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hetalia2011-04-11 01:32 pm
nike2422.livejournal.com) wrote in hetalia2011-04-11 01:32 pm
Entry tags:
[Fanfic] Belaya Rus’: A Winter’s Day in 1863
Title: Belaya Rus’ : A Winter’s Day in 1863
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nike2422
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia
Warnings: Russia manhandles Lithuania and Belarus a little rough, otherwise nothing.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Axis Powers Hetalia.
Summary: Poland, Belarus and Lithuania are swept in the wave of nationalism splashing over Europe and desperately work to remember and maintain their cultural identity, if only in secret. Russia just wants everyone to get along and make friends. Unless they’ve been really naughty, then they win a one way trip to Siberia.
Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10
Older Stuff
“Hurry up, Bela! We’re going to get caught!” Lithuania whispered as he ran toward the back door of the massive house. He hoisted the bag of books and periodicals higher on his shoulder and looked back at her.
“I’m trying, but it’s dark out here!” Belarus hissed back him, lugging a bag just as big as Lithuania’s as she slipped in the snow, her breath freezing in front of her face in the early morning gloom. The rope dug into her shoulder, but she yanked it back up so it didn’t drag on the ground behind her.
“Almost there.” He opened the back door with the stolen key and held the door for her as she hauled her load into the house.
“Do they have to go to my room?” She whined, shaking the snow off of her and stamping her boots. She was sure he insisted on it just to have an excuse to go there.
“I can’t put them in my room, Russia’s in there too often.” Lithuania answered her, putting his head down so his hair covered his face. He closed the door quietly, making sure it didn’t squeak before wiping his own boots and moving through the dark storeroom into the hallway toward the servant’s service staircase in the back of the house.
She watched him, a disapproving frown growing on her face. “Why does he spend so much time with you?” She hoisted the sack again, wincing as it cut into her sore shoulder and moved behind him.
Lithuania looked at her, surprised by the tone of her voice. Could she be jealous? “Ah, I would rather not say. Believe me Bela, I don’t enjoy it.”
Belarus still frowned. She found it odd that Russia wanted to be with Lithuania all the time. “Are you sure we can’t take these to your room?” She didn’t want to lug the bag up the stairs.
“I’m certain of it. They’ll be found in my room.” Lithuania walked as silently up the stairs as he could.
“Ugh!” She grit her teeth as she climbed the stairs behind him. With each step the bag felt like it doubled in weight. She breathed heavily by the time they reached the top and had her head down as she followed him to her bedroom. She almost didn’t react in time to his feet suddenly stopping and nearly barreled into his back. She saw his hand shoot out to his side to let her know to stop moving and she looked up at the back of his head.
Lithuania peered around the corner into the main hall where he heard heavy footsteps coming. He quietly dropped the bag of books behind him, almost on Belarus’ feet and waited to see who it was, almost certain who it would be. Russia’s blond head appeared as he went right to the same door he and Belarus were heading to and knocked quietly.
“West Russia, are you there? Little sister?”
Belarus wanted to scream every time Russia called her that. She was so sick of it! It wasn’t her name! Inwardly she groaned … then froze when she realized she had groaned out loud.
Lithuania spun around and stared at her in horror for a second before taking a deep breath and walking out into the main hall into Russia’s view. “Mr. Russia! I just saw Bela outside, she was on her way into town to get something.”
“Why, it’s my other north western province!” Russia beamed at Lithuania when he appeared. “Oh? Did she say she would be gone very long? Also, please use her proper name when speaking of her. It won’t do to confuse her any more than necessary.” Russia reminded him.
Belarus peeked around the corner when she heard her brother’s voice echoing through the corridor. Ducking back behind her hiding spot before he saw her, she waited for him to stop talking to Lithuania; who stood facing him and visibly shaking. She wished she could make a sound of disgust at the sight of Lithuania so obviously afraid of Russia, but she wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“If I see her, I will let her know.” Lithuania answered, fear in his voice as he tried to sound cheerful. “I have some very important things to attend to. Don’t really have time to chat-“
“Wait, I have an idea! Let’s walk into town right now and see if we can find her!” Russia’s smile grew more as he rocked back and forth on the heels of his boots and looked into Lithuania’s pained face.
