New Eastern Europe podcasts. This is one of the symbols of the Beila Russian
Awakening. Torbent thinks we are not cattle, we are not hurt, we
are not cowards. We are Billa Russians. Minia be last. God rules
say me, Bella rule says very far there zimmstroys Nina Body Nagalla Boy.
Alexander Blink, a former opposition candidate for the presidency of bilar Rus, underlines
the European identity of Bella Russians. The protests have been going on since the
summer of twenty twenty emphasized this identity. Historian Better Russians have a European mentality
without a doubt, European history, traditions, language. They are vigilant that
they are not Russians, although they have gone through a horrible denationalization at the
beginning of the Tarist regime then the Soviet Union. Most citizens feel that we
are on the verge of two civilizations. Today the country would like to be
such a Belarusian Switzerland. I do not know if it is possible. History
is different. We are not in the Alps, but it is possible to
understand because the European Union is not able to join us yet, and we
are not ready either. And with Russia it is better to live not in
a shared dormitory but in our own homes, and not brotherly relations but good
neighborly relations. While fighting a brutal dictatorship. We have no right to lose
our homeland. Russia is an empire. If the empire does not expand,
it dies, and the ideology of the Russian world is losing an important drag.
In such a situation, Putin wants to rule forever. We know that
after he lost Ukraine at all costs, he must keep Belarus in his brotherly
embrace. Moscow with Putin will always be a threat to us. I believe
that the changes will come not from abroad, not from the East, not
from the west. They will be brought by the ongoing Belarussian revolution of dignity.
We must fight for the right to live in a free, democratic and
just beliruves ourselves. It is our duty. There have been some truly historic,
irreversible changes in the country this year. National revival, the strengthening of
identity, a sense of solidarity and civic responsibility. Millions of better Russians fought
of fear a political nation has emerged that is saying goodbye to its post Soviet
past forever up very be Russian political scientists says that until their presidential elections in
twenty twenty and the ensuing wave of protests, Russian consciousness was deeply dormant,
would just go number. Until twenty twenty, it was simply unnoticeable. It
was just there, and it was not there, so it was not even
crystallized. It was not active, It was not visible, and there was
no common interest. What has happened now, This electoral revolution which turned into
a national revolution. During these events simply made Belarussians understand that they were Belarussians,
that they had their own country, that they were to fight for their
country. Suddenly they understood that they had their own culture, their symbols,
that they suddenly understood that Belarussians are a heroic nation that does not just sit
there during these years and does nothing but fights. It never happened even after
two thousand and ten or two thousand and six. There were such small waves
of solidarity, but it was not on such a scale. This electoral revolution
has awakened the understanding in people that there are not just some Belarussians, but
there are many of them, and this activity, this diaspora or solidarity simply
consolidated in In fact, it turned out that the influence of Belarussians and the
activity of Belarussians is quite important and quite visible in all countries, especially in
the European Union. The awakening undermines many stereotypes about Belarussians. Antons I fully
are Center for East European Studies at the University of Warsaw Spoiler tant for how
do we imagine Belarussians outside Belarussian society as a subordinate quasi Soviet society at least
the power that governs them forces them to obey. They do not have their
proper identities because they have the language they speak Russian. They do not know
their history. Yes, of course I'm over simplifying this and over generalizing.
However, a similar image did exist, and what Bela Russians showed, this
incredible solidarity, help and the fact that they do not give up obviously surprised
many people. The stratification or fragmentation of individual identities that began to form and
arise in Belarus after nineteen ninety one Lukashenka stopped this national impetus. He did
not allow such a situation to arise, as for example in Ukraine. This
played a role for Belarusian society. As a consequence, they now have the
opportunity to skip certain stages and enter the post national stage. Where did it
come from, Well, here again the issue of the fact that this contract
was broken. There was no longer any trust in the authorities. Also,
the clear and massive support of all those who are gainst Lukashenka. Cues were
shared for all the candidates Potzikaka Babarika. People simply made huge lines human chains
in the center of Minsk and in the center of all Belarussian cities in general,
the sign they meant to demonstrate their protests then and it ended with a
huge Sichhanaska election rally in early August, when seventy thousand people gathered in Minsk.
