Between politics, memory, and historiography. Mikhail Koyalovich’s West Russianism in the reflections of “neo-West Russianism”

Abstract

The article presents analyses of historiographic narrations of Belarusian researchers (Yakov Treshchenok, Valeriy Cherepitsa, Valentina Teplova, and Alexey Khoteev) devoted to Russian historian Mikhail Koyalovich (1828–1891). At the same time, it illustrates the reformulation of the “West Russianism” ideology into “neo-West Russianism” and poses the question of how these narrations fit both the scientific discourse over history and memory taking place in contemporary Belarus and the decisions of President Aleksandr Lukashenko.