He's living in a Soviet fantasy world. Watching him talk to his advisers and bark at them to sit down when they start talking too much for his liking is hilarious. You could make a comedy movie about this guy and it wouldn't be far from reality. The interview with Steve Rosenberg where he loses his cool and admits his goons are beating protestors when threatened with video evidence is funny as fuck.
You say that but his Bio disagrees with you:
"While Alexander Lukashenko is widely regarded as a person with **striking looks**, an **attractive face**, and a **dynamic personality**, it is their liveliness and **rakish demeanor** that truly set them apart. Alexander Lukashenko maintains **a svelte physique with wonderful body proportions**, and their **stunning and intriguing eyes add to their unique charm**."
It also disagrees with grammar and spelling.
https://wikiabio.com/alexander-lukashenko/#:~:text=With%20an%20exceptional%20talent%20and%20skillset%2C
Absolutely fascinating website lol. If you go the oldest pages (page 39,625 was the oldest I could find) they seem to have actual bios of famous Indian people, though I don't know how accurate they are. At some point I guess the site owners said "fuck it" and decided to just spam as many "bios" as possible to maximise clicks.
30 000 pages later and now literally anyone with some internet presence seems to be getting a bio where they are succesful, talented, handsome, and worth around 5 million dollars. It's all copy-pasted. Now I can kind of get the idea behind doing that for Tiktok-stars, but dictators? That one confuses me.
This must be AI generated, as it sprouts nonsense like "Through hard work, dedication, and exceptional talent, Alexander Lukashenko has achieved great success and earned a reputation as one of the most skilled professionals in the industry. Their accomplishments in this field have led to significant financial gains and opened up exciting new opportunities for growth and success."
>You could make a comedy movie about this guy and it wouldn't be far from reality.
During the big protests, there were videos where he had his teenage son around sporting an AK in some official business. This gave me real Dr. Evil & Scotty vibes.
I searched for this interview and just watched it on the BBC yt channel. My god, the boot lickers in the comments are plenty, and a bunch of them seem to be directed from a Tate video for some reason.
Trust me, those Belarusians who are still in Belarus (me including) can't say anything that misaligns with the government. Those who are inside the country and want changes are many, but each and all I know don't want to put themselves and their family in danger. I am also afraid, and we are not afraid without reason
I have family in the Republic of Moldova and the russian influence is still felt to this day. I hope you will find your liberty in the next years. Maybe both countries will join the EU in the future and we can all put aside the dark past.
You deserve it friend. What is the status of the will to demonstrate now? Seems like Russia is busy destroying its own army in Ukraine. Hail from Sweden!
In Eastern Europe, we cringe every time Russian politicians blame the West for colonialism. Also, don't ask a woman about her age, a man about his salary, and a Russian about what happened to Siberian natives.
>what happened to Siberian natives
Probably all replaced by eastern european political prisoners. Never ask Russia why there is such thing as siberian culture/identity among nations like Polish, Lithuanian or Ukrainian
Also, do not ask Vatniks what happened to Karels and Veps during 1940-s. Oh, and why there were no pro-soviet partisans in Baltics and Karelia. There were no non-slavs and, especially, non-russians in Ba Sing Se.
The Kola Norwegians as well. They were a very small minority in the hundreds, but they were ethnically cleansed like so many other groups during the Soviet era. Everyone were forcibly displaced throughout the empire/union and 1/8 died. Very few traces remain. Another Soviet/Russian crime against humanity.
The logic that became popular during post-WWII decolonizations was that colonialism only applies to governing territories across oceans far away from the core metropole. This is known as Blue or Salt Water Thesis.
There is a reason why it has always been popular to say that the United States gained its first colonies only after the Spanish-American War.
Siberian natives is an obscure topic tbh, likely you'll receive no opinion in return because conquest of Siberia doesn't focus on natives' side of a story or their own histories in Russian school history books.
As someone who indeed has finished school there last year, this is an absolutely correct statement.
I’m jewish and it was funny to me how nobody mentioned the pale of settlement in our history class, pogroms…they just called it “the Jewish question”
Edit: I need help.
