The paper deals with the 19th century Belarusian agitational poem "Hutorka staroho dzieda", created in the patriotic circles of Polish-Belarusian nobility ca. 1861. It provides the analysis of the known copies and records of oral tradition to demonstrate how "Hutorka…" became a intercultural Slavic phenomenon and how this fact influenced the text itself. Moreover, such analysis exposes the cultural differences of reading: the poem originated as the simple product of Polish political, patriotic and conspiratorial tradition; in Belarusian context it gained attention as the interesting, well written folktale, which became the part of oral tradition and consequently influenced the Belarusian cultural revival at the end of the 19th century; and in Russian context "Hutorka…" was considered a security threat and scrutinized in great detail by the authorities, while the traces of academic interests are dim. The Ukrainian and Lithuanian versions of the poem are also mentioned. The paper ends with the methodological reflection and calls for the wide, slavistic approach in the studies on such intercultural phenomena.