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The newest issue of the BELL invites our readers to look into the impact of Ukrainian events on Belarus. There is general consensus that the success of the so-called ‘little green men’ in eastern Ukraine significantly depended of the fact that the region lived in the mode of a post-Soviet, but undecided national identity. The Kremlin took advantage of it causing unrests and facing no resistance from the local population. In this light the fact that the annual speech of Aliaksandr Lukashenka at the end of last year was made in Belarusian rather than in Russian brings back the topic of the Belarusian national identity into discussions. Does this mean that the Belarusian language, culture and national identity are making a comeback in public life? Could this help to prevent from similar unrests in Belarus?
The BELL addresses these questions in two articles by Belarusian experts, Vadim Mojeiko, a freelance analyst at Radio Svoboda, who provides sociological figures, demonstrating that the Belarusian society does not want unrests in the country, therefore it has a negative view of the Maidan, and Yauhen Krasuli, a PhD candidate at Belarusian State University, arguing that Lukashenka reflects the Soviet identity profile, therefore he has rejected the need to restore the Belarusian identity.
Please read the BELL No. 2 (51) here.
