{"id":11355,"date":"2022-02-19T19:37:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-19T16:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/regimes-history-policy-reflects-its-desire-to-suppress-opponents-analysis\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"regimes-history-policy-reflects-its-desire-to-suppress-opponents-analysis","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/","title":{"rendered":"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history with his political objectives. Historical revisionism may affect unbiased historians, one scientist said. <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian ruler on February 4 tasked his administration with establishing a national historical policy council. It will be working \u201cto preserve historical truth and memory of the heroic past of the Belarusian people, shape a historical-state mindset, and strengthen the historical-cultural and spiritual-ethical togetherness of Belarusians.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Attempts to revise history are likely to polarize society, while historians who try to be impartial may face persecution.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Luka\u0161enka: \u201cOur response to home-grown revanchists\u201d<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian ruler had declared 2022 the year of historical memory. Speaking at a government conference on historical policy on January 6, he claimed that nationalists had distorted history in the 1990s. \u201cWe saw the fruits of such patriotic education in 2020,\u201d he stressed. He also made derogatory comments about Belarus\u2019 historical white-red-white flag.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He called on officials to stop the spread of ideas that may undermine the country in the future.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka suggested that the Rzeczpospolita period should be treated as an occupation of Belarusian lands by the Poles and \u201can ethnocide against Belarusians.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In fact, Rzeczpospolita was a federation of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which included the territory of modern Belarus. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania had its own administration, treasury, army and laws in the commonwealth.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka noted that there was nothing Lithuanian about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On January 25 he told scientists that Rzeczpospolita was \u201can occupation of Belarus to some extent,\u201d while the Grand Duchy of Lithuania \u201cwas our state.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In his annual address on January 28, he said that \u201cit was time to get some perspective on the past in order to protect the future.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He said that Day of People\u2019s Unity, a new holiday celebrated by authorities in Belarus on September 17 to mark the unification of Eastern and Western Belarus in 1939, would be \u201cour response to home-grown revanchists.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The remark proves that the real purpose of his historical revisionism is to debase his internal and external opponents.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>No vision of future<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka hopes that history revision will compensate for the lack of ideology and vision of the future, said Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d, a Belarusian political analyst.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He doubts that distorted history will help the Belarusian leader to drum up support for his policies. Another purpose of history revision is to cast his opponents as \u201cdescendants of fascists,\u201d Karbalievi\u010d said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Since the August 2020 protests, official propaganda, in an attempt to discredit opponents, has claimed that the white-red-white flag is the symbol of Nazi collaborators and their followers.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In 2021 the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office opened a genocide case in connection with deaths of millions of Belarusians during World War II at the hands of \u201coccupiers and their collaborators.\u201d In early January Luka\u0161enka signed a law that makes it a crime to deny genocide.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Aliaksandr Kaniuk, Belarus\u2019 ambassador to Armenia, said that the country needed the genocide law because of \u201cthe undisguised political and economic pressure as those who killed us in the past are now trying to teach us how to live.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Kaniuk\u2019s remark was definitely an attempt to hold the current German government responsible for crimes committed by the Third Reich. The genocide accusations are aimed at discrediting Western countries that have imposed sanctions on the Belarusian regime. Paradoxically, Minsk has leveled the accusations against both Germany and anti-Hitler coalition countries.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Historians may be targeted<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka \u201ccannot compete with his opponents\u2019 ideology in a normal competitive environment, so he just uses his repressive security apparatus to destroy the enemy,\u201d Alies Pa\u0161kievi\u010d, a doctoral candidate in history, told BPN.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He noted that the government may try to silence historians promoting theories and points of view that differ from the official discourse.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The new history policy is part of a general trend toward the regime\u2019s totalitarianization and single-mindedness in the vein of Orwell\u2019s 1984.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history with his political objectives. Historical revisionism may affect unbiased historians, one scientist said. The Belarusian ruler on February 4 tasked his administration with establishing a national historical policy council. It will be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11355","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\"},\"headline\":\"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-19T16:37:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\"},\"wordCount\":680,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\",\"name\":\"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-19T16:37:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis | Pozirk","description":"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis | Pozirk","og_description":"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/"},"headline":"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis","datePublished":"2022-02-19T16:37:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/"},"wordCount":680,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/","name":"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-19T16:37:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","description":"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN The lack of a coherent ideology prompts Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka to distort historical narratives in an effort to align history","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11355\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Regime\u2019s history policy reflects its desire to suppress opponents \u2013 analysis"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/longreads\/11355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/longreads"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/longreads"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=11355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}