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Understanding the Political Symbols of Belarus by Andrej Kotljarchuk

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Essay The Flag Revolution. Understanding the Political Symbols of Belarus by Andrej Kotljarchuk elarus remains one of the least known Lukashenka led to mass protests across the country for countries in western and northern the right to vote in free and fair elections. International Europe. There are several reasons for readers are fascinated by the peaceful nature of the pro- this, the primary one being the fact that tests and by the thousands of white-red-white fags worn in modern times, Belarus did not exist by protestors. as a political entity. During this time Belarus had no sovereignty, being initially a province of Poland-Lithua- aving a national fag is an old tradition. From the nia and the Russian Empire.1 The Cold War contributed Hbeginning, national fags were an efective medium to the disappearance of Belarus from Western politi- for political messages that could be passed on to people cal and academic discourse. Very few scientifc books without having to rely on a certain level of literacy. Dur- and articles about Belarus were published in the West ing the era of nationalism in Europe, several new political before 1991.2 Despite the Belarusian SSR’s membership nations constructed their own fags that were intended of the UN, Belarus was absorbed by the Soviet Union. to mobilize a movement and unite a nation around a Unlike neighboring Latvia or Lithuania, Belarus was not powerful political symbol. As Gabriella Elgenius point- independent during the interwar period and had no large ed out, in the modern world national fags continue to diaspora in Europe after 1945. Therefore, Belarusians be used as political symbols, as tools of propaganda and were often considered by people outside Eastern Europe control, and as devices for the inclusion and exclusion of as so-called ‘white Russians’, a nation without a tradition diferent social groups within the entire nation.3 Why do of statehood, native language and culture, or political protestors and ofcials in Belarus use diferent national symbols. Belarus made headlines in the global media for fags? What do the white-red-white and red-green fags the frst time in its history in August 2020. The rigged symbolize for the people in Belarus? Why are the police elections after 25 years of authoritarian rule by President hunting the white-red-white fag? Why does the massive 45 Essay Protest in Minsk, August 2020. PHOTO: RADIO FREE EUROPE state-run propaganda against peaceful protests focus on 1891 in Hlybokae, Vitsebsk region, into a Roman Catholic the white-red-white fag and the history of World War II? family of Belarusian farmers. Duzh-Dusheuski came to In this paper, I outline how a study of political symbols of St. Petersburg (aka Petrograd) for his university studies Belarus can contribute to a more detailed understanding because there were no universities in Belarusian lands of the ongoing situation in the country. after the tsarist government closed the Jesuit Academy in Polatsk and the University of Vilna. The white-red-white Historical Background fag was based on the traditional colors of Belarusian folk The Belarusian national movement was one of the latest dress and military banners of the Grand Duchy of Lith- in Europe that emerged after the 1905 revolution in uania and Ruthenia. Historically, the white-red-white the Russian empire. The frst political party, the Bela- stripes appeared on the dress of Belarusian Orthodox rusian Socialist Party Hramada, was founded in Minsk bishops. The fag quickly became popular among the peo- in 1905. The frst Belarusian-language newspaper was ple and the frst all-Belarusian Congress, held in Minsk established in Vilna (nowadays Vilnius) in 1906. The in December 1917, accepted it as the national fag. This frst publishing houses were established in Vilna and St. congress, that gathered 1872 delegates from diferent Petersburg in 1906. The frst history of Belarus, written regions of Belarus, was violently dispersed by Bolshevik by a Belarusian writer in Belarusian, was printed in Vilna military. Klaudzii Duzh-Dusheuski was one of the found- in 1910.4 The frst grammar of the Belarusian literary ers of the short-lived Belarusian Democratic republic language was published in 1918. The frst network of Be- (hereafter the BNR). The government of the republic that larusian-language schools was created only during World proclaimed its independence in Minsk on 25 March 1918 Wat I in the German occupation zone.5 As everywhere adopted a white-red-white fag as a national fag. in Europe, students took an active part in the national awakening known in Belarusian as ‘the renaissance of a n 1921, after the treaty of Riga that divided Belarus nation’ (adradziennie). In the summer of 1917, Klaudzii Ibetween Soviet Russia and Poland, Duzh-Dusheuski Duzh-Dusheuski, a student at the Petrograd Mining In- went into exile in Lithuania where he worked as