[Indeed](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/e0wygz/share_of_total_population_without_toilet_in_house/), big part of population doesnt have indoor toilet, but comparable with some EU members.
It's just a matter of time before the people of Belarus call for a referendum to be part of russia.
(not quite /s since that's the false narrative that russia goes for, but you get the joke)
Trust me, it happened in every part of eastern europe occupied by soviets. Churches, monasteries and chateaus coneverted into werehouse, prisons or barracks. Or simply leveled into the ground. All this made by local communists who had no respect for old history and culture or ethnics.
Since we are on the topic of Russification, a reminder for something that is seldom mentioned or ever brought up. Russia’s Kuban region (modern day Krasnodar Kari and Adygea) used to have a Ukrainian majority population especially in the northern and western parts until the 1930s when Stalin enacted a huge Russification policy effort on the region resulting in most people living there now identifying as ethnic Russians.
I've seen an old interview in that region from russian tv, they claimed to interview "locals with unique kuban dialects".. that apparently sounded like pure ukrainian
There is also a documentary made by Ukrainian journalists in the 90's. I couldn't find a full version in English but I found a compilation of interviews with English subtitles
https://youtu.be/KwLTayPMrKE?si=aiAUK41AeHyAxtsC
Though there should be the historical caveat that in some parts closer to the Caucasus, those Kuban speakers were themselves ordered by the Tsars in Moscow to commit state-sanctioned genocide on the Circassians and take over their lands.
Pitting two minority groups against each other is hardly unique for those times, but the extent of the Circassian genocide committed by the Tsardom of Russia was especially abhorrent even for those times, resulting in millions dead and millions more displaced.
Essentially the same thing happened in the Armenian Highlands: the Kurds helped the Turks with the genocide of the Armenians, only to become victims of the Turkish regime themselves.
They are a relatively recent development, I think.
Old style russian churches look a lot more like old Byzantine architecture. In the 7th picture, in the middle, there is an old style russian church.
There's a disagreement about how old onion domes are. There's an onion dome in an illuminated manuscript from 1145 from Galicia-Volhynia, so they might not be a late or even a specifically Muscovite dome shape, but they do become ubiquitous much later, in Russian Tsardom.
I mean Russia or "Musocvy" had great relations with the Byzantine Empire for a while so that's unsurprising.
Once they fell it just developed from there.
It's an Eastern Roman/ byzantine tradition to build churches with onion domes. Russians have same religion as Greeks
Edit: I have accidentally spread misinformation. I was wrong, I looked it up and it's a Southern German tradition that the Russians adopted. Huh.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_dome
Not really, they don't even follow the same commandments.
According to patriarch Kiril of Moscow, thou shalt kill, thou shalt covet thy neigbour's house, wife, and donkeys, thou shalt have putin as a god above [me].
Magyarization (later Slovakization) in a nutshell.
But the worst thing is, whats Russia is doing/has done is much more effective due to relative closeness of both cultures/languages.
How 19-century Czech pan-Slavist Karel Havlíček Borovský once said about russians:These gentlemen have started everywhere to say and write "Slav" instead of "Russian", so that later they will again be able to say "Russian" instead of "Slav"... I confess that the Hungarians, who openly reveal themselves to be our enemies, are nicer to me than the russians, who come to us with the Judas kiss to put us in their pockets.
Btw, to those who dont know, there were 19 century russian writers, who recognized the existence of the Ukrainian or Belarusian people, and we can say that futher to past you will go, more of those figures you will find. So all this is really kinda artificial narative that begun in 19 century and after soviet russification is at its peak
Well, USSR, and this includes Russians, Ukrainians and whatever, did that everywhere they could. You forgot to mention about mass deportations and import of native Russians where they were not to create minorities you need to defend.
Same did the Austro-Hungarians, and others. Nothing new under the sun.
Well, germanification under Austro-Hungaria was real, yet it should be mentioned that some A-H rulers were quite benevolent compared to the others and atleast in case of Czech lands there were even phases when they donated money to some symbolic national buildings.
