E-Księgarnia-
KK
Kamil Kłysiński
Centre for Eastern Studies, Warsaw, Poland.
DOI 10.48261/INRR210307
Keywords: Great Patriotic War, Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, politics of history
Abstract: Respect for the achievements of the USSR was one of the foundations of Belarusian politics of history even before the rule of Alyaksandr Lukashenka; this was also reflected in the identity of most Belarusians, who perceived themselves as “Soviet people”. A special place in the narrative about the Soviet period was occupied by the Great Patriotic War, which was also presented from the perspective of the enormous demographic and material losses that affected the territory of today’s Belarus. The timid attempts undertaken in the early 1990s to demythologise the cult of the war period did not lead to any significant changes in the narrative, especially since Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s rise to power in 1994 effectively blocked any further efforts to revise Belarusian historiography. For President Lukashenka, who has ruled ever since then, the Great Patriotic War was and continues to be one of the key periods defining the history of Belarus and its contemporary domestic and foreign policy. At the same time, in response to Russia’s interference in Ukraine in 2014 and Moscow’s desire to subjugate Minsk fully, the Belarusian president began playing World War II “memory card” that had hitherto been excluded from the current disputes, in order to strengthen his and his country’s own historical narrative as something separate from that of Russia.
References
“25 лет назад на площади Независимости состоялась торжественная военная присяга на верность Беларуси” [25 years ago on Independence Square a solemn military oath of allegiance to Belarus was sworn]. Наша Нiва September 8, 2017. Accessed April 5, 2020. https://nn.by/?c=ar&i=197093&lang=ru.
Bratochkin, Aleksey [Браточкин, Алексей]. 2012. “Преодоление «советского прошлого» в Беларуси как проблема”, Доклад на семинаре «Новой Европы» январь 2012 г. http://eurocenter.by/studies/preodkietasovetskogo-proshlogo-v-belarusi-kak-problema.
Bukchin, Semyon [Букчин, Семен В.]. 2000. Белорусская трагедия. 1986–1999. Страна и народ в зеркале публицистики. [The Belarusian tragedy. 1986–1999. The country and the nation in the view of journalism]. Warsaw.
Daneyko. Elena [Данейко, Елена]. 2015. “9 мая в Беларуси: яблоневый цвет вместо георгиевских лент?” [May 9 in Belarus: Apple Blossom instead of St. George’s Ribbon?]. Deutsche Welle May 7, 2015. Accessed April 18, 2020. https://p.dw.com/p/1FL20.
Dean, Martin. 2000. Collaboration in the Holocaust: Crimes of the Local Police in Belorussia and Ukraine, 1941–44. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Goujon, Alexandra. 1999. “‘Genozid’: a rallying cry in Belarus. A rhetoric analysis of some Belarusian nationalist texts”. Journal of Genocide Research 1 (3): 353–366. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14623529908413965.
Ioffe, Emmanuil [Иоффе, Эммануил Г.]. 2015. Пантелеймон Пономаренко: «железный» сталинист [Panteleymon Ponomarenko: the “Iron” Stalinist]. Minsk: Харвест.
Ivanov, Kirill [Иванов, Кирилл]. 2019. “ОНТ жестко прошелся по Медведеву, намекнув на Крым и Донбас” [ONT criticised Medvedev, mentioning Crimea and Donbass]. Салiдарнасц November 6, 2019. Accessed April 22, 2020. https://gazetaby.com/post/ont-zhestkoproshelsya-po-medvedevu-nameknuv-na-kr/158047/.
Kazakievich, Andrei. 2012. “Współczesna białoruska tożsamość historyczna” [Contemporary Belarusian Historical Identity], in Tożsamości zbiorowe Białorusinów [Collective identities of Belarusians], ed. Radzik, Ryszard. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.
Kirchanov, Maksim [Кирчанов, Максим]. 2011: Интелектуальная история белорусского национализма. Краткий очерк [Intellectual history of Belarusian nationalism. A short essay]. Smolensk: Книжный клуб »Посох«.