archi- stitute, designed a white-red-white fag. He was born in tect. During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, he was 46 Essay The national flag of Belarusian Demo- cratic Republic and independent Belarus in 1991-1995. PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA COMMONS The flag of Belarusian Democratic Republic on the The white-red-white flag on balcony of the republican government (former office the cover of the pro-Nazi Be- of the Russian governor). Minsk, February 1918. The larusian police journal Belarus The state flag of Belarusian SSR (1951). unknown photographer. Originally published in the na Varcie in June, 1944. The PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA COMMONS magazine Varta October 1918, 33. PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA COMMONS author’s private collection. arrested by the Germans for helping local Jews and sent However, in the early 1930s the Communist Party of to prison. After the war he was arrested again, this time Western Belarus in Poland received the directives of the by Soviet secret police MGB, as “a Belarusian nationalist” Communist International (Comintern) general ofce in and sent to prison. He died in Kaunas in 1959.6 Moscow to combat a white-red-white fag as being “bour- In 1918, Professor Mitrofan Dounar-Zapolski wrote a geois-nationalistic”.9 work on behalf of the government of the BNR, entitled The basis of Belarusian state individuality, which was pub- s happened elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Europe, lished in English, German and French.7 Dounar-Zapolski A the national fag was used by civil collaborationist pointed out that a Belarusian state emblem (Pahonia) and authorities in Belarus in 1941–1944. At that time, Soviet a white-red-white fag have deep historical roots in the partisans used the red fag and the Polish underground history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Ruthenia. resistance used the Polish national fag. During frst In interwar Poland, the white-red-white fag was years of occupation the Nazis moved several police and adopted by diferent political and non-governmental anti-partisan regiments recruited in the Baltic countries, organizations of the Belarusian minority, apart from the Ukraine and Russia to Belarus. There is no evidence of Communist party. These include the Belarusian Student the white-red-white fag being used by Belarusian auxil- Union at Wilno University, the Association of Belaru- iary police. The national fag was used by the Belarusian sian-language schools, the social-democratic Hramada Home Guard (Weißruthenische Heimwehr). However, and the Christian-Democratic party. this pro-Nazi police and military formation was estab- At that time, the fag was considered by all Belaru- lished only in April-June 1944, few weeks before the with- sians in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania to be “a national drawal from Belarus and after the fnal stage of Holocaust. fag”. For example, in 1930, Maksim Tank (aka Maksim On this occasion, Vasyl Bykau, the prominent Bela- Skurko), a renowned poet and member of the Communist rusian writer and Red Army veteran of World War II, Youth League of Western Belarus, published a poem: “Do ironically noted: “It is known that Belarusian collabora- you hear my brother”. The poem described the white- tors used the white-red-white fag; it is also well known red-white fag as a powerful political symbol in the mobi- that they wore pants – so what? We do not have any other lization of the Belarusian minority in Poland. national fag”.10 It should be noted that most pro-Nazi military and police forces recruited in the occupied Boldly face the future! republics of the Soviet Union and the Baltic states used The long-awaited time has arrived their national fags. For example, the national fag of Rus- Under a white-red-white fag sia (aka tricolor) was used by SS Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A, The glorious victory awaits us.8 which acted in 1943–44 in Belarus, and by a paramilitary 47 Essay pro-Nazi Union of Russian Youth (Soiuz russkoi molo- dezhi); the leaders of each moved to Minsk in 1943. For example, in June 1944, the Nazi press reported about the The state flag of assembly of the Union of Russian Youth in Minsk that Belarus since 1995. gathered in the House of the Russian National-Socialist PHOTO: WIKIPEDIA COMMONS Working Party. The delegates raised “a Russian national fag” and sent addresses to the soldiers of the Vlasov State Flags of the Union Republics from January 20, 1947 army, SS-brigade RONA; and the members of the Hitler- allowed the use of other colors and additional symbols to jugend and the Union of Belarusian Youth.11 In post-war refect the national character of the republics. The fag western countries, the white-red-white fag was promot- of the Belarusian SSR, adopted in 1951, was designed as a ed by activists within the Belarusian diaspora as the fag compromise between communist and national symbols.
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