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CHAPTER 20 Political Discourses of the Alternative Belarusianness The manifestos, articles, and public presentations of Belarusian opposition politicians, as well as publications of political analysts, have been used as the basic material for the analysis of the political discourse of an alternative Belarusianness. Remarkably, this alternative Belarusianness does not exist as a single concept like the one made by the official ideology. One can speak of the alternative discourses of Belarusianness that breaks down into many images of a potentially different Belarus. Some authors see alternative Belarusianness in Europe, others see it at the meeting point of civilizations and consider Belarus to be a neutral and self-sufficient country. They are united by the renunciation of the Russian vector of the Belarusian idea cultivated by the authorities, and a consequent denial of the national status of the existing Belarusian state. In practice, the two alternative concepts of Belarusianness not only do not contradict each other, but often unite in their opposition to the pro-Russianness that dominates official culture and politics . To realize the idea of Belarus as a cultural bridge between Russia and the West it has to move away from Russia and toward Europe to reach neutrality . Thus, “Europe” becomes a symbol of alternative Belarusianness. Belarus Is Europe The articulation of the European idea of Belarusianness is based on a number of principles. First principle is a liberal democratic interpretation of the nation. It means that “the nation” as a phenomenon can be realized only under a definite state structure.Andrei Suzdaltsev writes:“the present Republic of Belarus cannot be considered a national state of the Belarusian people […] as only a state with a democratic state and political regimes can be called ‘national’.”1 Stanislav Bogdankevich2 gives a similar 1 Andrei Suzdaltsev, “Belorusskoe natsional’noe gosudarstvo,” Nashe mnienie, April 18, 2005, http://www.nmnby.org/pub/180405/nation.html. 2 The chief of Belarusian National Bank in 1991–1995, currently the head of the United Civic Party (Ob’edinionnaia Grazhdanskaia Partia). formulation of the national idea. He incorporates “the European political idea” into the content of Belarusianness: “We are convinced that the essence of the Belarusian national idea consists in the consolidation of complete sovereignty of the state and the right of our people to manage their own destiny, in the revival of its moral and spiritual formations, in the flourishing of national culture, in the formation of a prosperous civil society and a democratic rule-of-law state, with its ultimate aim to provide citizens with rights and liberties as well as a worthy level of life.”3 The main hindrance in realizing this national idea is the incumbent authorities who tear Belarus away from the West and bring it to the East. “Lukashenka’s socioeconomic realities of Belarus are more pertaining to the Asiatic model of production based on the predominant administrative power and its inseparability with property, on the economic and political dominion of bureaucracy.”4 In this manner, the genuine European idea of Belarusianness is sullied by the Asiatic formula of power. Like Stanislav Bogdankevich, the majority of the opposition authors proclaim liberal and democratic values as the basis for national Belarusian development, in contrast to the current regime. The basic thesis of this approach is that a nation cannot exist outside of, or without, liberal democracy, which is why Belarusians have to replace the political system of power in the country in order to become a “nation.”Adherents of this approach work in the sphere of political declaration and base their arguments on comparison with European countries. Another source of “European Belarusianness” is built on the revival of Belarus’s European past. The alternative Belarusian historiography lays a solid foundation for the concept of European Belarusianness. In this context , the Belarusian nation is considered to be European, not because it claims for itself the category of nation in general, but because of its tradition of shared political and moral values. One of the goals of the Belarusian People’s Front is the “renewal of the Belarusian cultural tradition on the basis of European moral values,” while the Europeanness and the general civilizational perspective of Belarus are provided by the Belarusian historical memory.5 The Belarusian political scientist Uladzimir Rouda writes that “from the moment of emergence of statehood on Belarusian lands in the ninth century and until the end of the eighteenth century Belarus had belonged 3 Stanislav Bogdankievich, “Belaruskaia natsional’naia idea,” Adkrytaie gramadstva 1 (6), 1999 http...

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