Belarusian Society Research Articles

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEMORY IN THE SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF MODERN BELARUSIAN SOCIETY: THE THEORETICAL ASPECT

This study employs a socio-philosophical analysis to reveal the role of social memory in the societal transformations of contemporary Belarusian society and highlights the importance of this phenomenon in shaping its socio-cultural development. The theoretical and methodological framework for this research includes societal functionalism, an anthroposocietal approach, the concept of social transformations in post-Soviet societies, and an informational approach to the study of social memory. These approaches enable a detailed exploration of how social memory influences societal transformations in modern Belarus, allowing for an assessment of its normative, value-based, and functional potential in establishing and maintaining a normative order, fostering social stability, and generating tension within the socio-cultural space.

Transformation of the Model of State-Confessional Relations in Belarus at the End of the 19th Century – 1917

Introduction. The article describes the process of transformation of state-confessional relations in the Belarusian lands as part of the Russian Empire from the end of the 19th century to 1917. Methods and materials. To obtain verified results, the study is based on the analysis of administrative and regulatory materials, office documents of the Mogilev diocese, and domestic and foreign historiography. The study was conducted using an interdisciplinary methodology: historical-typological and historical-comparative methods, formal-legal, and the method of interpretation of legal norms were used. In addition, to identify the features of the socio-political discourse on the issue of changes in state-church relations, discourse analysis was used. Analysis. The historically established model of a religious state with the dominance of the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire was established in the 19th century on Belarusian lands with a different confessional structure and traditions of state-church relations. The author noted a tendency to transition from the model of a religious state to the model of a secular state – in the period March – October 1917, the Provisional Government tried to establish an identification model of a secular state. This model corresponded to the religious system of Belarusian society with the dominance of the Orthodox Church and the expectations of socio-political actors and also ensured the implementation of religious rights and freedoms of adherents of other religions but was not fully implemented due to the transfer of power to the Bolshevik Party in October 1917. Results. Transformational processes in state-confessional relations in the Belarusian provinces took place in the direction from the model of a religious state to the model of a secular state as accompanying changes in the political system of the Russian Empire. Internal factors in the development of the state-confessional system of the Russian Empire, as well as the peculiarities of the confessional environment of the Belarusian provinces (diversification of the religious structure of Belarusian society, limitation of the rights of traditional actors rooted in the Belarusian religious environment, confessional dualism “Orthodoxy-Catholicism”), did not play a significant role in the transformation processes.

FROM THE ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ LUKASHISM TO THE NEW BELARUS: ON THE WAY TO OVERCOMING POST-AUTHORITARIAN CULTURAL TRAUMA

The article analyzes the phenomenon of the “impossible” stability of the authoritarian regime of A. Lukashenko, as well as the key reasons for its deep crisis, which led to the protests of 2020. The events of 2020 became a stressful “bifurcation point” in the evolution of lukashism and led to its transformation into a harsh repressive regime. Based on the concept of cultural trauma by P. Sztompka, the authors analyze how traumatization of Belarusian society occurred during the period of lukashism. The cultural trauma of lukashism becomes the most important sociocultural task in the process of transition to the New Belarus. The ambivalence of the events of 2020 for Belarusian society is shown: they became a strong socio-cultural factor of both situational national unity, on the one hand, and a strong trigger for internal polarization, on the other. Based on the ideas of K. Mannheim, the authors believe that this polarization is an example of “normal” intergenerational cultural dynamics. However, as the experience of post-communist Poland shows, a rapid overcoming of such a long-term intergenerational cultural trauma is possible, but it is not granted. Based on memory studies ideas, the authors show that overcoming authoritarian cultural trauma requires the development of a systematic “cultural policy” (in fact, “memory policy”). The experience of overcoming the authoritarian past in the FRG, the GDR and France shows that overcoming the legacy of lukashism in Belarus risks being (1) a long, (2) conflictual and (3) fundamentally “unfinished” process. It should include two parallel vectors of movement (dismantling authoritarian institutions and building democratic structures) happening within the frame of a new Belarusian identity. Such an identity will allow reworking the problematic past and set foundations for future national self-identification. Some versions of such identity are briefly reviewed, their similarities and relevance for modern sociocultural trends are revealed.