“Uhhh … right now?” Lithuania’s voice was full of dread. “Sure, let’s do that. We might meet her when she’s coming back, she didn’t plan on being gone long.”
Russia grabbed Lithuania’s hand and dragged him roughly behind him. “Good! Let’s go then!”
“Ah! Mr. Russia!” Lithuania stumbled after him as his arm was nearly jerked out of its socket.
Belarus waited until she couldn’t hear any more sounds before dragging the bag of book Lithuania had almost dropped on her feet. She kicked open her bedroom door huffing and puffing until the bag was in the room before running back into the wide corridor to get the other bag and drag it in. She slammed her bedroom door closed, then looked around frantically for a hiding place before they came back.
“Oh, I will get caught for sure with all of this! Especially the newspapers written in Lithuanian and Polish!” She ran to the large armoire on the wall opposite her bed and threw the doors open, looking for space to hide the forbidden reading material. She opened one of the drawers in the bottom, tossing out everything kept there on the floor to make room for the bags. She crammed everything into the armoire as best as she could and slammed the draw shut as she heard a knock on her door again.
Gasping, she whipped her head around and looked at her bedroom door. Jumping to her feet and closing the armoire doors closed, Belarus walked over to the door and opened it to find Russia standing there, smiling down at her.
“Little sister! There you are, I’ve been looking for you.”
“For me? What for?” She answered, giving him a curious look.
Russia’s smile faded a little when she spoke. He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “West Russia, it pains me that your years with Poland and Lithuania have corrupted you so badly, but I must insist you at least try to speak properly.
She frowned at him, not just for the chastisement at using her own language, but also by the surprise of him being here. Didn’t he just tell Lithuania he wanted to walk into town? “I like how I speak. I’ve been speaking this way for as long as I remember.” She wanted to add, “All of Lithuania’s laws are written in my language! I’m not an illiterate fool” as well, but knew it would do no good.
Russia shook his head. “West Russia, I promise I will be very patient, but there must be some progress. Let me see you write something.”
“Right now?” This seemed like a strange request. Her brother never asked her to read or write anything for him.
“Yes, right now!” He answered, walking over to a table where she kept writing paper, ink and pen.
Belarus followed him and took a seat at the table. She picked up her pen, dipped it in the inkwell, and began to write. Russia sat in a chair next to her and watched carefully.
“Stop.” Russia said, his voice flat. He pointed at the sentence she had barely begun to write. “What is that?”
Belarus looked at it. “Writing?”
“What kind of writing?”
She looked up at him. “Latin writing. Like Poland and Lithuania use”
Russia shook his head. “No no no, that is wrong. Write with proper letters!”
Belarus sighed and dipped her pen before rewriting the sentence with Belarusian Cyrillic letters. She barely had that sentence finished when Russia snatched the paper away. “Let me see.”
She jerked the pen away before it made a blot on the page, and stared at him as he read the paper. His frown grew as he dropped the piece of paper and looked at her. “This is wrong too! You don’t know how to write properly at all!”
“What? That’s ridiculous! I’ve known how to read and write since I was very little!” Belarus felt a headache growing.
“This problem must be dealt with immediately! I know … school!”
“School!” Belarus shot out of her seat and stood over him. “I am grown now, I don’t need school!”
“When someone needs to learn, they go to school!” Russia’s eyes grew wide when she stood over him glaring. “I will find you the best Russian teacher available! Let’s get you packed, yes?” He pushed past her as he rose from the table and dashed over to the armoire. Flinging the doors open, he put his hands on the drawer handles. “Come help me West Russia, the sooner you learn how to read and write, the more help you can be to me here.”
When she saw what he was doing she panicked and ran over to stop him. Grabbing his hands and trying to tug them away she shouted. “No! I don’t want to go away to school! Let me stay here with you! I will do better, I promise!”
Russia laughed as he ignored her hands and opened the drawer. “Don’t be silly, little sister, my mind is already made up!” He looked at the large bags stuffed inside and blinked before asking. “Did you read my mind, are you packed already?” Grabbing the bags he pulled them out of the drawer and dumped the contents onto the floor with a single shake. Books, periodicals and rolled up newspapers landed on the floor in two haphazard piles.
