Europe's Last Dictatorship: The Roots and Perspectives of Authoritarianism in ‘White Russia’

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes The author would like to express his appreciation to Lyubov' Pervushina, Grigorii Ioffe and Aya Fujiwara for assistance with materials and ideas used in this article. However, it has begun to attract the attention of scholars over the past few years. The most recent works include the following: Rainer Lindner, Historiker und Herrschaft: Nationsbildung und Geschichtspolitik in Weissrussland im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Munich, R. Oldenbourg, 1999) ; Sherman W. Garnett David R. Marples, Belarus: a Denationalized Nation (Amsterdam, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1999) ; Margarita M. Balmaceda, James I. Clem Elena A. Korosteleva, Colin W. Lawson and Stephen White, Elena Korosteleva see P. G. Chigrinov, Ocherki istorii Belarusi (Minsk, 2000), pp. 449 – 450. On 17 October 2004 citizens of Belarus took part in a nationwide referendum to answer the following questions: Do you allow the President of the Republic of Belarus Aleksandr Grigorevich Lukashenko to participate in the presidential election as a candidate for the post of the President of the Republic of Belarus and do you accept Part 1 of Article 81 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus in the wording that follows: 'The President shall be elected directly by the people of the Republic of Belarus for a term of five years by universal, free, equal, direct, and secret ballot'; see http: //www. vitrysslan. nu/v04/tal. html. Cited in http: //www. ilhr. org/ilhr/regional/belarus/updates/2000/24. html. Associated Press, 18 January 2005. The speech was presented at the international conference on 'The Future of Democracy beyond the Baltics', Riga, Latvia, 6 February 2004. The author was a participant at this conference. Interview with Gennadii Grushevoi (Henadz Hrushavy), Minsk, Belarus, 14 July 2004. See for example Vladimir Yakutov, 'Aleksandr Lukashenko: dokumental'no-khudozhestvennaya povest", Nemiga, 2000, 2 (April – June), pp. 3 – 126; and Mikhail Shelekhov, 'Tsvety Aleksandrii', Belaruskaya Dumka, 2002, 8 (August), pp. 3 – 19. Grigory Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Questions of Language', Europe-Asia Studies, 55, 7, 2003, pp. 1009 – 1047; Gregory Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Belarusian Identity', Europe-Asia Studies, 55, 8, 2003, pp. 1241 – 1272; and Gregory Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Economy and Political Landscape', Europe-Asia Studies, 56, 1, 2004, pp. 85 – 118. Grigorii Ioffe, 'Ponimanie Belarusi: ekonomika i politicheskii peizazh', Belaruskaya Dumka, 2004, 6, pp. 140 – 148. Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Questions of Language', p. 1009. This issue is discussed in Uladzimir Padhol see http: //www. iiseps. by/epress5. html. IISEPS was formally dissolved by the authorities in the spring of 2005. Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Belarusian Identity', p. 1242. Ibid. , p. 1262. Marek J. Karp, 'Bialoruska ucieczka od wolnosci', Gazeta Wyborcza, 28 July 1997, pp. 15 – 16. I have discussed this article in more detail in David R. Marples, 'Bac'ka Lukasenka: Zum Phaenomen 'charismatischer' Herrschaft', Osteuropa, 54, 2, 2004. Ireland, like Belarus, developed as a mainly rural nation, which largely adopted the language of its long-term colonial ruler, Britain. Hrushevsky declared that the Ukrainian people had existed on their 'historical lands' since the fourth century. For a detailed discussion of the arguments and counter-arguments as to whether Kyivan Rus' was the foundation for all three Eastern Slavic peoples or for the Ukrainians alone see O. D. Boiko, Istoriya Ukrainy (Kyiv, 2003), pp. 72 – 76. Anthony D. Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 48. Nicholas P. Vakar, Belorussia: The Making of a Nation (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1956), pp. 38 – 39. Zyanon Paznyak (b1944) is the founder of the Belarusian Popular Front, which is currently divided into two factions: the Belarusian Popular Front headed by Vintsuk Vyachorka and the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, which Paznyak heads from exile in Poland. Paznyak has written extensively about Stalinist crimes and their adverse impact on the national development of Belarus; see for example Zyanon Paznyak, Sapraudnae ablichcha (Minsk, 1992) ; and Z. Paznyak see for example Nicholas P. Vakar, 'The Name 'White Russia", The American Slavic and East European Review, 8, 1949, pp. 201 – 213. Dovnar-Zapols'ky, Osnovy gosudarstvennosti Belorussii, pp. 133 – 135. Ibid. , p. 136. Some historians date this development to the beginning of the century; see for example Jerzy Tomaszewski, Rzeczpospolita wielu Narodow (Warsaw, 1985), p. 106. Jan Zaprudnik, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History (Boulder, CO, T Westview Press, 1993), p. 56. E. I. Abetsedarskaya et al. , Istoriya Belarusi (Minsk, 1997), pp. 171 – 172. Ibid. , p. 167. I. I. Kovkel', see for example Volodymyr Serhiichuk, OUN – UPA v roky viiny: novi dokumenty i materially (Kyiv, Dnipro, 1996). See for example K. I. Domorad, Razvedka i kontr-razvedka v partizanskom dvizhenii Belorussii 1941 – 1944gg. (Minsk, Nauka i tekhnika, 1995). See for example the interesting debate on the proposed commemoration of the 'Volyn massacres' of 1943 by Poland and Ukraine, and Ukrainian claims that they had suffered at least equally from Poles, in Bohdan Oleksyuk, 'Natsionalizm—ne teroryzm', Ukrains'ke Slovo, 4 – 10 September 2003, p. 4. The statement does not deny that some Belarusian scholars are very conscious of what occurred during the Stalin period, starting with the revelations about the Kurapaty massacre in 1988 to the present, as noted in my Conclusion; see for example T. S. Prot'ko, Stanovlenie sovetskoi totalitarnoi systemy v Belarusi (1917 – 1941gg. ) (Minsk, Tesei, 2002). Though recent, however, the book, according to the author's preface, was prepared in the glasnost' period and completed by 1994. There is also a gap between knowledge of events and adoption of them into official state ideology. This issue is explored in detail in Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569 – 1999 (New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2003), and especially pp. 52 – 72 and 80 – 82. A. G. Kokhanovsky Sovetskaya Belorussiya, 10 May 2005. Narodnaya Volya, 28 April and 6 May 2005. Interfax, 8 April 2005. Astrid Sahm, 'Political Culture and National Symbols: Their Impact on the Belarusian Nation-Building Process', Nationalities Papers, 27, 4, December 1999, p. 657. The September 2003 survey by the IISEPS (Minsk) revealed that 39. 9% of those polled felt that the top priority problem of the country was 'economic crisis, rise in prices and unemployment', and 38. 9% considered it to be the 'low standard of living and social maintenance'. 'Political problems' was the answer chosen by just 12. 3% of respondents; see http: //www. iiseps. by/epress4. html. When Lukashenka announced the referendum of October 2004 he stated the following: 'And for all these years I have been holding with care and reverence the radiant and fragile vessel whose name is Belarus. I am carrying it, and am afraid of dropping it, so fragile and vulnerable it is. You cannot but agree that we would not like this purity and beauty created by us to fall into the hands of an irresponsible and incidental politician'. Cited in http: //www. vitryssland. nu/v04/tal. html. About 39% of Belarusian residents polled in September 2003 declared that they would like to live in another country; see http: //www. iiseps. by/epress4. html. That figure is down slightly from 2002. This is the group Respublika, comprising some 11 deputies; see David R. Marples, 'The Prospects for Democracy in Belarus', Problems of Post-Communism, 51, 1, January – February 2004. Since the 2004 parliamentary election, however, there are no known oppositionists in the legislature; see David Marples, 'Belarus: Key Candidates Barred from Election Campaign', Eurasian Daily Monitor, 1, 89, 21 September 2004. Indeed, it is becoming better known; see for example the article by Peter Sadovnik, 'Meet the Belarussian Opposition', The St. Petersburg Times, 20 May 2005, http: //www. sptimes. ru/archive/times/1071/opinion/o₁5750. htm. See Prot'ko, Stanovlenie…. In the early years of independence there were some very frank discussions of the atrocities of the Stalin period, which remain in circulation in Belarusian bookstores and libraries; see for example G. Ya. Golenchenko & V. P. Osmolovsky, (compilers), Istoriya Belarusi: voprosy i otvety (Minsk, Belarus', 1993). Additional informationNotes on contributorsDavid R Marples The author would like to express his appreciation to Lyubov' Pervushina, Grigorii Ioffe and Aya Fujiwara for assistance with materials and ideas used in this article.