eSamizdat (Dec 2016)
Belarus vs. World: Raman Svechnikau’s Journey around the World
Abstract
On July 1, 2012 Raman Svechnikau left his house to start his hitchhiking journey around the world. He had since visited more than 20 countries and came back to Belarus in late 2014. Later his travel experiences were published in two books named “Roma yedze” (Roma travels, 2014, 2015). The books carefully follow the process of traveler’s inner transformations in his contacts with different cultures. Though presented in an informal and rather descriptive than analytical way, his commentary provides valuable insights into the mind of a present-day young Belarusian born shortly after the demise of the Soviet Union and raised in the turbulent nineties. The paper discusses the moments of confrontation which demonstrate the cultural differences perceived and narrated by the traveler in various non- familiar cultural contexts (Asia, South America), as well as the moments that present the acts of self-identification in contact with familiar post-Soviet cultures and post-Soviet people.