Belarus’ eyes grew wide with horror as she stared at the forbidden books before looking at him. “Uhm … Oops, how did those get there?”
“I see.” Russia’s smile returned as he crouched down and took one of the newspapers off the pile. He opened it and looked at the front page. “This is written in Polish.” He dropped it and opened a book. “And this is Lithuanian.”
Belarus fidgeted watching him. She began to back away from him, moving toward the bedroom door. “Oh that Lithuania! I’m going to give him a piece of my mind right now!” She strode toward the door but Russia jumped up and grabbed her wrist.
“Let’s go together West Russia!” her brother chirped cheerfully, waving a political journal in her face. “This is in Belarusian, by the way!” He tossed it over his shoulder as he dragged her from the room into the hall.
It wasn’t easy for Belarus to keep up with her much taller brother, but he didn’t seem to notice as he bounced down the stairs, through the first floor and out the door into the snow covered courtyard to a waiting sled. In the sled sat a very miserably cold looking Poland, and a shivering Lithuania standing next to it, talking to his friend. Flakes of snow covered both of them
“Here we go, all of my northwestern provinces together!” Russia laughed as he swung Belarus around by the arm in a ‘crack the whip’ motion, sent her sliding across the snow before landing in Lithuania’s arms; which made him lose his footing and slip on the snow while he tried to steady them both.
Poland snickered. “You’re like, so clumsy Liet.”
“You have all been very, very naughty! Now …” Russia stood in the snow and looked at all three of them. “What should we do about that?”
Poland glared at him. “You could let me out of this totally lame sled, for one.” He didn’t like the easterly direction the horse pulling the sled was facing.
Russia shook his head, still grinning. “No, you have been the most naughty of all and are going to Siberia. I’ve already decided.” He looked at the other two standing there, now with very shocked expressions. “There is room for two more, what do you think?” His smile widened when their expressions of shock turned to fear. “Should I send both of you with him?” He tapped his finger to his smiling lips as if thinking deeply about it. “I don’t think so. My dear little sister is in desperate need of a proper education, as I just found out today, and you,” he pointed at Lithuania. “Are a very bad influence on her. I need to keep a close eye on you.”
Lithuania glanced at Poland. “But …”
“No buts, and Poland has a long, long journey ahead, so he needs to leave as soon as possible.” Russia waved at the driver, who touched his whip to the horse.
The sled lurched forward and Poland turned back to look at them. “At least I like, have a reason to wear fur year round now.” Lithuania ran a few steps in the snow tracks left behind by the sled, watching it until Poland went over a hill and out of sight.
Russia raised his arm and waved goodbye to Poland cheerfully. “Next order of business! West Russia, you are changing rooms immediately. You will move into my wing of the house where there is a very large room with a beautiful view of the river. Next-door will be your schoolroom. You will have the best Russian teachers available and learn language, history, culture–“
“STOP CALLING ME THAT!” Belarus suddenly screamed. Her hands covered her ears and she slipped in the snow onto her knees. “My name is BELARUS!”
Lithuania spun around and stared at her. He made a move to go toward her and help her out of the snow, but Russia got there first.
Russia shook his head and clucked his tongue. “Poor little sister, this is exactly why you need to live closer to your family.” Russia lifted her out of the snow back onto her feet. “Don’t worry about your former room, I will find a suitable occupant for it.” He put his arm around her shoulders and moved her toward the door of the house. “Lithuania, as for you, go to your room. I will come and deal with you later.”
Lithuania stood outside in the snow and watched them go back inside. His entire body shook, but it wasn’t from the cold.
“Russia” Belarus asked quietly once they were back inside. She had a terrible headache and wanted to sleep. “Why do you spend so much time with Lithuania?”
“There is a saying little sister, ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.’” He smiled down at her.
“ … Do you think I am your enemy?”
“When you are with Lithuania and Poland, you do act like my enemy. You are rebellious. Don’t you understand they will never be your true family? It took me many years to bring us all back together. You should appreciate that.”