Klaskovskiy, Aleksandr [Класковский, Александр]. 2014. “Накануне прилета Путина Лукашенко заговорил о независимости по-белорусски” [On the eve of Putin’s arrival, Lukashenko spoke about independence], Naviny.by July 2, 2014. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://naviny.by/rubrics/politic/2014/07/02/ic_articles_112_185940.
Klaskovskiy, Aleksandr [Класковский, Александр]. 2018. “Красные даты. Почему Лукашенко держиться за советский календарь” [Red dates. Why Lukashenko is sticking to the Soviet calendar]. Naviny.by November 7, 2018. Accessed April 19, 2020. https://naviny.by/article/20181107/1541575201-krasnye-daty-pochemulukashenko-derzhitsya-za-sovetskiy-kalendar.
Kłysiński, Kamil and Żochowski, Piotr. 2016. The end of the myth of a brotherly Belarus? Russian soft power in Belarus after 2014: the background and its manifestations. Warsaw: Centre for Eastern Studies: OSW Studies 58, November 2016. https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-studies/2016-11-07/end-myth-a-brotherly-belarus-russian-soft-power-belarus-after.
Kłysiński, Kamil. 2020. Białoruś: wybory prezydenckie z epidemią w tle [Belarus: Presidential elections with the pandemics in the background]. Warsaw: Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich, OSW Analizy May 13, 2020, Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.osw.waw.pl/pl/publikacje/analizy/2020-05-13/bialorus-wybory-prezydenckie-z-epidemia-w-tle.
Kłysiński, Kamil and Konończuk, Wojciech. 2020. Opposites put together. Belarus’s politics of memory. Warsaw: Centre for Eastern Studies: OSW Report, October 2020.
Korolevich, Sergey [Королевич, Сергей]. 2018. “Назад в СССР – коммунисты отмечают День Октябрской революции” [Back to the USSR: Communists are celebrating October Revolution Day], Naviny.by November 7, 2018. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://Naviny.by/article/20181107/1541586001-nazad-v-sssrkommunisty-otmechayut-den-oktyabrskoy-revolyucii.
“Лукашенко об акции »Бессмертный Полк«: Я категорически против” [Lukashenko on the “Immortal Regiment” initiative: I am categorically against it], Tut.by March 1, 2019. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://news.tut.by/society/628258.html.
Mironowicz, Eugeniusz. 2007. Białoruś [Belarus]. Warsaw: Trio.
Marples, David Roger. 1994. “Kuropaty: The Investigation of Stalinist Historical Controversy”. Slavic Review 53 (2): 513–523.
Marples, David Roger. 2014. ‘Our glorious past”’: Lukashenka’s Belarus and the Great Patriotic War. Series Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 124. Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag.
Marples, David Roger and Rudling, Per Anders. 2009. “War and memory in Belarus: the annexation of the western borderlands and the myth of the Brest Fortress, 1939–41”. Belarusian Historical Journal 32: 225–244.
Portnow, Andrij. 2009. “‘Wielka Wojna Ojczyźniana’ w polityce pamięci Białorusi, Mołdawii i Ukrainy” [The “Great Fatherland War“ in the politics of memory of Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine]. Res Publica Nowa 22 (7): 24–33.
“Последствия Великой Отечественной войны для Беларуси” [The Consequences of World War II for Belarus]. Архивы Беларуси [Belarussian National Archives] website. Accessed April 10, 2020. http://archives.gov.by/home/tematicheskie-razrabotki-arhivnyhdokumentov-i-bazy-dannyh/istoricheskie-sobytiya/velikaya-otechestvennaya-vojna-belarus/istoriya-vojnyobzor-sobytij/posledstviya-velikoj-otechestvennoj-vojnydlya-belarusi.
Radzik, Ryszard. 2003. Kim są Białorusini? [Who are the Belarusians?]. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek.
Radzik, Ryszard. 2007. “Białoruska wizja ideologii państwowej” [The Belarusian vision of the state ideology]. Studia Białorutenistyczne 1: 101–118.
Radzik, Ryszard. 2012. Białorusini—między Wschodem a Zachodem [Belarusians—between East and West]. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.
