84 823 65 Special thanks to the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies for assistance in getting access to archival data. The author also expresses sincere thanks to the International Consortium "EuroBelarus" and the Belarusian Association of Journalists for information support in preparing this book. Photos by ByMedia.Net and from family albums. Aliaksandr Tamkovich Contemporary History in Faces / Aliaksandr Tamkovich. — 2014. — ... pages. The book contains political essays about people who are well known in Belarus and abroad and who had the most direct relevance to the contemporary history of Belarus over the last 15 to 20 years. The author not only recalls some biographical data but also analyses the role of each of them in the development of Belarus. And there is another very important point. The articles collected in this book were written at different times, so today some changes can be introduced to dates, facts and opinions but the author did not do this INTENTIONALLY. People are not less interested in what we thought yesterday than in what we think today. Information and Op-Ed Publication 84 823 © Aliaksandr Tamkovich, 2014 AUTHOR’S PROLOGUE Probably, it is already known to many of those who talked to the author "on tape" but I will reiterate this idea. I have two encyclopedias on my bookshelves. One was published before 1995 when many people were not in the position yet to take their place in the contemporary history of Belarus. The other one was made recently. The fi rst book was very modest and the second book was printed on classy coated paper and richly decorated with photos. However, many heroes of this book are absent from there, or information about them has been censored very much, to put it mildly. I am certain that it should not happen in this way. Therefore, this book is an attempt to document today’s realities and stories about fate of those who created the past and is creating the future of Belarus. I would like to be wrong but decades and centuries later, our descendants will not know what actually happened in our times. It already happened in the Soviet history, so I would like very much to avoid repetition of this in the Belarusian history... Unfortunately, many of those who have the right to be in this book have already gone to the better world. And I regret very much that І was not able to record memories of Barys Zvoskau, Vital Silitski and Viktar Ivashkievich. May they rest in peace and may the memory of them live forever. The names of these people remind us again that all of us have to hurry to document our time. The idea of the "Contemporary History of Belarus" was put up in 2005 by Aliaksiej Karol, the editor of "Novy Chas", so he can be seen as a co- author of this book. Especially taking into account the fact that almost all articles were published in "Novy Chas". Certainly, with the exception of those that were published in another newspaper, "Svobodnyje Novosti Plus", which is also very close to my heart. And there is one more thing. It makes sense to name the person who was directly involved in all my twenty books that have been published to date. This is my wife Iryna. She has every right to be a heroine in each of them. TO MY WIFE IRYNA FROM THE BOOK "PERSONALITIES" STANISLAU SHUSHKEVICH, SPEAKER OF THE SUPREME SOVIET OF BELARUS Prepared for publication on 12.08.2007 It is a paradox, but Shushkevich sustained a defeat exactly at that very moment, when he was appointed at the position of the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet. To my mind, it was a Pyrrhic victory. Quite a few people out of those, who worked at the Belarusian Parliament, the one which declared the Declaration of State Sovereignty, noticed that after Stanislau Shushkevich had gained the victory over Mikalai Dziemiantsiei, the temporary Speaker, he really quitted down. A. Sasnou, a former deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the 12th convocation, who doesn’t consider Shushkevich to be the strongest politician, narrated how he had warned about the inevitable nomenclature revenge. Moreover, he described precisely a possible scenario of substitution of legislative power in one of newspapers. And it happened exactly like this on January 28, 1994. It happened in exactly the same way as Sasnou had written about it. Unfortunately, Shushkevich was listening to some others at that time. The author will not retell all the stages of biography of S. Shushkevich, born in Minsk in 1934. It’s only worth mentioning that till 1990, when Shushkevich became the First Deputy to the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, he had been known as a physicist and a nuclear engineer. At that time Shushkevich also claimed to occupy the post of the Chairman, but he lost the fight, since the experienced party nomenclature preferred to support a secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus instead of the protégé of the Communist Party Committee at the Belarusian State University. 8 STANISLAU SHUSHKEVICH, SPEAKER OF THE SUPREME SOVIET OF BELARUS In August 1991, he substituted Dziemiantsiei due to the support of the Belarusian Popular Front and against the background of the embarrased former Communist Party nomenclature, but in 1994, he himself was substituted by Miechyslau Gryb. Afterwards for some time Stanislau Shushkevich worked as the Director of the Center for Political and Economic Studies at the European Humanities University. With this "luggage" he took part in the fi rst presidential elections and lost them in the fi rst round. He collected only 9.9 percent of votes. These events evoke a lot of discussions even now. The author agrees with those, who consider it should have been a single candidate on behalf of the democrats. But who could it be then? Could it be Z. Pazniak, who got 12.9% of votes? Together they collected more than V. Kebich, who passed to the second round with the killing amount of 17.4% votes. Or maybe it was necessary to yield to Genadz Karpenka, whose image was attractive both for the nomenclature and the considerable part of voters. The representatives of the People’s Concord Party approached Shushkevich with such a proposal. (The party was led by Genadz Karpenka and Viktar Ganchar at that time.) However, Shushkevich gave a categorically negative answer. Anyhow, the nomenclature was afraid of Karpenka and blocked him, having invalidated a part of signatures in his support at the Frunzenski city disctrict of Minsk. On the other hand, the deputies from the opposition of the Belarusian Popular Front withdrew their signatures for the nomination for the presidential candidate, too. The situation shows that the problem of falsifi cations and unity of opposition at least at decisive stages of political development of Belarus has always been a problem in the contemporary history of the country. It’s hard to give one simple answer to the questions about the lost possibilities. Nobody knows the answer. A lot of important events took place during the period, when S. Shushkevich was the Speaker of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus. Let’s highlight only some of them. It’s worth mentioning that Shushkevich was the fi rst Speaker in the popular sense. He could really speak properly and we never heard phrases about "the back passage" again. The momentous meeting in Viskuli at the beginning of December 1991 became a fatal event for Shushkevich’s political career. He was one of those "Belavezha aurochs" who "messed up" the Soviet Union. But CONTEMPORARY HISTORY IN FACES 9 unlike Yeltsin and Kravchuk, who became heroes, quite a few people apprehended Shushkevich as a traitor. The author understands pretty well the role of the personality in history and totally respects Shushkevich’s courage, but it seems that his contribution to the whole matter is overestimated to some extent. To my mind, the USSR had to go to pieces. If Shushkevich did not do it, it would have fallen to somebody other’s lot. Probably, it would have been Kebich, whose signature appeared under the "Belavezha Accords", too. Disappearance of the Soviet Union from the political arena was just a matter of time. The Soviet Union was simply condemned to disappearance sooner or later. On December 8, 1991, the so-called "Belavezha Accords" were signed and the Union Agreement of 1922 was denounced. All these documents were ratifi ed by the Supreme Soviet of Belarus on December 22, 1991. However, it wasn’t only that fact of Shushkevich’s biography that led to his dismissal. It was his famous "compliancy" that played the fatal role. He always tried to maneuver between the nomenclature and the supporters of the Belarusian Popular Front. And he lost the absolute backing of the latter. As a result, when it was necessary to take a decision on his resignation, for which according to the time-limit two thirds of the votes were necessary, the nationalists didn’t adhere to Stanislau Shushkevich. He could not be dismissed without their consent. However, the nomenclature part of the Supreme Soviet also voted for his resignation. A similar story happened in mid-summer of 1993. Shushkevich himself considers that at the time he beat his opponents, who were short of some votes. However, there was also another factor that saved the situation. A visit of the US President Bill Clinton to Belarus was planned at that time. Therefore, resignation of almost the fi rst offi cial in the country was rather undesirable. Clinton spent only 8 hours in Belarus.