol. V, No.
3-4
LASTOŬSKI THE HISTORIAN AND HIS HISTORICAL VIEWS
by V. Sienkievich
...for Janka
Kupala, himself the prophet of the Byelorussian
national renaissance, Vaclaŭ Lastoŭski was unquestionably the herald of
that reawakening...As herald of the national rebirth Lastoŭski was
statesman,
actual editor of Naša Niva,
poet, writer, literary critic, journalist,
bibliographer, politician, ethnographer, historian. He may not have
been
a specialist in any one of these areas, but he made significant
contribution
to each of them. It was in historiography that he broke important new
ground;
he performed a truly pioneering task by examining the history of his
native
country in a completely new way...He cleared away the falsehoods
clinging
to Byelorussian history and... was the first Byelorussian to raise the
question of the origin of the Byelorussian nation...
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