Belarus thought about this, not paying attention to where they walked. She had lived with Lithuania since she was practically an infant. Even now, when she became increasingly angry and impatient with him, she still felt he was more like family to her than Russia, who seemed like a stranger. “Must I change rooms?”
“It will be for the best. You need proper supervision. See how tired you look. That naughty Lithuania getting you involved with his illegal activities. You need some rest.” He came to an unfamiliar door and opened it.
Belarus now realized they were in Russia’s wing of the house. She looked at him before glancing inside at the large room. The windows indeed faced a picturesque view of the country surrounding Russia’s house and the frozen river in the distance.
Russia leaned down and gave her a brotherly kiss on the forehead. He put his hand on the small of her back and gently guided her into the room. “Rest for now, I have other business to take care of. I will see you at dinner. West Russia.”
Belarus stared at her brother as he gave her one last smile before closing the door. She turned in a slow circle and looked around, feeling very sleepy. Noticing a small shelf of books over a writing desk she walked over to look at them. Frowning, as her headache grew worse she picked them up one by one, opening the cover to look at the title page inside.
They were all in Russian.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Author’s Note: The January uprising of 1863 was part of a continuing struggle between the former commonwealth states and the Russian empire. Rising nationalism swept across Europe in opposition to the Quadruple Alliance of 1815. The failure of the Crimean War coupled with Poland’s desire to restore its national borders to pre 1772 pitted Polish nationals against the Russian Empire. Led by Belarusian Kastuś Kalinoǔski, the failed rebellion brought harsher restrictions on the former Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Roughly 12,000 people were banished to Siberia. Another 128, including Kastuś Kalinoǔski were executed. Most of all, Russia began a sweeping plan to eradicate any language but Russian. Other languages were banned, the University of Vilna was closed, and all schools became Russian language only.
Despite this, Belarusians, Polish and Lithuanians continued to write and use their own languages in secret. They formed revolutionary societies and struggled against Russian oppression of their language and culture. Many Belarusians were forced to move into Russia, while Jews were forced to move into Belarus. The region known as “West Russia” became the “Pale of the Empire.”
Author:
nike2422Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia
Warnings: Russia manhandles Lithuania and Belarus a little rough, otherwise nothing.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Axis Powers Hetalia.
Summary: Poland, Belarus and Lithuania are swept in the wave of nationalism splashing over Europe and desperately work to remember and maintain their cultural identity, if only in secret. Russia just wants everyone to get along and make friends. Unless they’ve been really naughty, then they win a one way trip to Siberia.
Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10
Older Stuff
“Hurry up, Bela! We’re going to get caught!” Lithuania whispered as he ran toward the back door of the massive house. He hoisted the bag of books and periodicals higher on his shoulder and looked back at her.
“I’m trying, but it’s dark out here!” Belarus hissed back him, lugging a bag just as big as Lithuania’s as she slipped in the snow, her breath freezing in front of her face in the early morning gloom. The rope dug into her shoulder, but she yanked it back up so it didn’t drag on the ground behind her.
“Almost there.” He opened the back door with the stolen key and held the door for her as she hauled her load into the house.
“Do they have to go to my room?” She whined, shaking the snow off of her and stamping her boots. She was sure he insisted on it just to have an excuse to go there.
“I can’t put them in my room, Russia’s in there too often.” Lithuania answered her, putting his head down so his hair covered his face. He closed the door quietly, making sure it didn’t squeak before wiping his own boots and moving through the dark storeroom into the hallway toward the servant’s service staircase in the back of the house.
She watched him, a disapproving frown growing on her face. “Why does he spend so much time with you?” She hoisted the sack again, wincing as it cut into her sore shoulder and moved behind him.
Lithuania looked at her, surprised by the tone of her voice. Could she be jealous? “Ah, I would rather not say. Believe me Bela, I don’t enjoy it.”
Belarus still frowned. She found it odd that Russia wanted to be with Lithuania all the time. “Are you sure we can’t take these to your room?” She didn’t want to lug the bag up the stairs.
“I’m certain of it. They’ll be found in my room.” Lithuania walked as silently up the stairs as he could.
