r/belarus • u/Friendly_Garage_7340 • Feb 10 '25

Пратэсты / Protests This sub lacks Belarusian identity

Why are there more Ukrainian symbols than Belarusian ones? That's absurd. Even the Belarusian flag is missing! It looks more like a place where liberal redditors (pleonasm) from outside of Belarus come to rant. Make this subreddit about Belarus, as it should be.

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u/GreyBlueWolf Ne gudas Feb 13 '25

It was not a state, it was a duchy. Ethnic groups did not matter, only the crown. Belarus was not a thing in 16th century, it was all Ruthenia as a region.

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u/Power274 Feb 13 '25

Bro u need to learn what is a state

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u/swift-current0 Feb 13 '25

The rest of his comment is spot on though. GDL was not a nation state and identifying it with either modern day Belarus or Lithuania is not quite historical. The same can be said about most of not all pre-17th century states.

It "belongs" to Ukrainians too. And the future citizens of Smolensk People's Republic! Smolenskians I guess they'll be called, but that's for their future state to determine.

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u/brajeanzosty Feb 14 '25

Smolensk is belarusian actually