Europe's last dictatorship: The roots and perspectives of authoritarianism in 'White Russia'

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 57, Issue 6, 2005, Pages 895-908

  Marples, David R ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AUTHORITARIANISM; LEADERSHIP; NATION STATE; VIOLENCE;

EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; EUROPE; WORLD;

EID: 24944440357     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/1080/09668130500199509     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. 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);
2. Sherman W. Garnett & Robert Legvold, Belarus at the Crossroads (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999);
3. David R. Marples, Belarus: a Denationalized Nation (Amsterdam, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1999);
4. Margarita M. Balmaceda, James I. Clem & Lisbeth L. Tarlow (eds), Independent Belarus: Domestic Determinants, Regional Dynamics, and Implications for the West (Cambridge, MA, distributed by Harvard University Press for the Ukrainian Research Institute and Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University, 2002);
5. Elena A. Korosteleva, Colin W. Lawson & Rosalind J. Marsh (eds), Contemporary Belarus: Between Democracy and Dictatorship (London, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003);
6. and Stephen White, Elena Korosteleva & Joen Loewenhardt (eds), Postcommunist Belarus (Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004).
7. In April 1995, simultaneously with the parliamentary election, voters were asked to respond to the following four questions: (a) Do you agree that the Russian language should have equal status with Belarusian? (b) Do you support the proposal about the establishment of a new state flag and national symbols of the Republic of Belarus? (c) Do you support the actions of the president directed toward economic integration with Russia? (d) Do you agree with the need to introduce changes to the Constitution of Belarus providing for the pre-term dissolution of the Supreme Soviet by the president of Belarus in cases of systematic or gross violations of the Constitution? The turnout was only 64% and large majorities supported each question. See Sovetskaya Belorussiya, 25 May 1995, p. 1.
8. The referendum of November 1996 saw a much higher turnout of over 84%, and 70.5% supported a new draft constitution of the president to extend his term in office for a further five years, reduce Parliament from 260 to 110 seats, appoint half the members of the Constitutional Court and establish a new upper house of 60 senators, as well as changing the date of the national holiday to 3 July; see P.G. Chigrinov, Ocherki istorii Belarusi (Minsk, 2000), pp. 449-450.
9. 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.
10. Cited in http://www.ilhr.org/ilhr/regional/belarus/updates/2000/24.html.
11. Associated Press, 18 January 2005.
12. 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.
13. Interview with Gennadii Grushevoi (Henadz Hrushavy), Minsk, Belarus, 14 July 2004.
14. See for example Vladimir Yakutov, 'Aleksandr Lukashenko: dokumental'no-khudozhestvennaya povest", Nemiga, 2000, 2 (April-June), pp. 3-126;
15. and Mikhail Shelekhov, 'Tsvety Aleksandrii', Belaruskaya Dumka, 2002, 8 (August), pp. 3-19.
16. Grigory Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Questions of Language', Europe-Asia Studies, 55, 7, 2003, pp. 1009-1047;
17. Gregory Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Belarusian Identity', Europe-Asia Studies, 55, 8, 2003, pp. 1241-1272;
18. and Gregory Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Economy and Political Landscape', Europe-Asia Studies, 56, 1, 2004, pp. 85-118.
19. Grigorii Ioffe, 'Ponimanie Belarusi: ekonomika i politicheskii peizazh', Belaruskaya Dumka, 2004, 6, pp. 140-148.
20. Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Questions of Language', p. 1009.
21. This issue is discussed in Uladzimir Padhol & David R. Marples, 'The Dynamics of the 2001 Presidential Election', in White, Korosteleva & Loewenhardt (eds), Post-Communist Belarus, pp. 93-109.