It was one of the largest demonstrations in the history of modern Belarus.
And then it was obvious that these changes were necessary and people wanted these changes.
It may sound a bit idealistic, but it must also be understood that
for a quarter of a century people have somehow managed to try to get along
exist, coexist, leave or stay or do something that will not have to
do with or relate to power. And in the end it was broken primarily
by the authorities. And with the increasing pace of repression, the authorities simply
did not keep up with these changes, with these new forms of protest,
and finally began to react quite spontaneously and aggressively. The first days of the
protest clearly decided here that society would not give up. But there was a
critical moment the women saved the situation again. So after the first days,
on the fourth or fifth day of these protests, they came out dressed in
white with flowers. They came out near the Komorowski Market and the Yaku Kolas
Square in Minsk, which is at the very heart of the city. They
made such a peaceful demonstration that is still a new pace of protests. They
maintained this militant mood of the protest. It was possible to sustain by such
smaller steps, small protests, then backyard actions that were gathering specifically a few
houses, and these new and newer forms of protest. Local protest led to
the fact that it became clear that the situation would not change, the situation
will change more precisely for us, and we have changed it our heads,
and even if Lukashenka stays, it will be different. Babylation. So we
Russian sociologist believes that Alexander Lukashenka's regime has become the equivalent of an external aggressor
against whom that nation is uniting. If if we look at the changes in
our region, it was often the case that a nation became a nation in
a situation of external threat, and in our situation, the lucas Shanka regime
is such a threat. There has been a visible division into self and other.
There's been a polarization. They i e. Strangers the other or talking
about the regime allow themselves not only to act in force against the law,
but also against their conscience. In society, this polarization is becoming more and
more visible. It's no longer possible to remain above the fray. You're either
for or against. You can't stay indifferent because what's happening involves everyone. Even
during the election campaign, there were few white, red and white flags at
the rallies, and their meaning was more cultural and historical. Most of society
was indifferent, but now national symbols have taken on a different meaning. It's
not about value and historical tradition. This white, red and white sea that
spreads all over the country as an expression of the will to identify with the
nation and not with the operative state and state ideology. It was very uplifting
that the protest was collective, so damn inclusive. The protests speaks to the
authorities not as a mob, but as a society. The protesters themselves also
realize and accept that they belong to different social groups, but they have a
common goal. We've noticed identity groups, for example LGBT quite interesting as people
identifying with their neighborhoods. In Minsk, residents of individual neighborhoods have come up
with their own flags and white, red and white shades and go out with
them. There are even street symbols. There's online voting for flags in which
district symbols are the most beautiful. It's become important for people to identify with
a particular group in place and to display it as well. People also began
to change the toponyms of cities. For example, there was Change Square or
Mariya Kolosnikova Street. After the arrest this idea developed and spread out quite a
lot, and it was strongly promoted by independent candidates in the election campaign.
It's about the message that every person is responsible for something. The idea of
the responsibility of every citizen has become extremely popular and visible, and this is
the great value of the protest. And anyway, Tikhanovskaya and Kolosnikova said that
this was not their revolution, but a change that was important to us as
a society. That's why there is such a decentralization and anyone everyone can go
out and talk about what's important for a specific person. I believe that's tremendous
added value the idea that this protest is my personal protest, that I bear
responsibility for a common cause, but also for myself, for a housing estate,
a group, or a neighborhood. Yeah, there's a sense of responsibility
for everyone to protest in the best way they deem fit and the birth of
an unprecedented creativity in protest. According to pavo Ulsov, the awakening of the
national consciousness of be the Russians has become a fact with all its consequences.
