Vanish && Miadziel
Lately I keep bumping into references to Belarus in weird places, in movies and books where I least expect it. Here’s a book that my wife got from her favorite accounting professor Cathleen, the very first page:
My name is Mila, and this is my journey.
There are so many places where I could begin the story. I could start in the town where I grew up, in Kryvicy, on the banks of the Servac River, in the district of Miadziel. I could begin when I was eight years old, on the day my mother died, or when I was twelve, and my father fell beneath the wheels of the neighbor’s truck. But I think I should begin my story here, in the Mexican desert, so far from my home in Belarus. This is where I lost my innocence. This is where my dreams died.
It is a November day without clouds, and large black birds soar in a sky that is bluer than I have ever seen. I am sitting in a white van driven by two men who do not know my real name, nor do they seem to care. They just laugh and call me Red Sonja, the name they have used since they saw me step off the plane in Mexico City. Anja says it’s because of my hair. Red Sonja is the name of a movie which I have never seen, but Anja has seen it. She whispers to me that it’s about a beautiful warrior woman who cuts down her enemies with a sword. Now I think the men are mocking me with this name because I am not beautiful; I am not a warrior. I am only seventeen, and I am scared because I do not know what happens next.
What happens next is that those Belarusan chicks illegally cross into the US, get raped and killed, with the exception of one girl who survives the attack. The book is called Vanish.
I’m really surprised that the author of the book Tess Gerritsen (she looks Asian on the photos) decided to make those characters Belarusan, and she even spelled the town name properly, in Belarusan (Miadziel), not in Russian (Myadel). Wow.
By the way, we were in Miadziel three months ago with my wife. There’s a beautiful, beautiful lake. We also bought a smoked eel there. The town itself is a bit run down, but it’s a gorgeous place in terms of natural beauty.
P.S. We’ve been to Miadziel and to the lakes, but we didn’t visit the village that is mentioned in the book Kryvicy*. There is a nice Catholic church and a monastery there which was built in 1776-1796 by the Catholic Order of Trinitarians (a couple photos).
* Other possible spellings of the village name: Kryvičy, Крывічы, Кривичи, Krzywicze, Krivichi, Krivitchi, Kryviczy, Kryvichy, Kriwichi, Kriwitchi, Krzywicze. Incidentally, it is also the name of the ancient East Slavic tribes that later became the backbone of the modern Belarusian ethnos. I wonder, if the author is aware of that.
October 7th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Oh yes, I also constantly get reminded about Belarus. Like for example on the very first day of one of my last job me and my colleague walk right past the Belarusian embassy here, which is only a few streets away from my home I might add :) Didnt even know we were going there till I saw this very familiar flag hanging outside.
October 13th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
I bet he doesn’t know a bit about Belarus, doesn’t know what is Miadzieł (this, not Miadzel, beeing proper Belarusan name), where is it and that in Russian it is Myadel.
little googling and what we get… author got to http://www.belarusguide.com/, large site about Belarus in English, browsed through it to the http://www.belarusguide.com/cities/kryvicy.html page, and copy-pasted info from there… It’s a assumption, however :).
October 13th, 2005 at 1:24 pm
> I bet he
It’s a she. ;)
> Miadzieł this, not Miadzel, beeing proper Belarusan name
Miadzieł is in Belarusian language (Lacinka alphabet)
Miadziel is in English language, transliterated from Belarusian
Myadel is also in English, transliterated from Russian.
October 25th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
Vova, you called my town quote a bit run down unquote - are you responsible for your speech acts [my friend sociologist translated “za bzar adkazvac”]? it is the most beautiful town in Belarus, and you call it run down…when i was a little kid in late eighties the emerging capitalism forced me to join the eel-business, and just like the kids these days, i was standing with the eel in my hand, trying to sell it to the dudes like you :) In fact, when eels turn bad, i used some parfume on it to kill the smell, and if it got broken, i used matches to connect the eel :) We dont care about long-term customer relationship in Miadziel :))
I reckon it is just as run down as any Belarusan town these days, go to Vilejka or something. Talking about names, my grandpa and the other elders always call it Miadzela, never Miadzel, or Myadel. It means Ember in Old Baltic, if i am not mistaken. If you go to the North towards Narac, you will come into, well, Narac (little town), its original name is Kabylnik, the name derived from the regional market that used be there and they used to sell, well, horses. Soviets changed it. My grandpa told me a story about liberation of Miadziel from the Germans, so the story goes that 12 germans and 40 Polizei-s were stationed in Miadziel in 1944, they were surrounded by 3000-strong guerilla-brigade, but the brigade had been waiting for the Soviet troops to come and used its firepower on Polizei’s…
I will send you a little picture from Miadziel (from my window actually). cheers, your Belarusan friend whom you used to hang around with in Budapest…Did you know i was from Miadziel, old mazafaka? :))
September 7th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Are you there?
Wow that’s a nice post .
July 26th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Know the last name Malko from the area of Miadziel?
February 2nd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Thanks for sharing
February 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
March 24th, 2008 at 11:23 am
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well.