The Yakub Kolas Belarusian Humanities Lyceum () is a private secondary school, formerly located at 21 Kiraw Street in
Minsk
Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
,
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
.
History
It was founded in January 1990 in Minsk as a
Sunday school
]
A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes.
Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...
. In September 1991, it became a permanent full-time lyceum under the Belarusian Humanitarian Education and Cultural Center.
Peculiarities
It had subsidiaries in other towns of Belarus, as for example in Swetlogorsk. The duration of the study was 4 years (from grade 8 to grade 11).
Closure
Serious conflicts with the Belarusian authorities started in the mid 1990s after
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...
became the first president of the Republic of Belarus.
In June 2003, the Council of Ministers of Belarus ordered the Ministry of Education to close the lyceum down by adopting a relevant resolution. In the months that followed, students, parents and teachers fought to keep the school open, both diplomatically and through protest, but to no avail. The lyceum went underground shortly thereafter, becoming a private institution with its present name.
Since it went underground, the lyceum conducted separate training sessions in Poland (
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
,
Gdansk,
Zakopane
Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...
, Shklyarsk-Poremba,
Starachowice
Starachowice is a city in southeastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), with 49,513 inhabitants (31.12.2017). It is the capital of Starachowice County in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. It is situated upon the River Kamienna, a tributary of ...
), Lithuania (
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
) and France (Arec-sur-Loire). In 2005-2015,
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the "P ...
,
Krzysztof Zanussi,
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...
,
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, hav ...
, Henryk Wuez,
, Andrzej Sewerin met with lyceum students and teachers during their studies abroad. In 2009,
Maria Kaczyńska, the First Lady of Poland at the time, met with lyceum students in the
Presidential Palace in Warsaw. In 2014,
Anna Komorowska, the subsequent First Lady of Poland, met with students and teachers of the lyceum. In Minsk, Vice Speaker of the European Parliament
Janusz Onyszkiewicz
Janusz Adam Onyszkiewicz (, born 18 December 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist and politician,Europa Publications, "The International Who's Who 2004", Routledge, 2003pg. 1258/ref> who served as Minister of Defence twice, in the cabinets ...
, Gdansk Mayor
Paweł Adamowicz, Russian writer and human rights activist Alexei Simonow, as well as many other cultural and scientific figures from Belarus and abroad met with lyceum students.
In 2015, the lyceum marked its 25th anniversary. In 2004-2016 more than 200 students graduated from the lyceum.
Current situation
As of September 2016, there were 60 students and 14 teachers. The lyceum and two secondary schools in Gdansk, Poland, signed a cooperation agreement which allows lyceum students take courses in these schools, take exams and receive relevant certificates.
References in popular culture
The lyceum was featured in the 2006 documentary
A Lesson of Belarusian
''A Lesson of Belarusian'' () is a 2006 documentary by Polish director Mirosław Dembiński. It follows the activities of several Belarusian pro-democracy youth activists in the four weeks running up to the highly controversial presidential re-el ...
. The documentary's central character,
Franak Viačorka, is a former student of the lyceum and the son of its co-founder,
Vincuk Viačorka
Valancin Ryhoravič Viačorka (, , ; born 7 July 1961) is a Belarusian linguist, politician and former leader (1999–2007) of the Belarusian Popular Front (BNF), a Belarusian opposition party.
Early life and education
Vincuk Viačorka was ...
. Uladzimir Kolas, the school principal, is also featured in the documentary.
References
School of 'Partisans' Goes Underground in Belarus Peter Finn. 17 October 2004, Washington Post
The slow, torturous turning of the screw Faisal al Yafai. 19 August 2005, Times Higher Education
External links
14th anniversary of Yakub Kolas National Humanities Lyceum“Partisan” Lyceum celebrates 20th anniversary
{{coord missing, Belarus
Schools in Belarus