Baranavichy celebrate the Filamats Society’s 190th anniversary (photos)

The Movement for Freedom (MFF) Baranavichy town members together with the representatives of other political parties and civil organizations held a special cultural event on July 14 on the 190th anniversary of the founding of The Filamats Society.

The amateurs of the Belarusian history from Baranavichy, Minsk, and Slonim did a cultural journey through the sites of the Filamats and the Filarets. The participants of the festive event visited the Zavossie manor where the famous Belarusian and Polish poet Adam Mitskievich was born, and the Turhanavichy park where Mitskievich and Maryla Vierashchaka were meeting. After that, the civil activists visited the Filarets’ Stone near Karchova village, Baranavichy district beside which the secret meetings of the Filarets, the Belarusian student youth, were held. The fans of the Filamats creative work surely visited the Svitsiaz lake and Navahradak town that are also closely related to the Filamats’ and the Filarets’ activity. The participants of the festive event found out many interesting information about our patriots, danced and sang the Filamats’ songs, and laid flowers to the monuments for the honour of the Filarets.

The MFF activist Viktar Syrytsa noted that everyone liked the journey to the sites relating to the Filamats and the Filarets much, and that the participants assured themselves once again that knowing the national history is the first obligation of a cultural person.

As is well known, the Filamats (“the charity adherents”) secret society was created by the then Belarusian Vilnia University (now – Vilnius University) in 1820. Among its active members were Tamash Zan, Adam Mitskievich, Yan Chachot, Ihnat Damieyka, Yuzaf Kavaleuski, and others. The Belarusian student youth dreamed about the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Lithuania, or Litva, meant mainly the lands of the present-day Belarus back then), as well as about freedom and the abolishment of the law of serfdom. They studied the history of the native land, and wanted to educate the simple folk. Frantishak Maleuski created a Lancaster School (or, the mutual education school) in the Shchorsy manor, Baranavichy district. In such schools, the teacher – with the help of the most prepared students – could perform a simultaneous study of a comparatively large number of peasant children. In his Polish-language works Hrazhyna, Dziady, and Pan Tadevush, Adam Mitskievich used the Belarusian folklore extensively. Yan Chachot issued 6 folklore books in which he included Belarusian songs, and became the beginner of the new Belarusian literature. A Polish literature critic Stanisław Swirka named Yan Chachot “the best pioneer of the Belarusian nation among the Filamats”. On the local lore expert Mikhas Biernat’s initiative, the Yan Chachot’s bust was installed in Novaya Mysh village, Baranavichy district.
 

 

 

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