“Ugh!” She grit her teeth as she climbed the stairs behind him. With each step the bag felt like it doubled in weight. She breathed heavily by the time they reached the top and had her head down as she followed him to her bedroom. She almost didn’t react in time to his feet suddenly stopping and nearly barreled into his back. She saw his hand shoot out to his side to let her know to stop moving and she looked up at the back of his head.
Lithuania peered around the corner into the main hall where he heard heavy footsteps coming. He quietly dropped the bag of books behind him, almost on Belarus’ feet and waited to see who it was, almost certain who it would be. Russia’s blond head appeared as he went right to the same door he and Belarus were heading to and knocked quietly.
“West Russia, are you there? Little sister?”
Belarus wanted to scream every time Russia called her that. She was so sick of it! It wasn’t her name! Inwardly she groaned … then froze when she realized she had groaned out loud.
Lithuania spun around and stared at her in horror for a second before taking a deep breath and walking out into the main hall into Russia’s view. “Mr. Russia! I just saw Bela outside, she was on her way into town to get something.”
“Why, it’s my other north western province!” Russia beamed at Lithuania when he appeared. “Oh? Did she say she would be gone very long? Also, please use her proper name when speaking of her. It won’t do to confuse her any more than necessary.” Russia reminded him.
Belarus peeked around the corner when she heard her brother’s voice echoing through the corridor. Ducking back behind her hiding spot before he saw her, she waited for him to stop talking to Lithuania; who stood facing him and visibly shaking. She wished she could make a sound of disgust at the sight of Lithuania so obviously afraid of Russia, but she wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“If I see her, I will let her know.” Lithuania answered, fear in his voice as he tried to sound cheerful. “I have some very important things to attend to. Don’t really have time to chat-“
“Wait, I have an idea! Let’s walk into town right now and see if we can find her!” Russia’s smile grew more as he rocked back and forth on the heels of his boots and looked into Lithuania’s pained face.
“Uhhh … right now?” Lithuania’s voice was full of dread. “Sure, let’s do that. We might meet her when she’s coming back, she didn’t plan on being gone long.”
Russia grabbed Lithuania’s hand and dragged him roughly behind him. “Good! Let’s go then!”
“Ah! Mr. Russia!” Lithuania stumbled after him as his arm was nearly jerked out of its socket.
Belarus waited until she couldn’t hear any more sounds before dragging the bag of book Lithuania had almost dropped on her feet. She kicked open her bedroom door huffing and puffing until the bag was in the room before running back into the wide corridor to get the other bag and drag it in. She slammed her bedroom door closed, then looked around frantically for a hiding place before they came back.
“Oh, I will get caught for sure with all of this! Especially the newspapers written in Lithuanian and Polish!” She ran to the large armoire on the wall opposite her bed and threw the doors open, looking for space to hide the forbidden reading material. She opened one of the drawers in the bottom, tossing out everything kept there on the floor to make room for the bags. She crammed everything into the armoire as best as she could and slammed the draw shut as she heard a knock on her door again.
Gasping, she whipped her head around and looked at her bedroom door. Jumping to her feet and closing the armoire doors closed, Belarus walked over to the door and opened it to find Russia standing there, smiling down at her.
“Little sister! There you are, I’ve been looking for you.”
“For me? What for?” She answered, giving him a curious look.
Russia’s smile faded a little when she spoke. He clucked his tongue and shook his head. “West Russia, it pains me that your years with Poland and Lithuania have corrupted you so badly, but I must insist you at least try to speak properly.
She frowned at him, not just for the chastisement at using her own language, but also by the surprise of him being here. Didn’t he just tell Lithuania he wanted to walk into town? “I like how I speak. I’ve been speaking this way for as long as I remember.” She wanted to add, “All of Lithuania’s laws are written in my language! I’m not an illiterate fool” as well, but knew it would do no good.
Russia shook his head. “West Russia, I promise I will be very patient, but there must be some progress. Let me see you write something.”
“Right now?” This seemed like a strange request. Her brother never asked her to read or write anything for him.
“Yes, right now!” He answered, walking over to a table where she kept writing paper, ink and pen.
Belarus followed him and took a seat at the table. She picked up her pen, dipped it in the inkwell, and began to write. Russia sat in a chair next to her and watched carefully.