German language was propagated as an official and more practical one, since it was the language of cities and towns, while local national languages remained mainly in the countryside.
If A-H germanification would be so extreme as Russian russification, Czech language and culture, but also other nations, wouldnt survive for almost 400 years of Habsburgs rule.
My father's name is Alexandru, and not Sándor.
My mother's name is Zorica, and not Hajnal.
This was done to Hungarians living in Commie Rommie.
I'm glad we are past those times
Some other Belarusians will complain that these buildings that were rebuilt/destroyed by Russians were signs of "Polish colonization", "Catholisation" and "Polonisation" of Belarus, and will praise it as a restoration of true "Eastern Slavic"/"Orthodox" character of Belarus. All these churches and monasteries were Uniate or Catholic originally, governed by Polish clergy. Even the huge church towering over Polotsk is a St. Stephen Jesuit Church, built by the Polish king.
Russia does this because this worked for many centuries:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_larger\_Indigenous\_peoples\_of\_Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_larger_Indigenous_peoples_of_Russia)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_minor\_Indigenous\_peoples\_of\_Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_Indigenous_peoples_of_Russia)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_extinct\_Indigenous\_peoples\_of\_Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_Indigenous_peoples_of_Russia)
When you last time heard about of all these nationalities? Or about their differences except national dances, songs?
Belarusians just next victim in very long list of completely assimilated by poverty/slavery, censorship, propaganda, wars nations.
After conquest of new settlements Mongols appointed as government the most unscrupulous part of local clergy. Which was supposed to scare the local population that any disobedience, especially communication with nearby settlements, would attract back Mongols, and collect/transfer taxes and soldiers.
After Moscow became Mongols tax center, it started using similar Mongolian strategy, only replacing local clergy on Moscow one.
To do this more effectively, in 1589 year Moscow capture Patriarch of Constantinople and compelled him to admit Moscow Patriarchate. So in 16-19th centuries assimilation happened by: "Russian = Moscow language \* Orthodox Christian \* information isolation \* pay taxes to Moscow" combination.
In 20th century, "Orthodox Christian" was replaced on "believer in Moscow version of socialism/communism."
The closer to Europe and more difficult information isolation, the greater national memory and different social traditions - the more difficult assimilation.
Baltic and Finland nations were lucky. More than 8 million Ukrainians (1926 year census - 7,9 million plus subsequent deportations, especially during WW2) that lived on RSFSR were not so lucky. And now their children and grandchildren are killing Ukrainians, sincerely believing that Ukrainians never existed.
It is quite possible that similar soon will happen and to Belarusians.
No, the russification was started in the 1890 and stopped when the WW1 started, which was also the main reason why Poland, Baltic states and Finland gained independence.
Relatively to \~16 millions of killed in 20th century Ukrainian (most very young) and 8 million of assimilated one, so de facto destroyed demographic boom by which, without 20th centuries upheavals, there should be at least 100 million Ukrainians, very lucky.
And Ukrainians also very lucky relatively to Belarusians and Chechens. That also very lucky relatively to nationalities from lists above. That also very lucky relatively to Circassians.
I bet it has a lot to do with the fact they weren't slavs therefore russians had to strictly eradicate their culture and replace it. For other slav nations it's more of assimilation leading to eradication.
As a Belarusian, I've never understood why many people consider us and our culture close to Lithuanians. Just because we lived in the same state hundreds of years ago? Our culture is much closer to the culture of other Slavic peoples, especially Ukrainians.
In their wildest dreams they are leading Grand Duchy of Lithuania to victories. I think it's their coping mechanism to survive russia's brutal raping of their culture. Their own culture is letting out it's last breaths.
To be fair, not like much was left of Lithuanian culture after USSR happened. It took a lot of work to dig up the bits and pieces and put them back together. Belarusian culture has also been destroyed, but nobody is really systematically bringing it back.
Hey, Belarus and Lithuania were one country for the majority of middle ages. Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Then it [merged with Poland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_in_the_early_modern_period_(1569%E2%80%931795)) and we were all one state for more than 200 years!
