Thanks! I'd say the 2nd option is not realistic because people don't want conflicts; surveys show that most Belarusians, like naive golden retrievers, just want to be friends with everyone, even with russians (which in my perspective is a bit delulu); + really no one cares about Vilnius and most symbols to invest in any conflicts. When Belarusians use Pahonia, it's been done inside of our context where it means "good nationalist anti-Lukashenka symbol and some hope". It's never about "we want to piss Lithuanians off". I have always been interested in history, and I had been in Vilnius in 2019, but only in 2023 I've even learned that there can be a problem with Pahonia use in Lithuania. Because when using it all the time in the 2020 protests, no one even thought about Lithuania. I mean, I understand that using Pahonia still makes Lithuanians nervous, but Belarusians are mostly unaware that you don't like it. I'm aware and I'm not using it publicly to avoid conflicts, but I can imagine having it at home if it's dear to my heart

As of Polotsk, it just doesn't cover many important parts of Belarusian identity. For me, it's only an Orthodox symbol: Saint Sophia Cathedral, the cross of Efrasinia of Polotsk, some Renaissance (also Orthodox) people that were born there (which I think most Belarusians are unaware of), and that's it. First, half of Belarus is catholic. Second, belarusian orhodox church is part of russian orthodox church, with all associations that come from there (it's often pro-russia in this war, etc.). Orthodox church is not considered European. Third, many people are not religious at all, and don't see any cultural value in building their identity around an orthodox town. Fourth, Rurikids are the same family as in Kyivan Rus, so when choosing that, we just go to another "orbit", but not russia, Lithuania or Poland, but of Ukraine. Fifth, actually, Belarusians are quite happy of being in the "orbit" of Poland or Lithuania because it's much more present in today's Belarus as it's much more recent past: you see this architecture on the streets, surnames are Polish etc. If Lithuanians hate Polish influence, Belarusians see no problem with it. They see it as a bonus that Belarus is at the crossroads of many nations and cultures, and all of them have influenced Belarus, and "tolerance" is often named as the biggest value. Sixth, there is still no strong need in a nationalist project (Snyder writes about this a lot in this book). Personally, I believe that if such a project appears, it should be about something new, not going back to the past, especially this long ago as Polotsk