MINSK -- Belarusian police have detained two activists from the Youth Front movement who were picketing the Russian Embassy in Minsk, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.
Mikalay Dzemidzenka and Margarita Karol unveiled a large sign reading "Hey Maskal' [a derogatory term for a Muscovite], Remember 1514!" in front of the embassy. The sign referred to events 495 years ago today, in 1514, when some 30,000 troops of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland -- consisting mainly of ethnic Ruthenians and Litvins (the historic name of modern Belarusians) and under the command of Hetman Kanstantsin Astrozhsky -- defeated some 80,000 Muscovite forces.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, several young Belarusian bard singers started marking September 8 as a day to remember Belarusian military glory.