Radzik, Ryszard. 2013. “What future for Belarus? An analysis of identity issues”. Sprawy Narodowościowe. Seria nowa 42: 7–35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/sn.2013.001.
Rudkouski, Piotr. 2017. Soft Belarusianisation. The ideology of Belarus in the era of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Warsaw: Centre for Eastern Studies: OSW Commentary 253, November 3, 2017. https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2017-11-03/soft-belarusianisation-ideology-belarus-erarussian-ukrainian.
Rudling, Per Anders. 2008. “Belarus in the Lukashenka Era: National Identity and relations with Russia”, in Europe’s last frontier? Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine between Russia and the European Union, eds. Schmidtke, Oliver, Yekelchyk, Serhiy. Palgrave: Macmillan.
Rudling, Per Anders. 2014. The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism 1906–1931. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Rudling, Per Anders. 2017. “»Unhappy is the person who has no Motherland«: National ideology and history writing in Lukashenka’s Belarus’”, in War and memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, eds Fedor, Julie, Kangaspuro, Markku, Lassila, Jussi, Zhurzhenko, Tatiana, Etkind, Aleksander, Palgrave: Macmillan.
Shadurskiy, Viktor [Шадурский, Виктор]. 2014. “Историческая политика в Республике Беларусь: этапы развития и версии интерпретации прошлого” [Politics of history in the Republic of Belarus: the stages of development and versions of the interpretation of the past]. Труды факультета международных отношений 5, 2014. https://elib.bsu.by/bitstream/123456789/108573/1/shadurski_Trudy_2014.pdf.
Śleszyński, Wojciech. 2018. Historia w służbie polityki. Zmiany polityczne a konstruowanie przekazu historycznego na ziemiach białoruskich w XX i XXI wieku [History in the service of politics. Political changes and the construction of historical messages in Belarus in the 20th and 21st centuries]. Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku.
Taras, Anatol’ [Тарас, Анатоль]. 2018. 1812 год – трагедия Беларуси [The year 1812: the Tragedy of Belarus]. Minsk: Харвест.
Tretiak, Sergey [Третьяк, Сергей]. 2017. “В Беларуси Великая Отечественная была национально-освободительной войной” [In Belarus the Great Patriotic War was a national-liberation war]. Eurasia.Expert May 2017, https://eurasia.expert/v-belarusi-velikaya-otechestvennaya/.
Tożsamości zbiorowe Białorusinów [Collective identities of Belarusians], ed. Radzik, Ryszard. 2012. Lublin: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej.
“В Минске прошел военный парад в честь Дня Независимости” [The military parade was held in Minsk on Independence Day], BT July 4, 2019. Accessed April 21, 2020. https://www.tvr.by/news/obshchestvo/v_minske_proshel_voennyy_parad_v_chest_dnya_nezavisimosti/.
Yaroshevich, Aleksandr [Ярошевич, Александр]. 2015. “Референдум-1995. Беларусь десять лет жила под неправильным гербом» [Referendum 1995. For 10 years Belarus has lived under the wrong coat of arms], Naviny.by May 14, 2015. Accessed April 12, 2020. https://Naviny.by/rubrics/society/2015/05/14/ic_articles_116_188877.
Zadora, Anna. 2017. “The Second World War in Belarus: between fundamental event and oblivion”, in Niepamięć wojny: Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w XX/XXI wieku [The oblivion of war: Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th/21st century], ed. Budzińska, Justyna, Głowacka-Sobiech, Edyta, Jonda, Bernadette. Poznań: Instytut Historii UAM: 135–148.
Zadora, 2019: Zadora, Anna. 2019. “Druga wojna światowa na Białorusi – wydarzenie fundamentalne dla tworzenia się narodu oraz stosunków międzynarodowych” [The Second World War in Belarus: The fundamental event for nation-making and international relationships], in Nowe perspektywy badawcze w transnarodowej historii komunizmu w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej [New research perspectives in the transnational history of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe], ed. Brzechczyn, Krzysztof. Poznań, Warsaw: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu: 279–292.