“Stop.” Russia said, his voice flat. He pointed at the sentence she had barely begun to write. “What is that?”
Belarus looked at it. “Writing?”
“What kind of writing?”
She looked up at him. “Latin writing. Like Poland and Lithuania use”
Russia shook his head. “No no no, that is wrong. Write with proper letters!”
Belarus sighed and dipped her pen before rewriting the sentence with Belarusian Cyrillic letters. She barely had that sentence finished when Russia snatched the paper away. “Let me see.”
She jerked the pen away before it made a blot on the page, and stared at him as he read the paper. His frown grew as he dropped the piece of paper and looked at her. “This is wrong too! You don’t know how to write properly at all!”
“What? That’s ridiculous! I’ve known how to read and write since I was very little!” Belarus felt a headache growing.
“This problem must be dealt with immediately! I know … school!”
“School!” Belarus shot out of her seat and stood over him. “I am grown now, I don’t need school!”
“When someone needs to learn, they go to school!” Russia’s eyes grew wide when she stood over him glaring. “I will find you the best Russian teacher available! Let’s get you packed, yes?” He pushed past her as he rose from the table and dashed over to the armoire. Flinging the doors open, he put his hands on the drawer handles. “Come help me West Russia, the sooner you learn how to read and write, the more help you can be to me here.”
When she saw what he was doing she panicked and ran over to stop him. Grabbing his hands and trying to tug them away she shouted. “No! I don’t want to go away to school! Let me stay here with you! I will do better, I promise!”
Russia laughed as he ignored her hands and opened the drawer. “Don’t be silly, little sister, my mind is already made up!” He looked at the large bags stuffed inside and blinked before asking. “Did you read my mind, are you packed already?” Grabbing the bags he pulled them out of the drawer and dumped the contents onto the floor with a single shake. Books, periodicals and rolled up newspapers landed on the floor in two haphazard piles.
Belarus’ eyes grew wide with horror as she stared at the forbidden books before looking at him. “Uhm … Oops, how did those get there?”
“I see.” Russia’s smile returned as he crouched down and took one of the newspapers off the pile. He opened it and looked at the front page. “This is written in Polish.” He dropped it and opened a book. “And this is Lithuanian.”
Belarus fidgeted watching him. She began to back away from him, moving toward the bedroom door. “Oh that Lithuania! I’m going to give him a piece of my mind right now!” She strode toward the door but Russia jumped up and grabbed her wrist.
“Let’s go together West Russia!” her brother chirped cheerfully, waving a political journal in her face. “This is in Belarusian, by the way!” He tossed it over his shoulder as he dragged her from the room into the hall.
It wasn’t easy for Belarus to keep up with her much taller brother, but he didn’t seem to notice as he bounced down the stairs, through the first floor and out the door into the snow covered courtyard to a waiting sled. In the sled sat a very miserably cold looking Poland, and a shivering Lithuania standing next to it, talking to his friend. Flakes of snow covered both of them
“Here we go, all of my northwestern provinces together!” Russia laughed as he swung Belarus around by the arm in a ‘crack the whip’ motion, sent her sliding across the snow before landing in Lithuania’s arms; which made him lose his footing and slip on the snow while he tried to steady them both.
Poland snickered. “You’re like, so clumsy Liet.”
“You have all been very, very naughty! Now …” Russia stood in the snow and looked at all three of them. “What should we do about that?”
Poland glared at him. “You could let me out of this totally lame sled, for one.” He didn’t like the easterly direction the horse pulling the sled was facing.
Russia shook his head, still grinning. “No, you have been the most naughty of all and are going to Siberia. I’ve already decided.” He looked at the other two standing there, now with very shocked expressions. “There is room for two more, what do you think?” His smile widened when their expressions of shock turned to fear. “Should I send both of you with him?” He tapped his finger to his smiling lips as if thinking deeply about it. “I don’t think so. My dear little sister is in desperate need of a proper education, as I just found out today, and you,” he pointed at Lithuania. “Are a very bad influence on her. I need to keep a close eye on you.”