COLLECTIVE TRAUMA: THE CASE OF BELARUS AFTER 2020

This article is devoted to the analysis of the collective trauma of Belarusian society received during the violent suppression of protests that broke out in 2020 after the falsification of the presidential elections and lasted for several months. The empirical basis for the article comprised two sociological studies conducted in 2022 and 2023 under the leadership of the author of this paper. The methodological basis of the study is grounded in the theoretical developments of trauma studies research programs. However, the specificity of the Belarusian situation, which consists in ongoing retraumatization, necessitated the development of the author’s version of the research methodology. It is based on a distinction between “traumatic experience”, “trauma” and “post-traumatic growth.” Based on this, the scale of traumatic experience, the degree of traumatization of so- ciety and the coping strategies used by society are separately examined. All parts of Belarusian society need to be studied from the point of view of collective traumatization, but this article considered only the protesting part of Belarusian society as the most traumatized during the protests. The article shows that the entire protest-minded part of Belarusian society has a traumatic experience. In addition to the ongoing repression, the traumatic situation is aggravated by media retraumatization. At the same time, there is no need to talk about a high degree of traumatization. Although Belarusian society is characterized by an increased level of anxiety, there are no negative assessments of past protest experiences. On the contrary, participants in the 2020 protests tend to idealize this experience. In addition, both the adoption of intact coping strategies and the functioning of a predominantly positive protest narrative help overcome traumatic experiences. At the same time, the “protest narrative” has not yet been formalized to the extent that collective trauma would begin to function as cultural trauma.

From Frying Pan to Fire: Protest, War and the Forging of a Belarusian Nation

Abstract The mass street protests after Belarus’s 2020 presidential election failed to oust dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka. They nonetheless represented a political and national awakening of Belarusian society, with a level of popular engagement in politics unseen in Belarus during the preceding three decades. Eighteen months after the election crisis, Belarusians were plunged into a new crisis as their state provided a supporting role in Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. This article identifies the main causes of the 2020 protests and their relationship to Belarusian national identity. It assesses the state of the national awakening three years after the 2020 election in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Belarus’s role in that war; asking whether Belarus is still sovereign and whether loss of sovereignty is fatal for Belarusian national identity. It argues that Lukashenka’s position remains highly precarious and that the national awakening hangs in the balance.

Russian Ethnic Groups in the National Structure of Belarus

Based on statistical data and materials of the All-Union population censuses of 1959-1989, as well as national population censuses of the Republic of Belarus in 1999-2019. the development trends of ethnic processes in Belarus are analyzed. The characteristic of the ethnic structure of modern Belarusian society is given. An excursion into the history of the Russian ethnic group and the indigenous peoples of Russia in the Belarusian lands was made. The role and place of the Russian ethnos in the post-war period of Belarus is shown. The role of migration in ethnic processes is considered. An important place is given to the analysis of the push migration of the Russian-speaking population in the national republics of the period of the collapse of the unified demographic space of the USSR. An analysis of the features and problems of the Belarusian-Russian migration is given. The characteristic of individual indigenous Russian peoples in the national structure of Belarus is given. The ethnic ties of the border regions of Belarus and Russia are highlighted. The changes of the Belarusian ethnos in the national structure of the Russian Federation are reflected.

СМЕНА ПАРАДИГМЫ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННО-КОНФЕССИОНАЛЬНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ В БЕЛАРУСИ В ХХ В.

The article presents an analysis in the transformation of models for state-confessional relations in the Belarusian provinces of the Russian Empire (early 20th century – 1917), in the BSSR (1919–1991), in the Republic of Belarus (1991–2002). The author noted that during the twentieth century there was a transition from the model of the religious state of the period of the Russian Empire to the model of the secular state in the form of hostile separation in the BSSR and the cooperative model in the Republic of Belarus. The process of forming state-confessional relations and their transformation was highly dependent on the socio-political and state situation of the Belarusian lands. That conditioned the determining importance of external factors (political crisis, revolutions of 1905 and 1917, transformation of political systems of the Russian Empire and the USSR) for the paradigm shift of state-confessional relations in Belarus at the beginning of the twentieth century – 1991. At the same time, the formation of a model of state-confessional relations in the Republic of Belarus was predominantly influenced by internal factors – the dominance of traditional religious actors, a high degree of religiosity of the population and the intensification of religious activities, what contributed to the consolidation of the cooperative model, the most valid for the politicalconfessional sphere of Belarusian society.

