Valera Bulhakau

Foto: privat

Herr Valera Bulhakau ist vom 01.09.-30.11.2026 als Gastwissenschaftler am Lehrgebiet Public History.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Kandidat filosofskich nauk (The field of History of Philosophy)

Professional experience

2012— 2013: Lecturer PhD, Department of History of the European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania).

2009—2010: Lecturer, Southwestern College International Summer School of Belarusian Studies.

2006—2007: Head of the Center for Belarusian studies, Lazarski School of Commerce and Law, Warsaw.

2005: Lecturer, Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition in Poland and Eastern Europe (Warsaw).

2002—2016: Lecturer, Belarusian Collegium, Minsk.

1998: Lecturer, Belarusian State University.

1998—2024 ‘ARCHE’ Journal, Editor-in-chief. Minsk.

Education and academic degrees

2005: Degree ‘Candidate of philosophical sciences / Kandidat filosofskich nauk’ (Hryhori Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv); Thesis: The Problem of the National Consciousness at the Belarusian Philosophical Culture at the of 19th — at the Beginning 20th Centuries (basing on materials of literature).

1990–1995: studies at the Belarusian State University, Diploma in philology.

Research interests

History of nationalism and colonialism in Eastern Europe, historical politics in the same region, as well as the latest political history of Belarus (after 1991).

PROJECT

The completion of editorial work on the translation into Belarusian of the monograph by Christian Gerlach ‘Calculated Murder: The German Economic and Extermination Policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944’.

The tradition of translating the books/monographs of German historians into Belarusian is still very short. It is a little more than 20 years old.

The stay is needed to complete editorial work on the translation into Belarusian of the fundamental work of the German-Swiss historian Christian Gerlach titled ‘Calculated Murder: The German Economic and Extermination Policy in Belarus 1941 to 1944’ ("Kalkulierte Morde. Die deutsche Wirtschafts– und Vernichtungspolitik in Weißrußland 1941 bis 1944").

This is the largest published historical study in German about Belarus under German occupation.

The monograph has been completely translated into Belarusian already, and the translation is being edited. Apart of standard editorial work, the stay in Hagen will be used for the consultations with the German partners in regard of the project. Gerlach's monograph is full of Nazi era terminology and other historical realities which aren’t present in existing bilingual dictionaries.

Gerlach's monograph is full of vocabulary from the field of administration, economic and labor relations, etc., which, apparently, has never before been present on such a scale in translations of the works of German historians into Belarusian.

Project objectives:

1. Determination of Belarusian equivalents of the terminology used in the monograph.

Gerlach's monograph is full of vocabulary from the field of administration, economic and labor relations, etc., which, apparently, has never been present on such a scale in translations of works by German historians into Belarusian.

In the case of a literal translation, the text of the Belarusian edition will lose its historical authenticity and will acquire the imprint of "newspeak".

2. Search and identification of quotes from books by Russian/Belarusian authors that were available to the author in German/English translations.

In the Belarusian translation, these quotes should be made in reference to the original editions.

3. Finally, there are some publications that should be visually inspected to determine whether they were translations.