What are Belarusian intellectuals today and what is their mission about? - This was the key question when we were setting up the Belintellectuals.eu project five years back. Shaping Belarusian intellectual community through establishing dialogue between enlighteners in Belarus was our main goal back then. However, due to a number of reasons, the activities of the website were halted in 2007.

Question: Why have you decided to revive the project? Olga Shparaga, co-founder and redactor of Belintellectuals.eu: The Belarusian society has changed since then. New expert resources have emerged (for instance, Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies), some researchers and projects have become more influential ("Nashe Mnenie" and Arche magazine, such researchers as Vladimir Fours, Almira Usmanova, Piotr Rudkouski, and others). At the same time, the work of intellectuals in Belarus has not lost its importance: it is intellectuals who are able to examine and grasp, to make visible for the others the trigger points of the social, political, and cultural life.

Due to the fact that we are still learning to initiate and support public discussions, we have to confront the institutions that are either Soviet-time legacy or transmuted ones. In this situation the Internet comes as an indispensable means and locus of – though relative – freedom. We want to use this locus to understand: what the key problems of a modern man are; whether there exists a connection between topical Belarusian problems and the questions which researchers from other European countries face; what we can tell about ourselves, our identity, history, and culture; to what extent the position of an intellectual is decisive for producing political, economic, and cultural change.

Question: How is the new version different from the old one? Alexander Adamiants, co-founder and redactor of Belintellectuals.eu: Today our website acts, at the same time, as a space for publication of topical texts, a discussion ground, and an information source about the Belarusian intellectual community. We are glad to inform you that the project initiative group has been joined by bachelor students of social and political philosophy who are graduating from the European Humanities University this year. Tatsiana Elavaya, Dmitriy Boichenko, Aliaxei Kazharski, and others have worked on updating the website. It is necessary to notice that except Olga Shparaga and me significant contribution was brought by our friend and colleague Alexey Medvetsky who worked on the project almost from the very beginning till 2007.

New Europe and Arche magazines, Center for Philosophical Anthropology Topos, Belarusian Collegium, Belarusian expert community "Nashe Mnenie", Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies, Podzemka art gallery, and European Humanities University act as partners of Belintellectuals.eu. It is important to note that the initiative to support this project has always been an unpaid contribution of its volunteers for our common cause.

Question: Could you describe the website structure in more detail? Alexander Adamiants: The website comprises several sections, which are to be updated constantly. The main section is "Publications", where texts on key issues of the day are placed, open for discussion and commenting. For the most part these are texts of Belarusian authors.

In the "Community" section, one can find information about the key figures of the contemporary Belarusian intellectual process: philosophers and professors, culture researchers and journalists, film directors and art researchers. We see our task as adding to the Community participants list the names of those who would agree to join the intellectual activities in some form.

The "Library" section is a collection of the most relevant texts to the social and humanities themes. Beside classical texts, it includes a database of contemporary Belarusian authors.

The "Lectorium" section is oriented for development of alternative communication of the most prominent academic intellectuals with students, young researchers, and anyone interested in the problems. It must allow us to react to the problems which Belarusian intellectuals face nowadays. In the "Translation" section one can find translations of topical foreign texts made by the Belintellectuals.eu team. Our task is to make the actual knowledge more accessible to a wider audience. In the "Student Papers" section are placed the texts of young researchers, which they consider worth attention.

On the website, you can also find a digest of present-day events (conferences, presentations, scholarships etc), as well as a vast collection of links to different websites on social sciences and humanities themes.

You are welcome to visit our website, familiarize yourselves with the texts, take part in the discussions, send your own works for publication, and participate in the development of the site! We would be grateful for any suggestions and critical remarks, since the real intellectual website is not a property of its creators, but a common property of all the thinking people.

Auditorial board of Belintellectuals.eu, 26.05.2009.