Белорусская национальная идея сквозь призму исторического анализа: этапы, подходы, перспективы

Among the variety of functions of the national idea as an important part of the modernization processes, one can single out its significance as a historical constant, an imperative defining the goals of the national-state organism. From the position of the epistemological ideal, it is possible to analyze and evaluate various national ideas, since the true effectiveness of a national idea depends on its historical adequacy. Within the framework of five stages of the history of the formation and evolution of the Belarusian national idea during the late XVIII – first decades of the XXI century, the last of which is not completed, the cultural and civilizational confrontation of the Polish-Catholic (and later the entire Western) and the Russian-Orthodox world manifested itself. As a result, today there are three competing approaches to the definition of Belarusian national identity – the Western-Russian-pro-Soviet (which has an obvious advantage in terms of rational validity and historical authenticity), the Litvinist and hybrid (dualistic). The complex of the main myths of Litvinism, refuted within the framework of his-torical analysis, includes the concepts of the cultural and state development of Belarus isolated from the rest of the principalities of Ancient Russia in the XI – XIII centuries, the non-Slavic (Baltic) ethnic origin of Belarusians, the great cultural development and a high degree of legal democracy of the Belarusian society under the rule of Lithuania and Poland, its significant linguistic and the cultural difference from Moscow Rus, the decline of the Belarusian lands after their incorporation into the Russian Empire, the genocide of Belarusians on the initia-tive of Moscow in the XVII and XX centuries. The condition for completing the formation of a full-fledged na-tional idea in the Republic of Belarus is the rejection of the artificial construction of parallel history, the use of Western-centric cultural stamps, fetishization of what has no real relation to its national-state formation. A pro-ductive methodological principle of studying the past of Belarus can be the identification of the history of the Belarusian people and the history of Polish-Lithuanian subjects and institutions, as well as an objective as-sessment of the processes and consequences of foreign expansion into its territory.

Madżarscy – renesans pamięci? (Д. В. Лисейчиков, Е. С. Глинский, Маджарские: армянский род в истории Беларуси, Национальный Исторический Архив Беларуси, Фонд Развития и Поддержки Арменоведческих Исследований «Анив», Минск-Ереван 2023, Армения–Беларусь)

THE MADŻARSKI FAMILY – RENAISSANCE OF MEMORY (МАДЖАРСКИЕ: АРМЯНСКИЙ РОД В ИСТОРИИ БЕЛАРУСИ, НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ АРХИВ БЕЛАРУСИ, ФОНД РАЗВИТИЯ И ПОДДЕРЖКИ АРМЕНОВЕДЧЕСКИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ «АНИВ», МИНСК-ЕРЕВАН 2023)
 The album book, jointly published by the National Historical Archive of Belarus and the Foundation for the Development and Support of Armenian Studies, is dedicated to the Madżarski family – Armenians who came from the Ottoman Empire to operate the Radziwiłłs’ workshop manufacturing kontush sashes in Słuck (Slutsk, today in Belarus). Such sashes were an essential element of traditional Polish noble attire. The reviewed book is based on archival research and draws upon significant sources on this topic. It is also an expression of the inheritance of historical memory from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by contemporary Belarusian society and, from Polish Armenians by the current Armenian diaspora in Belarus.

