Belarusian Draniki as World Cultural Heritage

Illustrative photo

News has emerged that draniki are being proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO cultural heritage list.

Italian pizza or the French baguette — we all know these dishes. Both are world-famous, and the techniques for their preparation have been inscribed on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage — a list of objects that constitute the common heritage of humanity. Alongside them, Belarusian draniki could also find their place on the world cultural heritage list.

Who among us has not tasted draniki, right? It turns out that potato dishes are a broad and popular subject. Moreover, equivalents of draniki — different, and yet equivalents nonetheless — exist in the cuisines of many countries. In Poland, for example, there are placki ziemniaczane; in Lithuania, bulviniai blynai ("potato pancakes"); in Ukraine, deruny. Similar potato dishes exist even in German and Swedish cuisine.

However, Belarusian draniki are something special. They are distinguished not only by their name, but also by the traditions associated with their preparation — and this makes them one of the central elements of Belarusian national cuisine. In Belarus, there are no fewer than 200 folk recipes, and the dish gained widespread popularity in the late nineteenth century.

When I was serving as the Permanent Representative of Belarus to UNESCO, I had an idea: to inscribe the national Belarusian dish — draniki — on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. UNESCO is engaged in the preservation and development of the richness of global cultural diversity. The wealth of world culture lies precisely in the fact that it has many colors. And Belarusian culture is one of those colors.

I prepared letters substantiating the expansion of cultural heritage objects in Belarus, including at the regional level. Among other things, those letters addressed the subject of Belarusian draniki. I sent the relevant letters both to Vice Prime Minister Anatol Tozik and to First Deputy Head of the Administration Aleksandr Radzkov. Later, I also wrote to Foreign Minister Uladzimir Makei. At that time, Makei had become Chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO — and he asked me then whether it was worth taking on that position. Makei received a positive answer. I was convinced that this was extremely important, as cooperation with UNESCO would help underscore the weight that our state carries in the field of culture and cultural cooperation. And Makei agreed with that thesis.

On his initiative as Chairman of the National Commission, we held two meetings at the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to advance cooperation with UNESCO on both tangible and intangible heritage objects in Belarus. Today, for example, the cultural heritage list includes the well-known Mir Castle, Nesvizh Castle, and the Struve Geodetic Arc. But there could be significantly more such objects — we have valuable historical and cultural assets of which we can be proud, and which could become not only national but world heritage.

But let us return to draniki. As Permanent Representative of Belarus to UNESCO and Ambassador of Belarus to France, I also approached the then Minister of Culture, Barys Sviatlov, with a proposal to initiate the inscription of draniki on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The matter was entrusted to Deputy Minister of Culture Aleksandr Yatsko.

I remember waiting a very long time for a response to that letter. And it was strange: the former Minister of Culture was trying to get through by phone, to prod the ministry into taking some action — while they resisted. For months, Yatsko could not bring himself to pick up the phone when the former minister, Belarus's representative to UNESCO, called him. I could reach any minister in the country, the Prime Minister or a Vice Prime Minister. But the Deputy Minister of Culture — there was simply no way to speak with him, to make contact. And only after a prolonged period did he finally summon the courage to provide a written response.

And do you know what it said? It turned out that draniki exist in other countries too, and therefore the dish does not belong exclusively to Belarusians and should not be included in our heritage list. Such reasoning angered me: what is this — are we Belarusians here too ready to renounce what is our own, what is national? It was an approach I could not understand, and the matter could not be moved forward at the time. But I do hope that the time will yet come when Belarusian draniki appear alongside Italian pizza and the French baguette on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

We have a wonderful dish of our national cuisine — draniki. And there is no reason to renounce what is ours. We are rich in our heritage, our culture, and our traditions. And that is what makes us, Belarusians, distinctive.

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