Basically, country than creases the chance no matter how it ends this crisis.
Victory and the result of this victory are here the awakening of the national consciousness.
This is expressed in the adoption of national symbols without any discussion, without
any attempt to replace these alternative candidates, somehow to create a new political symbolism
that was not accepted and immediately rejected. The symbol of today's protest and the
movement is the white, red and white flag and the Pachonia emblem, which
can simply be discussed. Regarding the language, Does the Belarusian language have to
be the state language and Russian the language of interpersonal communication or should both languages
be state languages. The discussion continues, but there is no doubt that the
Belarussian flag and the national flag and the pachonya national emblem, must be state
symbols. Also some national anthem the pachonia or Machut Niboga hymns, which are
sung by people in the metro recently in the National theater, opera and ballet
theater. The theater collective sang mahault Niborja. So people just understand that they
are a nation, they are part of the nation, and they are just
the locomotive that is, the nation is creating itself. And this is an
exciting phenomenon, a wonderful phenomenon, because no one expected it to develop into
such a national movement. With the national revival, people begin to understand their
history. They begin to understand the return of historical memories to the ages of
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to such heroism, because until then there was
only history focused on the Soviet Union. Belarus has a continuation of this Sovietism,
modernized at some points, and such a great attachment to the Great Patriotic
War, because in Belarus it is not World War Two, but the Great
Patriotic War, which began on June twenty second, nineteen forty one. Only
the historical situation has changed. In Ukraine the Baltic countries, history has treated
differently there. In Belarus it was associated with the Soviet tradition, which did
not exist before the war, a return to the tradition of the Belarussian people
state, which was established on March twenty fifth, nineteen eighteen. So slowly,
slowly this mythology changes. Belarussians are beginning to understand precisely during this revival
that their countries existed for many, many years and have a long tradition and
the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania, which is even older than this Russian
tradition. Already people are starting to slowly push this tradition away. Those who
are not interested in history start to be interested in it along with politics.
Now they are fighting for freedom, they are fighting for their rights. So
no one can say that Belarussians received this freedom and their rights in advance,
so suddenly they are fighting for it. And this fight, I hope it
will lead to the formation of a stable democratic regime and that what happened in
Ukraine, for example, will not be repeated. The provided dog, the
poet and Jihadanovitch translated into bel Russian the song more Waltz, which become one
of the anthems of the Bielo Russian revolutionari in July. Before the elections,
we were right and left to liberals and conservatives. We argued with each other,
trusted and distrusted the leaders. Now we have common goals. We have
to end this regime, and only then will the details begin, when we
will start fighting among ourselves for the future of the Belarus that we want.
For now, we are connected by what we do not want, of what
we have had enough for only six months ago, four months ago, the
average Belarusian knew that there was a white, red, white flag, but
it was not supported and may not necessarily have been displayed publicly. Maybe we
can communicate under the official red and green flag. Remember that back in July,
people used to come to the meetings with Sieglana tihanal Skaya with some of
these flags, sometimes with two at the same time. Because in August ninth,
after the first shots of people, after the first rape, after the
first tortures, everything changed. Immediately, the official flag died in the eyes
of the protesters as something so precious. Now this is the flag that hangs
on the autocrats. Even Russian speaking people who had never described themselves as oppositionists
but who had never described themselves as protesting, suddenly came out with white,
red and white flags. And even and even if not the flags, it
is the same reconciliation of these two colors at the level of clothing, clothing,
at the level of some ribbons on the hand or in the hair.
This reconciliation of colors works and brings people together. The same can be said
about the coat of arms about the paconia. It is a renaissance of national
symbols, Renaissance Narado. One of the important elements of the changes is the
discovery of history by Belarussians. As mentioned by the singer and ethnologist Nasa in
twenty eighteen, there was a very creative initiative, namely the revival of the
work of the poets who were shot in the nineteen thirties. Their work was
brought back to memory in twenty eighteen, many musicians, artists began recording these
songs, bringing them back to consciousness, restoring them to memory, to contemporary
history. And today we're dealing with simply a huge amount of this revolutionary creativity.