Belarus as an object of Poland's foreign policy

The article analyzes the evolution of foreign policy approaches of Poland towards Belarus and Belarusian nationalism. The main purpose of the article is to identify the evolution of approaches to Belarus in Polish political thought and practices of the Polish state. The ambiguous attitude of Polish political figures to Belarusian nationalism and the very idea of Belarusian statehood is demonstrated. This attitude has changed significantly over time from active rejection of Belarusian nationalism to readiness to use and support it in the foreign policy interests of Poland. The article shows that Poland’s contemporary approaches towards Belarus are based on the Giedroyc-Mieroszewski doctrine and involve the establishment of “soft” ideological, political, cultural and economic dominance of Poland in the former lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth without formally changing existing borders. It is noted that the success of these methods of Polish foreign policy in relation to Belarus is significantly lower than in relation to Ukraine. This is primarily due to the peculiarities of the political development of Belarus in the post-Soviet period, as well as the limited ability of Poland to influence the target audience within Belarusian society. The author draws attention to the fact that Polish policy towards Belarus should be the object of close attention of Russia, since the strengthening of Polish influence in the countries of the common neighborhood may pose a threat to Russian national interests.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Protest and Authoritarian Reaction in Belarus

Understanding the scale and nature of changes that have occurred in Belarus since the 2020 protests, not only at the political but also at the societal level, is crucial to our ability to interpret the role that Belarus has played in the current crisis in the region and to understand the potential for, and possible directions of, long-term change. This article provides interpretive frameworks for studying the Belarusian protests and their contribution to shaping new subjectivities in Belarusian society whose impact may go beyond altering state-society relations. The article reflects on relationality and eventfulness as key concepts for understanding shifts toward a consolidation of individuals’ autonomy from the state. It introduces the collection of articles in a special issue by reflecting on different disciplinary perspectives and approaches to the significance and aftermath of the 2020 protests, including new religious subjectivities, new emotional styles, and new gender roles. These articles provide sustenance for larger debates in the social sciences about the ways in which new subjectivities emerge in, refract through, and consolidate or dissipate after protest waves.

Lukashenka’s Constitutional Plebiscite and the Polarization of Belarusian Society

Aliaksandr Lukashenka pushed through an overhaul of Belarus’s constitution as a response to the protests against the official results of the 2020 presidential election. The goal was to address the desire for change among the population without reacting to the demand for snap elections. With the February 2022 constitutional plebiscite on the most far-ranging changes to Belarus’s constitution since 1994, Lukashenka further entrenched himself in power. The results of our online survey suggest that the constitutional changes do not meet the broad societal demand for political change and, in particular, for constraints on presidential power. Despite the persistence of the political conflict, we also show that Lukashenka’s supporters and opponents are not irreconcilably polarized in every policy domain. Finally, our results suggest that regime supporters have stronger anti-democratic preferences than opposition supporters when it comes to future political participation of the two camps, making the effects of affective polarization highly asymmetrical.

Venture-based sociosystem of the agroindustrial complex of the Republic of Belarus: conception and perspective

According to a number of influential consultants on business models and new technology economics, the market system of innovative projects and technology startups is not capable of producing or benefiting from disruptive technologies, generating significant efficiency, long-term growth or providing well-paying jobs for employees. Stimulation of this business model by the state leads to uncontrolled privatization of the benefits and preferences provided, and their detachment from positive change. Therefore, the state policy in the field of venture capital activity should solve the key question: how to combine the goals of Belarusian society related to the development of knowledge-intensive industries and new technologies in agribusiness with the goals of the entrepreneurs themselves, whose main incentive is the efficiency of investment.

Value factor of the countries uneven development

The authors consider reasons for the countries uneven development, provide sociological foundations for the study of this phenomenon, examine countries’ sociodynamics, reconstruct a map of countries development in the contemporary global world, and explore the trajectory of Belarus. The authors argue that the vector of sociodynamics is not predetermined, it depends on internal factors, and culture plays a key programming role. Value choice is an important factor determining the pace and direction of the contemporary society evolution. The article is based on the available data of international projects - European Values Study (EVS) and World Values Study (WVS). The period covered by these studies is forty years - from 1981 to 2021, and in Belarus surveys have been conducted since 1990. Authors’ generalizations are based on the Inglehart-Welzel model, and they confirm the hypothesis that the dynamics of value orientations in the Belarusian society follows the trajectory of changes that took place in Western Europe and North America in previous decades. The authors argue that social-demographic groups of the Belarusian society can be placed at different stages of the values transformation, i.e., urban and more educated population of Belarus (mainly the younger and middle-aged groups) are close to contemporary Czech Republic and Slovakia and slightly differ from Austria and Germany in terms of the value orientations.

