Remnants of the Ancient Worldview among Belarusians: An Ethnographic Essay

The first English translation of Adam Bahdanovich’s 1895 classic of Belarusian ethnography.

First published in Hrodna in 1895, this essay was one of the first attempts to describe the folk beliefs of the Belarusian peasantry as a whole. Adam Bahdanovich (1862–1940), ethnographer and father of the poet Maksim Bahdanovich, gathered his material himself in the villages of central Belarus.

He traces the pre-Christian worldview that lived on in the rites and beliefs of his day: the veneration of fire, water, stones and trees; the soul and the cult of the ancestors; house and forest spirits; the sun and the calendar festivals of Kaliady and Kupalle; sorcerers, witches and village healers, with the charms and songs they used.

Translated from the Russian in full, with notes and an index.

Three editions of one classic

• English translation (this book): in paperback and as an EPUB.
• Restored Russian edition: the original 1895 text, newly typeset, in paperback and as an EPUB.
• 1895 facsimile: a page-for-page reproduction of the original Hrodna printing, in paperback.

Read it with

Nobleman Zavalnia, or Belarus in Fantastical Tales by Jan Barszczewski. The witches, spirits and enchanted landscapes of Barszczewski’s tales appear here in their living context.

• Author: Adam Bahdanovich (Адам Багдановіч)
• Editor: Olya Ianovskaia
• Original title: Пережитки древняго міросозерцанія у Бѣлоруссовъ (Hrodna, 1895)
• Formats: Paperback, 5.83 × 8.27 in (A5), 194 pages; EPUB
• ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-0697424-9-0
• ISBN (paperback): 978-1-0697424-3-8
• Publisher: Grunwald Publishing, Canada