Struggle over Identity: The Official and the Alternative "Belarusianness"

13. The Russian Factor in Belarusian Self-Perception

CHAPTER 13 The Russian Factor in Belarusian Self-Perception The integration project as a political undertaking and as a factor of mass consciousness is often considered as an evidence of Belarusians’ reluctance to preserve their independence.“Escape into common destiny, which is manifested in the search of a state to be ‘integrated’ with, turns Belarus into an escape from destiny and responsibility, and, in the end, into ‘escape from liberty’,”1 writes Belarusian political scientist Rouda. This is an escape from one’s own independence and, by the same token, from implementation of the main national idea. (“Independence is the very existence of a nation,” says the chief ideologist of the BPF Z. Pazniak.)2 Such an interpretation of the integration project stems from Russia’s image as an “outsider” on Belarusian territory, which the latter is prepared to join, thus losing its independence. In this case one can speak in reality of a pathological dependence of Belarus (and its readiness to depend) on an “outside” and alien political and cultural formation—Russia. “No nation or ethnie is exempt from external influences, and hardly any is immune to them. But what is truly unusual about Belarus is the degree to which external factors control every fiber in its national fabric, every facet of Belarus’s ethno-national setting: the economy, politics and indeed language and identity.”3 This external factor, controlling every fiber of the “Belarusian soul” is Russia. The Russian issue in the Belarusian context falls into at least three separate issues. First, it is a nostalgic sentiment of the population that was especially evident in the political choices during the first years of independence . Indeed, in the early and mid-1990s the project of a new integration 1 Uladzimer Rouda, “Natsional’naia ideia kak faktor stanovleniia grazhdanskogo obshchestva ,” Analitika Informatsionno-analiticheskii tsent NGO, 2004, http://iac.unibel.by/anl_na0040.htm. 2 Zianon Pazniak, “Nezalezhnasts’ geta iosts’ isnavan’ne natsyi” BPF, http://www.pbpf.org/art.php?art=34&cat=4&lang=be. 3 Ioffe, “Understanding Belarus: Economy and Political Landscape,” 110. with Russia in public consciousness was actually a modernized variety of the USSR. And among the post-Soviet populations, the Belarusian citizens were known as the greatest proponents of the old state restoration. In the March 1991 referendum the Belarusian electorate expressed the highest level of loyalty to the Soviet Union compared to the other participating Soviet republics. Almost 83 percent voted in favor of preserving the Soviet Union. (In Russia and Ukraine the rates were 71.3 percent and 70.2 percent , respectively.) However, by the end of the 1990s the idea of “the Union State” was transformed in public consciousness into an entirely new self-contained project. A comparison of the data of the opinion polls conducted by the IISEPS between 1993 and 2006 shows that the number of those in Belarus who support the idea of reviving the USSR declined over time (see Table 1). As a result, in 2006 it was down to 26 percent, which practically coincides with the number of senior citizens in the country. Table 1. Responses to the Question “How do you feel about restoration of the USSR?” (%) —————————————————————————————————————— November November November April June December April 1993 1997 1999 2002 2004 2005 2006 —————————————————————————————————————— Negative 22.3 25.5 30.1 42.6 50.8 48.3 63.4 —————————————————————————————————————— Positive 55.1 49.9 38.0 38.8 39.5 38.0 26.7 —————————————————————————————————————— No answer 22.6 24.6 31.9 18.6 9.7 13.7 9.9 —————————————————————————————————————— Note: National opinion poll conducted by independent sociologists, April 15–29, 2006. 1,594 people were polled, age 18 and older. Source: Bulleten’ “Novosti IISEPS” no. 2 (40) (2006), http://www.iiseps.org/bullet06-2.html. However, the trend of attitude toward the Union with Russia looks different . The rate of Belarusians’ interest in reunification with Russia remains high, although it shows some decline of the project’s popularity (see Table 2). Notably, the number of those who think that Belarus and Russia should become a single state decreased from 20 percent in 2002 to 12 percent in 2005. At the same time, the number of those who think that Belarus and Russia should form an independent union state connected with close political and economic relations between the two states was still more than 50 percent. Arguments and Paradoxes of Weak Belarusian Identity 140 The Russian Factor in Belarusian Self...