ИЗМЕНЯЮЩАЯСЯ ЦЕННОСТЬ ВЫСШЕГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ: СРАВНИТЕЛЬНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ БЕЛАРУСИ, РОССИИ, КИТАЯ

Objective of the study is to identify changes in perceptions of the value of higher education in the mass consciousness of young Belarusians, Russians and Chinese, as well as to clarify the real possibilities of obtaining it in each of these countries, taking into account the social stratification of the population and other factors. The article shows how the attitude of young people to higher education in selected countries has changed in the last decade, and what factors in these countries caused these changes. The trends of differentiated attitudes towards higher education among young people representing different social strata of the population are revealed. The methodological basis of the research. The article proceeds from the principle of social justice in its application to the problem of assessing the opportunities of different groups of young people to get equal access to higher education. Social justice is one of the terminal values for the population of post-Soviet Belarus and Russia, since the Soviet Union cultivated the idea of social equality and ensuring equal access to higher education regardless of the income level of different social groups. The value of equal access to higher education remains in the mass consciousness today. However, as the market economy develops in these countries, the cost of paid higher education increases, which in the current difficult socio-economic conditions makes it unattainable for young people from low-income segments of the population and forces these young people to look for other strategies for successfully entering the labor market. In China, high competition for admission to the second-stage programs of higher education makes it unattainable for a large number of young people who have insufficiently high academic performance, even if there are material opportunities for admission to paid education. This factor has caused the mobility of Chinese youth to Russia and Belarus to obtain a master's degree, which is necessary in the future for employment. The empirical basis of the study is statistical data on changes in the number of students in the higher education system in Russia and Belarus, secondary vocational education in Russia, as well as available statistics on higher education in China. For an in-depth study of the opinions of Chinese youth who came to Belarus, data from sociological studies of Chinese students who studied at master's programs were used, which clarified the reasons that prompted them to come to study in Belarus, personal motives in studying, expectations from the education they receive in terms of future employment and improving social status. Similar questions were found out in the national survey of Belarusian students conducted in 2022 (n = 2666). Research results. In the article, from the standpoint of the continuing value orientation of post-Soviet Russian and Belarusian society on the equality of youth access to higher education as a terminal value, it is shown that, firstly, the problem of social inequalities in higher education is relevant for both countries, but manifests itself in different ways. In Russia, young people with insufficient financial resources have begun to reorient from higher to secondary vocational education; in Belarus, young people are limited to bachelor's degree, not considering further continuation of education practically valuable for entering the labor market. In turn, Chinese youth, who do not have the opportunity to realize the need for a second-level education at home, go abroad, since only a high level of education guarantees them employment and social status in their country. Secondly, the relationship between the issues of access to higher education, the income of the population and the subsequent access of young people to the labor market has been revealed. With a lack of income, low-resource groups prefer to focus on secondary vocational education or bachelor's degree, which guarantee young people a faster entry into the labor market and financial independence. Resourceful Chinese young people are ready to invest in obtaining a master's degree abroad, because without it they may not find a job in China at all. Thirdly, modern practice shows that, despite the stereotypical high ratings of higher education by young people, in a specific life situation, in all three countries, they are oriented towards obtaining education instrumentally. Prospects of the study are related to further analysis of the dynamics of attitudes of young people to receive education at different levels in the context of changes in household incomes and strategies for entering the labor market. According to the author, management structures need to monitor the dynamics of changes in the attitude of young people to higher education, since highly educated personnel are the driver of the development of any society. The social discontent of the youth cohort is a danger to the political stability of society.

