Lida’s side of the story A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN BELARUS Master Thesis Russian and Eurasian Studies Daphne Steenbergen Supervisor: Dr. M. Bader 16 June 2020 Word count: 20.897 Lida’s side of the story Table of contents List of abbreviations 1 Introduction 2 Chapter 1 | Nationalism and national identity 3 National identity 3 National identity in Belarus 6 Chapter 2 | National identity in official political rhetoric 8 Belarus as a geopolitically predetermined nation 8 Belarus as a neutral and self-sufficient nation 10 Belarus as a European nation 12 Chapter 3 | National identity in Lida 13 History 13 Local initiatives 15 Cultural Capital 2020 15 Statue of Grand Duke Gediminas 15 Renaming Sverdlov street 16 Assessment 17 Chapter 4 | Lida from a broader perspective 18 Belarusian national identity 18 Two or three forms of Belarusianness? 20 Impact of 2014 on Belarus’ political boundaries 23 Conclusion 27 Bibliography 29 Appendix 41 List of abbreviations BNF – Belarusian National Front BPR – Belarusian People’s Republic BSSR – Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic BY – Belarus GDL – Grand Duchy of Lithuania GPW – Great Patriotic War 1 A case study of national identity in Belarus Introduction The year 2014, which saw the annexation of Crimea and the start of Russian presence in the Donbas, is widely regarded as a geopolitical critical juncture (Astapenia and Balkunets 2016, 6; Van der Togt 2017, 2). However, its consequences are not limited to the geopolitical stage. Due to the threat the annexation of Crimea posed on Belarusian sovereignty, the regime had to reconsider its priorities. They started to focus on the maintenance of statehood and national security (Wilson 2017, 78). In 2015, Belarus’ president Aljaksandr Lukashenka1 addressed the new priorities when he stated in his annual address to the nation that “the situation in Belarus and around it urgently requires the activation of ideological work.”2 Therefore, the regime began to actively promote Belarusian national identity, culture and language (Lennon and Becker 2019, 323). This new focus of the national policy is called ‘soft Belarusization’ (Mojeiko 2015). One of the aspects of the new policy is leniency towards local initiatives which involve a mythical notion of Belarus’ European past (Golesnik 2014). The events of 2014 made Lukashenka realize that the sovereignty of Belarus could not be built only on the historical foundation of the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic (BSSR) (Shrajbman 2018). Still, the government made the a choice in the 1990s to use this history as a foundation of the regime and the Belarusian people confirmed this choice in a referendum in 1995. It is therefore not easy to discard this foundation (Frear 2019, Belarus under Lukashenka, 80). Therefore, since 2014, the national government has not actively promoted European history of the country but they allowed four cities to erect statues dedicated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), which makes up an important part of Belarusian European history (Bekus 2019, 262). These four cities are Minsk, Vitebsk, Slonim and Lida. Minsk is located in the centre of the country and Vitebsk is in the north-east, close to the Russian border. Lida and Slonim, on the other hand, are in the west of the country, close to the Lithuanian border. This geographic spread is important because it shows that the strong connection to the Lithuanian past is not confined to the regions closest to Lithuania. Nevertheless, a city in close proximity to Lithuania is chosen as a case study because Lida is the only city of the four which is founded by a Lithuanian Grand Duke. In the fourteenth century, Grand Duke Gediminas ordered the construction of a fortress in order to protect the central lands of the GDL (Arteaga 2020). This marked the founding of the city of Lida. On 7 September 2019, the Grand Duke was reunited with his castle when a bronze statue of him was unveiled in front of the fortress during a grand ceremony (Kozyrev 7 sentjabrja 2019). The establishment of the four statues is an interesting phenomenon because, in the early 2000s, Bekus (2008) and Snyder (2003) stated that Belarus’ European history needs to have a central role in Belarus’ nation-forming myth (5; 284). So, it seems that with the policy of ‘soft Belarusization’, the government allows the European aspects of history to be highlighted. Therefore, as Bekus (2008) and Snyder (2003) predicted, European history currently has a significant role in the construction of national identity. However, there is a lack of research on the consequences of the events in 2014 on the development of Belarusian national identity in society. Most of the articles written about Belarus focus on the geopolitical consequences of the critical juncture (Astapenia and Balkunets 2016; Bekus 2017; Podhol 2017; Preiherman 2014; Van der Togt 2017). This thesis aims to fill this gap in the literature with a case study of Lida. The research question is: how do local initiatives regarding national identity in the city of Lida relate to the official political rhetoric about national identity? The aim of the thesis is to 1 In text, the name of the President of Belarus, Aljaksandr Lukashenka, is transliterated from the Belarusian spelling. In the references, the name is transliterated from the Russian spelling because Russian sources have been used. 2 Author’s translation of: Внутренняя, внешняя обстановка вокруг Беларуси настоятельно требует активизации идеологической работы. 