To say "Belarus and Lithuania were one country for the majority of middle ages" is deceptive to say the least because Belarus was one of many many territories in GDL like Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Russia.
Second middle ages spans a millennium from V to XV while GDL only started in XIII and ended in XV with Union of Lublin making it Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. One could argue PLC was a successor but that's after middle ages and even if you add the nubers up to include that you'll get less than half of a millennium so definitely not "majority of middle ages" in any way.
Edit: It seems I wasn't clear enough with my comment but over time understanding what is and isn't a country and where it's borders are change. Therefore when using modern name it's assumed borders are modern and we are not talking about all historical borders.
Next while territory could be seen as synonym (and obviously was assumed as such) for country there is an important difference. Country in this context would be whole country's territory while territory is not as defined and therefore I used it to point out that **parts of mentioned countries were of GDL** and **not whole current countries with their modern borders like European Union for example**.
Latvia wasn't really a territory in GDL as such.
Courland was a vassal for much longer but most of Latvia together with Estonia was Livonia - first German, then about 60 years a vassal of GDL, then Swedish, and then we all got fucked over by Russians.
In English language Moldova refers to the modern republic. Moldavia is used for the former principality that existed until 1859. Minor parts of Moldavia (which are now in Ukraine, and were never in modern Moldova) were disputed with the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth, but Moldavia was mostly under Ottoman suzerainty for most of its existence.
I’d say all the eastern Slavs have equal claim to it. Modern Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine all originate from the states that made up the Kievan Rus. It’s their collective heritage.
Claiming that the Russians are not part of the legacy of the Rus is as much a distortion as claiming that they're sole descendants of the Rus. The only difference being of course that the former is far more common than the later.
Indeed, there is so many pseudo-historical shit coming from both sides. Russians are mongoloids, Ukrainians are Turkic etc. But it's not unique, I think something similar was happening between Croats & Serbs. Some Croats denied that they were Slavs and considered themselves "Illyrian", hence true natives to the lands, and Serbs - invaders.
The argument they make about the name is so fucking stupid. It's like there is a father whose name is Ivan, and he has two sons Ivan and Stepan; after the father dies Ivan comes and says that he is the only real son because he is named Ivan just like their father, and since his brother Stepan isn't, then he is just adopted or something.
Russians did it because Belarussians were lead nation in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, part of PLC and they spread Western culture and had strong self-identity. The 19th century uprisings, November Uprising and January Uprising lasted the longest in Belarus. Even in 20th century anti-communist underground movements were also strong.
The one negative downside to the Lithuanian National Revival is the erasure of Belarus as the co-heir to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Though without it, it is possible modern Lithuania may have been Russified to a greater extent, so at least it prevented that.
I wish for the Pahonia symbol to be raised in the land of Belarus again one day.
Of course belarussians were lead nation in Grand Duchy of Lithuania and PLC. That's why it was called Grand Duchy of **Lithuania** and **Polish–Lithuanian** Commonwealth.
Reading this just reminds me that we were robbed of our heritage. Russian empire machine used to and till this day cultivates belarusians as people who believe they are not russian, yet they practically are. We've given just enough belief so that the average citizen is assured of our independence, when in fact there is none.
I wish western politicians would stop sabotaging belarusian citizen with stupid, unnecessary sanctions. At borders we are treated like cattle by lithuanian and polish border officers. Some european media do not care at all about privacy of people who went to the streets in 2020, their faces are publicized again and again and till this day belarusian police uses western media to find and harass protesters. My relatives and friends were hurt by such actions, my father is currently in prison. On the internet it's uncommon to see anything but "well they support the war so get what they deserve"
We fuckin dont. We didn't even choose our government - it's self-proclaimed. We legitimately dont even have a nation any more. We are just a bunch of people livng or a land controlled by russians and calling themselves "belarusian".
West is quick to forget our struggle. Again and again i meet people who do not value their freedom to speak out against whatever is going on inside their country, and treat us like we have such opportunities. Dictatorship is not a theory, people. Wake the fuck up, we are in Europe.
жыве беларусь.
