Czytając Snydera. Refleksje białoruskiego historyka

Reading Snyder. Reflections of a Belarusian historianTimothy Snyder has carried out a detailed comparison of mass extermination practices of two different though similar regimes. His comparison indicates basic resemblances as well as a large number of discrepancies. At the same time, the conclusions drawn by the author of Bloodlands challenge numerous commonly accepted theses from the field of political history. However, it is easy for a historian from Belarus to notice some inaccuracies regarding the “Belarusian theme.” Timothy Snyder is not familiar with the most important works of Belarusian historiography, which refer to the question of the monograph directly (the works by Jerzy Turonek, Eugeniusz Mironowicz, Igor Kuzniecow and others). Whereas Snyder’s approach to the “Polish theme” lacks some criticism. Nevertheless, Snyder’s book offers quite a comprehensive analysis of the history of mass extermination. Bloodlands demonstrates that the main victim of these murders was Human: death annihilates all national and cultural differences, whereas the most important is the human aspect of the tragedy suffered by the millions, which should not be regarded as statistics.