Jeszcze raz o klasyfikacji zabytków ruskich. Próba uporządkowania zagadnienia.

ABOUT THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE RUTHENIAN ANCIENT WORKS ONCE AGAIN. AN ATTEMPT TO ORDER THE ISSUE Summary The problem of belonging to the Belarusian or Ukrainian cultural heritage, which has been discutated on for over a century, is still far from being resolved. Researchers indicate various criteria that would be the most important in assigning the language of the work: the author’s nationality and place of origin, as well as the range of its distribution. The problem is additionally complicated by non-scientific factors (the policy of the Russian Empire and later USSR, and then (after Belarus and Ukraine gained independence in 1991) the need to build a coherent historical narrative. Re-analysis of this scientific discussion leads to the conclusion that monuments may have multi-identity. This in turn implies specific methodological guidelines – the linguistic affiliation of a monument, should base only on the linguistic criteria, while determining the cultural (Belarusian / Ukrainian) affiliation of monument should be done on non-linguistic issues, related both with the person of the author, the place of origin of the work, and the range of its dissemination.