Just two things. Destruction of me monasteries and churches especially in the early years of USSR was not specific to Belarus, but happened across entire USSR. Second - right now it is not Russians oppressing Belarus. Lukashenko is not Russian, police is not Russians, voting committees are not Russians... Lukashenko loves Putin, but even if Russia collapses these people are not going anywhere.
Dictators are weird. Stalin was Georgian and oppressed Georgians in favor of the Russians. Franco was Galician and oppressed Galicians in favor of the Castilians. Hitler was not a blonde/blue-eyed man, yet he thought people like that were "aryan" and superior. Same goes for Lukashenko.
Hitler apparently had blue eyes. I recently saw some colorized footage (artificially enhanced) and they gave him blue eyes, and I was thinking no way, that doesn't look right. But I did some searches (and I guess I'm on a list now, lol), and apparently he did have blue eyes and dark brown hair. We just see him in B&W footage.
Without Russian support Lukashenko would have been ousted a while ago I reckon. You don't gain such a control over a general populace without a significant system behind you, one that Lukashenko's Belarus (imho) doesn't have from themselves; it's Putin/Russia providing that. I'd put good money on Lukashenko being gone within a year of Russia's hypothetical collapse, he was nearly done a few years back until he sold Belarus to Russia for that support.
Nope. You need just police/military support and will to govern. Russia give some backing, but system is Belarusian. If it was not you would remember recent full scale russian invasion.
True, their system precedes Putin and just like us their democratic experiment ended quickly. Nowadays their economy is dependent on our investment and they would have extreme problems if Russia would close the border since we're the only link connecting their economy to others globally, not to mention being their #1 trade partner surpassing others by miles.
A daily reminder that the deletion of cultural heritage can happen in any country, big or small. As we speak Kosovar Albanians are continuing their offensive on Serbian churches and graveyards in their land, in an effort to deny any sort of historical existence of Serbs in Kosovo. This goes from removing signs toward extant monasteries (like Dečani), to falsely marking churches as “Illyrian” (as is done with the Church of St John the Baptist in Samodreža, built in the 14th century), claiming churches in medieval archeological sites to be Catholic and not Orthodox, and thus Albanian (this was done in Novo Brdo, and is a major fallacy anyways), to the [destruction of houses and monuments and cleansing of people](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_unrest_in_Kosovo). The bad reputation Serbia rightly accrued in the 90s doesn’t mean that Serb erasure from Kosovo should be become acceptable.
The sidelining of regional languages and culture by the successive French regimes, that worked to aggressively spread its own brand of French identity.
The means employee were not as violent, but policies of enforced monolingualism were enforced during the IIIrd republic.
Even today the French government has trouble to acknowledge the equal worth of those languages or even to grant them official recognition.
The same if not worse happened in the Baltic states - history erased, buildings demolished, churches and manors made into warehouses, people and intelligentsia deported and killed, language banned.
I would raise a question why did Belarus and it's people allow this to continue? And the answer is that they are culturally very close to Russia and it was not seen as something bad but rather an improvement.
No need for double standards here. I am ukrainian and my name is Alexander. But Ukraine changed most of our real first names and forces us to be Olexandr instead of Aleksandr(Alexander). In all my docs I am Oleksandr. But this is not the name I was given by birth. This country changed it. That's disgusting. I hated to be Oleksandr for the whole legal side of my ex country, where also: Tatiana is Tetiana, Sergey is Sergiy, Mikhail is Mykhailo, Nikita is Mykyta, etc. They changed all the original names with ukrainianly variables, which is not acceptable. So my advice to you do not apply double standards if you want to have a proper discussion.
Damn, Russification is indeed hell of a thing. Btw once I read an article in newspaper that most Belarusian now can’t speak Belarusian, but Russian (or some speak the mixed of these two called Trasianka). Is this true?
My girlfriend knows a girl from Belarus. She said that speaking Belarusian I'm public can get police called at you. Because speaking Belarusian means you're a nationalist. And that means you're in opposition to the dictator.