2 Lida’s side of the story give a solid picture of recent developments of national identity in Belarusian society. The hypothesis is that the form of Belarusian identity present in Lida’s society is further developed along the lines of Bekus’ and Snyder’s prediction than the ideas about Belarusian national identity voiced in the political rhetoric. The thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter gives a concise overview of the literature about national identity in general and about Belarusian national identity. With this knowledge, a solid analysis of the developments in Belarusian society can be made. After that, an analysis of Lukashenka's annual speeches is conducted in chapter two. The chapter aims to show the change of message concerning national identity before and after 2014. To this end, annual speeches from 2011 up to and including 2020 are analysed to get a clear view of recent ideas of the government regarding Belarusian national identity. 2011 is a good starting point because in December 2010, the last presidential elections before 2014 were being held. Additionally, in the words of Lukashenka: “2010 was a landmark year in the development of the Belarusian political system. It placed a line under a whole period in the history of the country and marked new prospects” (2011, Poslanie belorusskomu narodu).3 The third chapter is dedicated to the city of Lida. This chapter contains the history of the city as well as recent cases of local initiatives regarding national identity. The aim of the chapter is to determine which form of Belarusian identity is present in Lida’s society through focussing on the local initiatives and making connections to Lida’s past. In the final chapter, the case study of Lida is put in the broader perspective of Belarusian society. Whereas chapters two and three concentrate on recent developments, chapter four explains how the ideas about Belarusian identity in Lida can exist side to side with the official line regarding Belarusianness. This is done by looking at the differences of history between the Grodno region, in which Lida is located, and the rest of Belarus. The aim of this chapter is to answer the research question. In the conclusion, a concise overview of the findings is presented alongside expectations for the further development of national identity in Belarus. Chapter 1 | Nationalism and national identity According to Greenfeld (1992) is national identity one of the concepts located under the big umbrella of nationalism (3). In the past decades, nationalism has proven to be a hot topic among scholars. The first part of this chapter will give a concise overview of the classic key works on both nationalism and national identity. Especially in the 1980s and 1990s, much has been written about the topics and these works still have a profound influence on the articles which are published today. The second part of the chapter will look into the literature written on national identity in Belarus. While a lot of key books exist on national identity, this is not the case with Belarusian national identity. Nonetheless, several articles have been written on the phenomenon of Belarusian national identity. This chapter aims to establish an academic framework in which the analyses of the following chapters can be conducted. National identity Before focussing on national identity, an understanding of the term nationalism has to be established. One of the most used definitions of nationalism is the one given by Gellner (1983). He says that “nationalism is primarily a political principle, which holds that the political and the national unit should be congruent” (1). Moreover, nationalism is “the organisation of human groups into large, centrally educated, culturally homogeneous units” (Gellner 1983, 34). Hobsbawm (1992, Nations and Nationalism) adds to this definition that political duty is the most important obligation a citizen of a nation-state has and it is specifically this political duty what 3 Author’s translation of: 2010 год стал знаковым в развитии белорусской политической системы. Он подвел черту под целым периодом в истории страны и обозначил новые перспективы. 3 A case study of national identity in Belarus makes modern nationalism unique (9). Additionally, he stresses that it is not the nation which creates nationalism but that it is nationalism which creates the nation (10). Brubaker (1996) explains nationalism as “a heterogeneous set of ‘nation’-oriented idioms, practices and possibilities that are continuously available or ‘endemic’ in modern cultural and political life” (10).