The article addresses poetic monologues in the works of the Belarusian poet Anatoly Sys, one of the founders and creative leader of the legendary literary group “Tutejšyja” (‘Locals’) (1986-1989). The poet turned to poetic monologue at different periods of his work, being especially active in the second half of the 1980s, during Gorbachev’s perestroika and the new wave of Belarusian national revival. Exhibiting outstanding acting abilities, Anatolʹ Sys recited his poetic monologues at parties and illegal rallies, hiding national revival and anti-Communist ideas relevant for his time behind the guise of famous historical figures – Apanas Filipovič, Zmicier Žylunovič, Alesʹ Harun, Karusʹ Kahaniec and others. In addition to their journalistic sharpness, A. Sys’s best poetic monologues are of a high artistic quality with a universal philosophical content, which has allowed them to pass beyond time and become a part of the golden fund of 20th-century Belarusian poetry (Monologue of a “Local”, Monologue of Apanas Filipovič, Monologue of an Unfrocked Priest, Monologue of an Apostate, Monologue of Karusʹ Kahaniec).

In this article, the imperial idea and civilising missions in the Habsburg Monarchy, mainly of the nineteenth century, are refracted through the prism of the legacy of enlightened absolutism. The article tries to dispel mythologies about its demise around 1800, and about those who could subscribe to its programme throughout the nineteenth century. It questions templates of national history writing which too unanimously connect the Enlightenment to the origins of the various national revivals of the early nineteenth century, and discusses concrete examples of enlightened absolutism’s civilising impulses, among them law, Roman imperial patriotism, and the Catholic religion.