Indicators of the Formation of the Civic Identity of the Student Youth in the Republic of Belarus

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the concepts of "citizenship", "patriotism", "civic-patriotic education", taking into account the nature of the Belarusian students, defines the features of the formation of such vital values and priorities as comprehension, development of moral qualities; reliance on human rights; inner freedom of the individual; love for the Motherland; striving for peace and development; self-esteem. Modern Belarusian society is in the process of reforming many areas of public life, and the changes that are taking place bring to the fore qualitatively new tasks for the further development of an economically developed and socially oriented state. Their solution requires the formation of citizens, especially young people, who have the future of the country, an active life position, high moral and psychological qualities, among which civic responsibility to society and patriotism occupy an important place. The conducted research made it possible to determine that civil-patriotic education is of steady interest to 61.8% of the study participants, 82.5% of the target group at the Masherov State University have a stable idea of civil-patriotic education and about 62.1% of the target group identify criteria of civil culture of the individual, taking into account the social policy of the state, the civic formation of Belarusians.

Is There a Demand for Autocracy in Belarusian Society?

Abstract 2020 saw an unprecedented pro-democracy mobilization in Belarus. Indeed, protest actions against the grossly falsified presidential election and the authoritarian rule of Aliaksandr Lukashenka were impressive in many respects: number of participants, durability, frequency, and diversity. However, that year was also remarkable for mobilization of supporters of Lukashenka’s authoritarian rule: car rallies, pickets, and small-group marches in support of the incumbent lasted for months. Though far from being ubiquitous, a demand for autocracy does exist in Belarusian society. It can be explained by four factors: a tendency towards an economic trade-off, axiological Euroscepticism, the activity of pro-autocracy intellectuals, and the global decline in democracy.

Formation of Belarusian National Historiography in 1918—1928

The article reveals the development of the historiography of the history of Belarus as an independent scientific direction in 1918—1928. It notes the existence of two directions of national historiography: national-democratic and national-Marxist. The author analyzes the works which formed the conceptual vision of national history in Belarusian society. The article reveals the methodological approaches of the researchers to the knowledge of the past. The peculiarities of comprehension of the history of Belarus by representatives of professional and non-professional historiography are highlighted. Attention is paid to the problem of national-state narrative. The study is based on the historiographical sources which prove the presence of the formed Belarusian historiography in the scientific paradigm of the Belarusian SSR of the interwar period. It is concluded that the course of scientific cognition depends on the political situation in the republic. The process of eliminating the methodological pluralism in the historical science of Belarus is considered separately.

„Inność” w powieści Artura Klinaua Szalom

The article is devoted to the experience of otherness in the formation of an individual’s identity on the example of Arthur Klinau’s work Shalom. The focus of the study is the way in which the main character is created, including the role of an unusual object and the impact on his identity. The novel, published in 2011, is another example of the use of the motif of otherness in contemporary Belarusian literature. The analyzed work has not so far been the subject of in‑‑depth literary reflection in terms of otherness. The author of the article uses a traditional comparative analysis, in which the overriding criterion is to show the change in the protagonist’s perception of himself and the surrounding reality after putting on the helmet, as well as society’s reaction to a person distinguished by his appearance, and therefore defined by the prism of otherness. The purpose of the article is to verify the hypothesis that the selfifidentification of the main character – the sculptor André – as the “other”, determines his life fate in a Belarusian society afraid of change leading him to professional and social exclusion. In the course of the argument, it was concluded that the otherness of an individual in the world depicted in the novel with direct reference to contemporary Belarus is perceived by the authorities as a potential threat to the existing social order. At the same time, it should be stated that the protagonist’s behavior, although irrational and meaningless in essence, along with the growing repression, becomes a demonstration of independence and resistance to the authoritarian system limiting individual freedom.

Social Mobilization in Belarus - The Polish Perspective

ABSTRACT The research note considers the impact of mobilization events on Polish–Belarusian relations. I analyze and characterize the states’ relations prior to the protests in Belarus in 2020, and identify the most important problems in their relations. Poland’s attitude toward the mass mobilization of Belarusian society and its reception by the Lukashenko regime is described. In the last section, I explain the impact of the Russian–Ukrainian war on Poland’s relations with Belarus. The research demonstrates that the events analyzed transformed bilateral relations, generating a crisis between the states.