Lukashenka Promotes ‘Soviet Belarusian’ Identity against Both Russian World and Belarusian Nationalism, Bratochkin Says

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 5 – Most observers agree that Alyaksandr Lukashenka came to power because he offered a return to Soviet approaches to rule and development in contrast to the turmoil roiling other former Soviet republics and argue that he has remained in power largely by using more or less unconstrained repression.
    Those views are not so much wrong as incomplete, Aleksey Bratochkin, a Belarusian historian now teaching in Hagen, Germany. They fail to highlight the important fact that Lukashenka has promoted a “Soviet Belarusian” identity opposed to both Putin’s Russian world and the Belarusian opposition’s nationalism (ng.ru/cis/2024-12-05/1_9150_belorussia.html).
    Unless one recognizes that reality, the historian continues, they will not be able to understand why Lukashenka behaves as he does not only domestically but in relations with Moscow and why he has the support of so many Belarusians who continue to identify as such because of their experiences in Soviet times.
    The two kinds of national identity in Belarus that most observers talk about, Bratochkin says, are one based on an ethnocentric model which asserts that the country must develop as an independent ethnic community and state and a second, “a Russian-centric” one that argues Belarus is naturally part of Russia and should be part of Russia.
    But there is a third model of Belarusian identity and it is one that Lukashenka shares and has sought to promote. “It focuses not on national culture but on loyalty to the regime” and arises from Soviet times when Belarusians as a community became increasingly conscious of themselves as a nation.
    In fact, Bratochkin says, “a community of ‘Soviet Belarusians’ emerged” and continues to exist. Indeed, he continues, “it is obvious that Alyaksandr Lukashenka relies precisely on the notion of ‘Soviet Belarusians.’” And it is that identity which “dominates the country” and his approach, which seeks to marginalize both the ethnocentric and Russo-centric models.