Lithuania glanced at Poland. “But …”
“No buts, and Poland has a long, long journey ahead, so he needs to leave as soon as possible.” Russia waved at the driver, who touched his whip to the horse.
The sled lurched forward and Poland turned back to look at them. “At least I like, have a reason to wear fur year round now.” Lithuania ran a few steps in the snow tracks left behind by the sled, watching it until Poland went over a hill and out of sight.
Russia raised his arm and waved goodbye to Poland cheerfully. “Next order of business! West Russia, you are changing rooms immediately. You will move into my wing of the house where there is a very large room with a beautiful view of the river. Next-door will be your schoolroom. You will have the best Russian teachers available and learn language, history, culture–“
“STOP CALLING ME THAT!” Belarus suddenly screamed. Her hands covered her ears and she slipped in the snow onto her knees. “My name is BELARUS!”
Lithuania spun around and stared at her. He made a move to go toward her and help her out of the snow, but Russia got there first.
Russia shook his head and clucked his tongue. “Poor little sister, this is exactly why you need to live closer to your family.” Russia lifted her out of the snow back onto her feet. “Don’t worry about your former room, I will find a suitable occupant for it.” He put his arm around her shoulders and moved her toward the door of the house. “Lithuania, as for you, go to your room. I will come and deal with you later.”
Lithuania stood outside in the snow and watched them go back inside. His entire body shook, but it wasn’t from the cold.
“Russia” Belarus asked quietly once they were back inside. She had a terrible headache and wanted to sleep. “Why do you spend so much time with Lithuania?”
“There is a saying little sister, ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.’” He smiled down at her.
“ … Do you think I am your enemy?”
“When you are with Lithuania and Poland, you do act like my enemy. You are rebellious. Don’t you understand they will never be your true family? It took me many years to bring us all back together. You should appreciate that.”
Belarus thought about this, not paying attention to where they walked. She had lived with Lithuania since she was practically an infant. Even now, when she became increasingly angry and impatient with him, she still felt he was more like family to her than Russia, who seemed like a stranger. “Must I change rooms?”
“It will be for the best. You need proper supervision. See how tired you look. That naughty Lithuania getting you involved with his illegal activities. You need some rest.” He came to an unfamiliar door and opened it.
Belarus now realized they were in Russia’s wing of the house. She looked at him before glancing inside at the large room. The windows indeed faced a picturesque view of the country surrounding Russia’s house and the frozen river in the distance.
Russia leaned down and gave her a brotherly kiss on the forehead. He put his hand on the small of her back and gently guided her into the room. “Rest for now, I have other business to take care of. I will see you at dinner. West Russia.”
Belarus stared at her brother as he gave her one last smile before closing the door. She turned in a slow circle and looked around, feeling very sleepy. Noticing a small shelf of books over a writing desk she walked over to look at them. Frowning, as her headache grew worse she picked them up one by one, opening the cover to look at the title page inside.
They were all in Russian.
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Author’s Note: The January uprising of 1863 was part of a continuing struggle between the former commonwealth states and the Russian empire. Rising nationalism swept across Europe in opposition to the Quadruple Alliance of 1815. The failure of the Crimean War coupled with Poland’s desire to restore its national borders to pre 1772 pitted Polish nationals against the Russian Empire. Led by Belarusian Kastuś Kalinoǔski, the failed rebellion brought harsher restrictions on the former Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Roughly 12,000 people were banished to Siberia. Another 128, including Kastuś Kalinoǔski were executed. Most of all, Russia began a sweeping plan to eradicate any language but Russian. Other languages were banned, the University of Vilna was closed, and all schools became Russian language only.
Despite this, Belarusians, Polish and Lithuanians continued to write and use their own languages in secret. They formed revolutionary societies and struggled against Russian oppression of their language and culture. Many Belarusians were forced to move into Russia, while Jews were forced to move into Belarus. The region known as “West Russia” became the “Pale of the Empire.”
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The Pale of Settlement, or simply the Pale was a part of the Russian empire where Jewish people were required to settle. This included the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth lands, Parts of Ukraine and Moldova.
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Thanks a million for updating!
I love the phrase 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer'. It is very suitable for Russia's personality since he always smile and acted nice to everyone.
Re: Thanks a million for updating!