14(240) 06.04.2004 The Higher Attestation Commission (VAK), which grants all postgraduate degrees in Belarus, has twice rejected a doctoral thesis by Ales Pashkevich, chairman of the Belarusian Union of Writers (SBP). "The Concept of National Life in the 20th-Century Prose of Belarusian Emigre Writers", is now being examined by political scientist and historians. According to Pashkevich and other literary scholars, the VAK's reluctance to approve the dissertation is linked to a letter by six World War II veterans sent to President of Belarus and VAK Chairman Anatoly Rubinov.
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