22. Ibid. A June 2004 survey by the Institute for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS), which was based in Minsk and headed by the respected sociologist Oleg Manaev, revealed that the percentage of respondents who felt that Russia and Belarus should become a single state had declined from 25.6% in March 2003 to 15.5% in June 2004. Similarly, whereas 44.2% felt that the two countries should use the Russian currency in September 2003, the corresponding figure in June 2004 was 35.6%. Finally, in response to the question whether they would support the restoration of the USSR - which implies closer ties between Russia and Belarus - that figure has declined steadily from 55.1% positive and 22.3% negative in November 1993 to 39.5% positive and 50.8% negative in June 2004. Those who support the resurrection of the Soviet Union, it is noted, are mainly women, pensioners and people with little education who live in villages in Vitsebsk, Homel and Hrodna regions; see http://www.iiseps.by/epress5.html. IISEPS was formally dissolved by the authorities in the spring of 2005.
23. Ioffe, 'Understanding Belarus: Belarusian Identity', p. 1242.
24. Ibid., p. 1262.
25. Marek J. Karp, 'Bialoruska ucieczka od wolnosci', Gazeta Wyborcza, 28 July 1997, pp. 15-16.
26. I have discussed this article in more detail in David R. Marples, 'Bac'ka Lukasenka: Zum Phaenomen 'charismatischer' Herrschaft', Osteuropa, 54, 2, 2004.
27. Ireland, like Belarus, developed as a mainly rural nation, which largely adopted the language of its long-term colonial ruler, Britain.
28. 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.
29. Anthony D. Smith, Myths and Memories of the Nation (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 48.
30. Nicholas P. Vakar, Belorussia: The Making of a Nation (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1956), pp. 38-39.
31. 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);
32. and Z. Paznyak & Ya. Shmyhaleu, 'Kurapaty: daroha smertsi', Litaratura i mastatstva, 3 June 1988.
33. M. Dovnar-Zapol'sky, 'Osnovy gosudarstvennosti Belorussii', Neman, 1990, 2, p. 133. The author, who is sometimes described as a historian of Belarusian origin, but is believed by many observers to have been Polish, was born in 1867 in Rechytsa district of Minsk guberniya, and both studied and taught at Kyiv University.
34. There are several possible derivations of the word 'white' in the name Belarus. Historians have been divided over whether it originated from white clothing worn from ancient times, or from the regular snowfalls in the area, or from the fair complexions of the people; see for example Nicholas P. Vakar, 'The Name "White Russia", The American Slavic and East European Review, 8, 1949, pp. 201-213.
35. Dovnar-Zapols'ky, Osnovy gosudarstvennosti Belorussii, pp. 133-135.
36. Ibid., p. 136.
37. Some historians date this development to the beginning of the century; see for example Jerzy Tomaszewski, Rzeczpospolita wielu Narodow (Warsaw, 1985), p. 106.
38. Jan Zaprudnik, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History (Boulder, CO, T Westview Press, 1993), p. 56.
39. E.I. Abetsedarskaya et al., Istoriya Belarusi (Minsk, 1997), pp. 171-172.
40. Ibid., p. 167.
41. I.I. Kovkel, & E.S. Yarmusik, Istoriya Belarusi s drevneishikh vremen do nashego vremeni (Minsk, Aversev, 1998), p. 170.
42. Zaprudnik, Belarus: At a Crossroads in History, p. 58.
43. Ibid., pp. 63-64.
44. Andrej Kotljarchuk, 'The Tradition of Belarusian Statehood: Conflicts about the Past of Belarus', in Egle Rindzeviciute (ed.), Contemporary Change in Belarus (Huddinge, Sweden, Baltic and East European Graduate School, 2004), pp. 43-44.
45. The acronym refers to the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army; see for example Volodymyr Serhiichuk, OUN-UPA v roky viiny:novi dokumenty i materially (Kyiv, Dnipro, 1996).
46. See for example K.I. Domorad, Razvedka i kontr-razvedka v partizanskom dvizhenii Belorussii 1941-1944gg. (Minsk, Nauka i tekhnika, 1995).
47. 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.
48. 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.
49. 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.
50. A.G. Kokhanovsky & O.A. Yanovsky (eds), Istoriya Belarusi (Minsk, Historical Faculty of the Belarusian State University, 1997), p. 358.
51. Ibid., p. 359.
52. Narodnaya Volya, 12 May 2005;
53. Sovetskaya Belorussiya, 10 May 2005.
54. Narodnaya Volya, 28 April and 6 May 2005.
55. Interfax, 8 April 2005.
56. Astrid Salim, 'Political Culture and National Symbols: Their Impact on the Belarusian Nation-Building Process', Nationalities Papers, 27, 4, December 1999, p. 657.
57. 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.
58. 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.
59. 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.
60. 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;
61. see David Marples, 'Belarus: Key Candidates Barred from Election Campaign', Eurasian Daily Monitor, 1, 89, 21 September 2004.
62. 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/ o_15750.htm.
63. 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).