{"id":11549,"date":"2023-03-29T19:16:38","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T16:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-ignores-calls-for-national-reconciliation-fans-hatred\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-ignores-calls-for-national-reconciliation-fans-hatred","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11549\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka ignores calls for national reconciliation, fans hatred"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Alaksandr Frydman<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka has ignored a call for national reconciliation from a high-profile journalist as he continues a campaign of terror to eradicate dissent.<\/b><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

Siaredzi\u010d\u2019s appeal meets with mixed response<\/h2>\n

\n\t Iosif Siaredzi\u010d, editor in chief of Narodnaja Vola<\/span>, the country\u2019s only remaining major opposition media outlet based in Belarus, appealed to the authorities in mid-March to make the first step toward national reconciliation by announcing a large-scale amnesty program for political prisoners. Minsk responded the same day with lengthy prison sentences for prominent journalists and civil society leaders.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t Moreover, Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka ramped up his anti-Western rhetoric using a Second World War massacre anniversary as an occasion.\n<\/p>\n

Freedom Day intolerance<\/h2>\n

\n\t Exited Belarusian patriots held rallies on March 25 to mark Freedom Day, the 105th<\/sup> anniversary of independence of the Belarusian National Republic (BNR) in 1918.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka and his cronies associate Freedom Day with the nationalist opposition. The Belarusian government banned the white-red-white flag, the official flag of the BNR and Belarus (1991-1995), as it struggled to suppress public protests against election fraud that followed the 2020 presidential election. Officials went as far as to brand the flag a symbol of fascists to smear protesters.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t Just five years earlier, authorities allowed Belarusian patriots to stage a big show in downtown Minsk to mark the 100th anniversary of the BNR. Spectators were allowed to display white-red-white flags at the show, but several people were arrested for displaying opposition colors outside the concert area.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t Before the 2020 presidential election, the Belarusian government was just a bit more tolerant of Belarusian nationalist, patriotic and cultural initiatives as it sought to strengthen ties with the West, seeing it as a counterweight to Russian influence. The Belarusian ruler refused to recognize Crimea as Russia\u2019s territory and positioned himself as a neutral mediator between Russia and Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t Unlike Freedom Day, officials and opponents of the government shared an understanding until recently that the Chaty\u0144 massacre of Belarusian civilians by the Nazis during the Second World War was a dark page in Belarus\u2019 history. There was not much political debate about it, although authorities have repeatedly attempted since the construction of the Chaty\u0144 memorial in the 1960s to use Nazi crimes in politics of the present.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t The memorial is associated with Soviet Union\u2019s campaign to reevaluate World War history after the rise of Leonid Brezhnev to power in 1964. Piotr Ma\u0161era\u016d, leader of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic at the time, sought to highlight the suffering of Belarusians and commemorate their feats during the Nazi occupation.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t Chaty\u0144 has been a symbol of Belarusian suffering during the war as Soviet authorities highlighted Nazi crimes to push the \u201cpartisan republic\u201d narrative. Official propaganda hashed up the issue of participation of Ukrainian and other collaborators in the massacre.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka, with his Soviet mentality, has exploited the Second World War in propaganda extensively during his rule. Still, as Russian propaganda blew the cult of war out of proportions in the early 2000s, it was not until 2021 that annual ceremonies at Chaty\u0144 acquired a pronounced streak of aggressive militarism.\n<\/p>\n

Historical revisionism<\/h2>\n

\n\t Belarusian officials have been using twisted revisions of history for political ends.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t The \u0141uka\u0161enka-approved thaw started after his re-election in 2015 and ended in a large-scale police crackdown on the opposition in 2020.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t The soft Belarusization and rapprochement with the West were followed by severe Russification and deeper integration with Russia. Officials’ hostile attitude to the white-red-white protest movement has reflected on official narratives related to the BNR and Freedom Day. Official propaganda often cites Stalin-era claims that the BNR was established by \u201cbourgeois nationalists\u201d in the interests of German occupiers.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t The Belarusian government has recently refurbished the Chaty\u0144 memorial, making it a key element of its theory that the Belarusians had been target of genocide during the Nazi occupation. The regime has always exploited the memorial, just as the Brest Fortress, for political ends.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t Officials cast themselves as descendants of the Chaty\u0144 victims and legitimate heirs of \u201cthe great victory,\u201d portraying opponents as successors of Belarusian nationalists. They claim that nationalists collaborated with German invaders in 1918 and during the Second World War and currently rely on support from \u201cthe neo-Nazi regimes\u201d in Warsaw and Vilnius.  \n<\/p>\n

\n\t Propaganda exaggerates the role of Ukrainian policemen in the Chaty\u0144 massacre after the new Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka used the recent somber ceremony in Chaty\u0144 to sow hate toward Poland and Lithuania, denigrate democratic values and threaten his opponents. He made it clear that national reconciliation was out of the question.\n<\/p>\n

* * *<\/h2>\n

Siaredzi\u010d\u2019s proposal deserves attention and a broader
\ndiscussion, but it has no chance of being accepted by the regime. \u0141uka\u0161enka refuses
\nto take his foot off the gas as he continues the crackdown on dissent. He uses
\nhistory to defend his repressive policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alaksandr Frydman Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka has ignored a call for national reconciliation from a high-profile journalist as he continues a campaign of terror to eradicate dissent. Siaredzi\u010d\u2019s appeal meets with mixed response Iosif Siaredzi\u010d, editor in chief of Narodnaja Vola, the country\u2019s only remaining major opposition media outlet based in Belarus, appealed to the authorities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[24],"class_list":["post-11549","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u0141uka\u0161enka ignores calls for national reconciliation, fans hatred | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Alaksandr Frydman Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka has ignored a call for national reconciliation from a high-profile journalist as he continues a campaign of\" \/>\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\/11549\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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