"It Died Out and Died Out." Russian Blogger Shtafanov Spoke About the Belarusian Language. Comedians Mirzalizade and Kryvets Clashed with Him

Video preview of Alexander Shtafanov

A dispute about the Belarusian language and the imperial mindset of Russians arose between Belarusian stand-up comedians Idrak Mirzalizade and Pasha Kryvets on one side, and Russian blogger Alexander Shtafanov on the other.

It began with the comedians, in an episode of their show "Low Minds," deciding to discuss Shtafanov's persona. They called him "a subject of the empire" and "an imperial cornet."

"His lips are so proper. Such very proper, imperial lips. Thoughtful. Immediately apparent — a man of strict views,"

Mirzalizade commented. A little later he explained why he doesn't like the blogger:

"I sometimes read (...) some of his theses, especially about languages. I think: maybe you should just f*** off about how things are with languages in Belarus or Ukraine? If you want to be a subject of the empire — discuss only the problems of your own empire."

Shtafanov's Reaction: The Belarusian Language Cannot Be Saved by Any Methods Other Than State Violence

In response to this, Alexander Shtafanov recorded a video in which he reacted to the stand-up comedians' criticism.

"Idrak Mirzalizade identifies himself as a Belarusian — that is his right, he is undoubtedly a Belarusian. But why I am less of a Belarusian in this context is not very clear to me. Because my entire maternal line is from a Belarusian village in the Minsk region. And I studied the Belarusian language, and I am deeply familiar with the problems of the Belarusian language," noted Alexander at the beginning, who spent his school years in Vitebsk.

Idrak Mirzalizade's family moved from Azerbaijan to Belarus when he was 2 years old. By nationality, he is Talysh. In Minsk, Idrak completed not only high school but also the Faculty of Journalism at BSU.

Further, the blogger tried to catch the comedians out: they discuss Belarusian identity and criticize his "imperialism," while using the Russian language. The blogger drew attention to a short segment from a talk show where the stand-up comedians reflect on Bialiatski's opinion about the necessity of publishing books by Belarusian authors in the Belarusian language abroad. There Idrak notes:

"It's easy to say, but in reality, when you produce a show or do something in Belarusian, you realize that, unfortunately, the demand is not yet such that it can have a strong effect."

"And that's why you speak Russian. A pity. Now, if you had a state in your hands and could forcibly compel people to speak Belarusian — that would be great. But as it is, voluntarily — we ourselves don't want to speak Belarusian. Though, to be fair, they do some shows called «Hutarki» (pronouncing this word, Shtafanov stressed the second syllable. — NN) in Belarusian.

You can invite me, I can host a show with you in Belarusian. Well, truthfully, my Belarusian, of course, will be... unbelievable, but I think yours isn't much better, to be honest. Well, if they do shows regularly, of course, it's probably better. But I think we'll be speaking Belarusian at the same surzhyk level," Shtafanov commented.

According to the blogger, the situation with the Belarusian language will not change without the application of "state coercion."

"You have two paths: either reconcile yourselves with the fact that the Belarusian language is dying, or resort to state violence," Shtafanov stated.

Afterwards, he added a third path — creating incentives for people to speak Belarusian.

"And then you look at these incentives: quotas, mandatory broadcasting of 55 percent in such a language. F***ing incentives. No incentives work. (...) State coercion works. Ukraine has actually clearly demonstrated this.

They began active state coercion after 2014 (and before that, in fact, there had also been active state coercion for decades, with the exception of the period under Yanukovych and, perhaps, a small period under Yushchenko). They started to Ukrainianize. Moreover, this also coincided with the war, which made the entire infrastructure there work wonderfully. And it was possible to shift a significant part of the nation to Ukrainian.

In Belarus, the situation is much worse. The number of people currently speaking Belarusian in Belarus is smaller than the number of people speaking the Aztec language in Mexico.

And by no other methods, except for state violence, can the Belarusian language be saved. That's it. Without state violence, and such active, good violence — with language patrols, with mandatory teaching in Belarusian in schools, with the removal of the Russian language from schools, with mandatory quotas on television, radio, for advertising quotas, with mandatory renaming of institutions…

With all this wonderful baggage, with mandatory language in the service sector — without all this, it will die. A generation or two will pass, and it will just die. Simply no one will speak it," the blogger concluded his position and addressed the comedians:

"Do you want to force people to save the language? Or do you want to play at being language activists who supposedly voluntarily save the language? No, you don't want to play at being language activists who voluntarily save the language. Because you speak Russian and you yourselves perfectly understand why — because it's more convenient that way. That's all."

To confirm his opinion, Shtafanov cited Mirzalizade from the same stand-up: "You will continue to do quality work, but in order to continue to do quality work in Belarusian, unfortunately, for now, it is necessary to do it in the language that all Belarusians speak and listen to."

Shtafanov then posed a question to language activists — why they want to revive a "historical language."

"Why do you stop only at the restoration of the Belarusian language? Why don't you revive... Because, in fact, the Belarusian language is also a hodgepodge; the Belarusian language actually suppressed various local dialects. (...) Let's restore 30 historical languages! Because 30 different linguistic norms can be found even within tiny Belarus. In Ukraine, I propose dividing them into 100 languages," the blogger suggested.

Shtafanov argues: if the language is important to people, then spread it, but without state resources.

"Stay in your own corner — language clubs, optional classes — let there be voluntary Belarusian language classes. Learn Belarusian on Duolingo. For God's sake! Do it. Get off state coercion. Don't force people and do whatever you want."

Stand-up Comedians' Response

Shtafanov's video response did not go unnoticed by Kryvets and Mirzalizade. In their next episode, they continued the remote dispute.

"In this video, it's written 'Am I an imperialist?'. To which we immediately answer — yes," Idrak stated.

"He emphasizes the point that we want violent Belarusianization. I don't know if he accurately watched us somewhere, but I listened to him, and I wanted violent Belarusianization. Otherwise, such degenerates will walk through our villages," the comedian continued.

Idrak drew attention to the problem of concept substitution, which, in his opinion, is characteristic of many Russian speakers. When Belarusians, Ukrainians, or Kazakhs try to reclaim their language and expand its use, it is presented as something violent and abnormal. At the same time, the main point is ignored — the Russian language itself spread through coercion.

Idrak explained that his initial criticism of Shtafanov was related to the blogger's following statement:

"As a native speaker of the Belarusian language, who spent a significant part of my childhood in a Belarusian village, and had good grades in Belarusian language and literature at school, I want to responsibly declare: it died out and died out."

According to the comedian, Shtafanov "allegedly normally, objectively explains why this is normal."

"But what's the problem? The problem is that this is not just the dying out of a language, but the conscious erasure of identity. In other words, this is necessary for any state to comfortably get rid of any person, because they have no identity. (And language is one of the criteria of identity, just one of many). For example, in Russia, a huge number of Russians have their identity completely erased. And when something happens to someone, absolutely everyone doesn't care," Idrak emphasizes.

Kryvets, in turn, answered why Belarusians or Ukrainians explain in Russian to Russians why national languages are important to them.

"Imperialists cannot understand that adequate people, when they speak to someone in a foreign language and realize that this foreigner doesn't know their native language, they switch to his language to convey their position. And only many citizens of the Russian Federation, when they are not understood, do not switch to that person's language, but simply start speaking louder," Kryvets ironized.

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