On September 23-25, 2011 the first International Congress of Belarusian Studies was held in Kaunas (Lithuania), which was attended by over 200 scientists from 14 countries. The work of the seven sections of the Congress brought together historians, experts in Political and Social Sciences and representatives of other disciplines. In addition, Congress program included public discussions on the topics «Lobbying Belarusian interests abroad», «Belarus and Eastern Partnership», «Science and Education» as well as the presentation of Belarusian research and publishing projects.
Among the Congress participants there were representatives of the Research Institute of European Integration and Regional Studies of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University: Anatoliy Kruglashov, Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, director of the Institute; Ihor Nedokus, PhD in Political Science, head of the Department of Belarusian, Lithuanian and Baltic Studies, and Oleksii Kolesnykov, PhD in Political Science, research associate of the Department of Studying the Processes of European integration of Ukraine. They presented their own vision of modern political processes unfolding today in Belarus.
In particular, Anatoliy Kruglashov compared the present situation, problems and prospects of Political Science development in Ukraine and Belarus; Ihor Nedokus studied the role of the state ideology in the formation and functioning of the political regime; Oleksii Kolesnykov investigated peculiarities of electoral engineering technologies in the electoral system of Belarus.
In general, participants’ responses suggest the Congress to be very successful in implementing its objectives, particularly in the development of scientific communication, promotion of mutual cooperation, discussion and presentation of new ideas and projects that improve a quality level of Belarusian Studies.
According to the Head of the Organizing Committee – director of the Institute of Political Studies “Political Sphere” Andrew Kazakevich, from the very beginning the idea of the Congress included it’s regular conduction in future, otherwise it simply would have lost value. This result of this year is only the beginning, which has become the basis for the development of the idea of International Congress of Belarusian Studies in the nearest future.