(Nationalities Papers) In a recent interview with Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Gordon, Alyaksandr Lukashenka—President of Belarus since the establishment of this office in 1994—explained why he was the only parliamentarian in Belarus who did not support the ratification of the 1991 Belovezha Accords that brought down the Soviet Union and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. “I loved my country. I believed that the Soviet Union was a state that stabilized the world.” (Interview, August 6, 2020). It is small wonder that after coming to power in 1994, President Lukashenka worked to keep a wide range of Soviet institutions and practices alive in Belarus: an oversized public sector inculcating and propagating paternalistic attitudes among the citizenry; a centralized political system inimical to political competition; and a shrewd geopolitical approach oscillating between Russia and the European Union. […]
Here you will find a selection of articles which are free of charge until the end of November 2020 that we hope will help you appreciate the past and present of Belarusian politics, society, culture, and national identity. – Harris Mylonas and Gulnaz Sharafutdinova.
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