Yet it's also one that brings back the cultural memory and history of Belarus
or history. And they had an It gives an example of a similar interest
in the history of Belarus. Let us say October twenty ninths, the tragic
day of Belarussian history, when the NKVD shot more than one hundred Belarusian intellectuals
in one night. I read a lesson for the inhabitants of the Malinovka district
about the executed poets of the Belarusian Revival of nineteen thirty seven. In a
country seen as a direct continuation of the Soviet Union, the role of religion
is rarely given attention. Kowski, director of the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Studies,
The trend was increasing when it comes to religiosity over the past thirty years.
I mean the percentage of people who answered the question about the importance of
God in their lives, of the importance of religion and their lives and answered
yes. So until the beginning of this decade I have in mind more or
less twenty ten, eleven twelve, this trend was increasing, while in the
last ten years it's slightly decreased. But it is therefore noteworthy that the number
umber of deep believers has increased while the overall number of religious people has fallen.
The proportion of frequent practitioners who are not only believers but also very practicing
people, that is, people who pray at least once a day, has
increased. The number of those who pray several times a day has increased,
on the one hand. On the other the number of atheists has also increased.
So what does this mean from the point of view of social and cultural
change. It means an increase in such authenticity. If I am a believer,
I must therefore be consistent. If I think that this is not my
path, then I also consistently choose the atheistic path. So it is also
quite symptomatic and fits in with a general trend of changes in the sphere of
values as well as now in the political sphere. I will mention this action
of Catholics. Catholics do not falsify, which was important before the elections,
and partly also after the elections, and then such a very meaningful event was
a common prayer and the public learned about these tortures and killings that happened just
after the presidential elections when special forces wanted to suppress the protests. Not only
Christian churches that is, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, but also Jews and
Muslims organized a joint prayer for peace in the country and for the cessation of
violence. Of course, there are differences when it comes to the Catholic,
Orthodox and Reformed churches. Catholicism is of course, historically more immersed in the
Western context, very much related to Polish Catholicism. Therefore, the influence of
Poland and Poland also of Western culture is much greater. Here when it comes
to the Orthodox Church, which is an integral part of the Moscow Patriarchate,
we naturally understand that here the influence of Russia these Eurosceptic moods as much greater.
However, of course, it is not that these are two worlds.
There are. Firstly, a lot of contacts between Catholics and Orthodox. Thirty
years of independent Belarus have also made themselves felt when it comes to the attitude
of the Orthodox clergy, and Orthodox bishops also sympathize with both the national revival
of Belarusians and democratic aspirations, so here there is no such huge gap as
for the reformed Protestant churches. The general point here is that it is not
just one church, but a multitude of such relatively autonomous church communities. They
are more focused on evangelization as such, that is, social issues sometimes hit
their field of vision, while they are more focused on deepening their faith,
living through prayer, living the Word of God and so on. However,
in the context of these recent event the voices of Protestants were also heard from
time to time, and they also engaged in various ways of making some kind
of redress or spiritual opposition to these atrocities of violence that happened just after the
presidential election. Tram Andrejadanovitch emphasizes not only the universal but also the civic direction
of the changes taking place. Yes, we observe such changes with identity,
and there is less and less of such a conservative national sound, more and
more of this new civic momentum. I think we are on the way to
becoming a civic society every day, and this is only from a few months
ago. Despite the difference in what language they speak, what they look like,
where they come from from the east or west of Belarus, to what
social classes they belong, the elderly, the young, girls and boys,
they all have something in common, something civic. And this is probably the
first time I have observed such a level, and I am incredibly happy about
it. Observed way Hibbardo Ships podcasts are produced by Free Range Productions.