Belarus: A Stifled Nation

Published 1/27/2022

Revised 2/10/2022

National identity is a difficult concept, filled with complex issues which are constantly shifting. It consists of numerous things, such as culture, political opinions, religion, and more. Triandafyllidou (1998) simplifies it in her article National identity and the `other’ where she argues where national identity arises, “…the close link established between the individual and the collective self, namely the nation” (p. 598). This link is the feeling that each person has about what defines the nation, and the collection of those feelings being expressed. That feeling is based on culture, history, language, religion, and all sorts of other factors, and as such, can easily fluctuate. In addition, a nation controlling one territory could have the same language, religion, or other factors as a neighboring nation with an adjacent territory, but still have a unique national identity which the citizens of these nations would insist on. Triandafyllidou (1998) makes the observation that for this national identity to exist, there must be a distinction from another nation, “…for the nation to exist, it is presupposed that there is some other community, some other nation, from which it needs to distinguish itself” (p. 594). It is on this basis that we can attempt to understand Belarus and its struggle to distinguish itself.

For Belarus especially, it really is a struggle, the origins of which can be seen in its history. The first major state to establish itself in the region was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which later united itself with Poland to become the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Republic of Belarus, 2022). Over the next couple hundred years, Belarusian territory was gradually taken, ultimately being completely annexed by the Russian Empire in 1795. This Russian rule continued for more than a hundred years, into the first world war. A great deal of the fighting of the war was done in Belarusian territory, and ultimately occupied by the Germans. When the Bolsheviks gained control in Russia, Belarus had its own change of power, once again becoming its own state, the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, although this only remained until the end of the First World War. From then until the end of the Cold War, Belarus was under USSR control, during which it became a battlefield once again when the USSR was involved in the Second World War. As a result of these essentially hundreds of years under Russian control, Belarusian culture can be quite difficult to distinguish from Russian.

To get an idea of the cultural overlap, we shall look at some statistics. Russian and Belarusian are both official languages, however Russian comprises 70.2% of the population’s first language, while Belarusian only comprises 23.4% (Central Intelligence Agency, 2022). More people speak Russian in Belarus than people speak Belarusian. Another remnant of the cold war is the religious impact, where Eastern Orthodoxy makes up 48.3% of the population, and the next largest is atheistic at 41.1%, a very clear and nearly even divide. Even much of the industry of the country was developed by the Soviet Union, and now has stagnated without it. Belarus is so similar to Russia, that it seems to struggle to maintain a unique identity, and so it leans hard into simply being not its neighbors. It has border and territorial disputes with all of its neighbors expect Russia and Ukraine (Central Intelligence Agency, 2022), likely only due to its reliance on Russia as an ally and Russia’s interests in Ukraine. This ties into another concept mentioned by Triandafyllidou, the other. As was defined earlier, national identity requires there being some other for the nation to distinguish itself from. From this concept, we get various kinds of others, both internal and external. These others are threats to the national identity and require clear boundaries in order to solidify the identity as different from those others, which does create conflict. For Belarus, we especially look at the external, “…external significant others (are deemed to) challenge the territorial and/or cultural integrity of the nation from without” (Triandafyllidou, p. 602-603). Belarus especially is determined to distinguish itself from European Union and its nations, while also maintaining an independent uniqueness from Russia. Belarus’s one and only president, Alexander Lukashenko, for example, takes pride in having stronger borders than other nations, “We have 120,000 immigrants in Belarus, Afghans from Asia, people from the Caucasus, people who tried to enter the EU. We defended Europe” (Balmforth, 2012). In context he used this argument to deflect a question about Belarus’s dependency on Russia, but by using this as the deflection it shows that it was a point he wanted to make, and that he deemed it important for Belarus’s image. Afterall, Alexander Lukashenko would know very well what is important to his ideal Belarus, as he has been the one and only president since the country’s independence post-Cold War.

There are other reasons for Belarus’ unclear national identity, besides its very young age, and one of those might be its authoritarian rulership. Alexander Lukashenko’s presidency is considered by all to actually be a dictatorship, even in his own words, “I am the last and only dictator in Europe and indeed there are none anywhere else in the world” (Balmforth, 2012). As was defined earlier, national identity is borne of the people that make up the nation, and one would think it would be difficult for those people to explore this identity when they have no control over the country or its direction. When the media is controlled by the state, it gains a lot more control over how people feel and think. In this case, it does allow us a glimpse into what the state considers Belarus’ identity, or at least what it wants to project to others. The Belarusian government’s website explains its culture pretty clearly. It presents one of a history of the arts, music (including its participation in Eurovision), theatre, cinematography, and literature (Republic of Belarus, 2022). It also mentions a nationwide campaign to encourage cultural development, Belarus’ Capital of Culture. What sticks out most in the various pages of the website is the focus on the history of Belarus. Medieval structures, art pieces, and ancient forests are all highlighted, indicating how much they want to increase awareness of this history. In these highlights, we also see more examples of othering. The most mentioned things are those of things that exist only in Belarus, and how they compare to other countries, whether it’s their claim to the first printed Bible in Europe, or how Belarus had the strongest partisan movement in World War II.

Belarus would overall appear to be a nation with a rich history that it wishes the world to become more aware of, as well as a strong nation that has overcome many hardships. At the same time, their reliance on their ally, Russia, clearly damages their ability to distinguish themselves from their ally. Just looking at more recent events, we have seen that Belarus is allowing Russian troops to station and conduct joint exercises during this current Ukrainian crisis (Balmforth, 2022). That means that Russian troops are amassing on their borders, with the potential of putting Belarus on the front lines of one of Russia’s wars yet again. As we navigate the Ukrainian crisis, I think the path Belarus will take will become clearer.

References

Balmforth, R. (2012, November 27). Belarus President Lukashenko in his own words. Reuters. other. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-lukashenko-extracts-idUSBRE8AQ0V520121127.

Balmforth, T. (2022, January 17). Russian forces arrive in Belarus for joint military drills. Reuters. Retrieved January 2022, from https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-belarus-plan-joint-military-drills-february-lukashenko-2022-01-17/

Central Intelligence Agency. (2022, January 18). Belarus. CIA World Factbook. Retrieved January 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/belarus/

Republic of Belarus. (2022). Official website, Belarus | Belarus.by. (2022). Retrieved January 2022, from https://www.belarus.by/en

Triandafyllidou, A. (1998). National identity and the 'other'. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 21(4), 593-612.