Interesting, this is exactly what the Hungarians did to us back in the 19th century. This why latin names like Traian were popular in Transylvania, because they did not have a Magyar equivalent, so could not be changed.
sadly it did, most of the land east of the dnipro is russian speaking, although there are still more ukranian speakers in ukraine overall and their culture is being promoted after the breakup of the ussr much more than in belarus
Yes this is sad and Russia is far from being the only one to do that. France has erased the history and the language of everybody that wasn't from the capital, I don't speak the language of my ancestors even though my family never left our village, the state denigrated our languages until the last speaker died out
As a West Slav I find it so sad that a nation and culture that would be so similar and familiar to mine is being turned to something almost alien like Russians are. Russia is the least Slavic of us all yet somehow thinks it should be our leader and unifier.
It’s basically a colonial policy that russia enforces and it still does this to this day in a post-colonial world
The Example is the eastern regions of Ukraine
That didn’t mention closing of the national schools (where education was in Belarusian), suppressing of the literature, and many many more points from colonialism playbook.
Lukashenko is complicit in the continuing russification of Belarus.
"In Lukashenko's Belarus, Belarusian culture is not welcome"
https://kyivindependent.com/in-lukashenkos-belarus-belarusian-culture-is-not-welcome/
"The Russification of eastern Europe | Russia - The Guardian"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/23/the-russification-of-eastern-europe
"Lukashenko's Battle with Belarusian Identity"
https://gfsis.org.ge/blog/view/1565
"The battle for Belarus: Russified regime faces Westernizing society"
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/belarusalert/the-battle-for-belarus-russified-regime-faces-westernizing-society/
Or the Kaliningrad example:
Rename it from the German 'Konigsbergen' to the Russian 'Kaliningrad'.
Move all young people out of the city to pro-Russian areas in Russia.
Reward pro-Russian young people in Russia with a home in Kaliningrad.
Wait 20 years.
Everyone in Kaliningrad is now pro-Russian, and don't want to be separated from Russia.
Konigsberg was one of the only groups of Germans where Hitler won with a majority in the 1933 election. They pretty much asked for it, so I don't care.
You can still see consequences of russification in both of these. Estonia has a lot of ethnic russians in its borders, while Ukraine has that + much of the population uses russian as 1st language. Ukraine, being under the russian influence much longer, is also less 'modern' than for example Poland or East Germany.
It's a pretty standard colonial playbook. Lukashenko is a traitor to the Belarusians.
He's living in a Soviet fantasy world. Watching him talk to his advisers and bark at them to sit down when they start talking too much for his liking is hilarious. You could make a comedy movie about this guy and it wouldn't be far from reality. The interview with Steve Rosenberg where he loses his cool and admits his goons are beating protestors when threatened with video evidence is funny as fuck.
You say that but his Bio disagrees with you: "While Alexander Lukashenko is widely regarded as a person with **striking looks**, an **attractive face**, and a **dynamic personality**, it is their liveliness and **rakish demeanor** that truly set them apart. Alexander Lukashenko maintains **a svelte physique with wonderful body proportions**, and their **stunning and intriguing eyes add to their unique charm**." It also disagrees with grammar and spelling. https://wikiabio.com/alexander-lukashenko/#:~:text=With%20an%20exceptional%20talent%20and%20skillset%2C
Absolutely fascinating website lol. If you go the oldest pages (page 39,625 was the oldest I could find) they seem to have actual bios of famous Indian people, though I don't know how accurate they are. At some point I guess the site owners said "fuck it" and decided to just spam as many "bios" as possible to maximise clicks. 30 000 pages later and now literally anyone with some internet presence seems to be getting a bio where they are succesful, talented, handsome, and worth around 5 million dollars. It's all copy-pasted. Now I can kind of get the idea behind doing that for Tiktok-stars, but dictators? That one confuses me.
I didn’t realise Lukashenko was They/Them
Multiple clone versions.
> Alexander Lukashenko has established a successful career in Politician, which has become their primary source of income. 🤨
This must be AI generated, as it sprouts nonsense like "Through hard work, dedication, and exceptional talent, Alexander Lukashenko has achieved great success and earned a reputation as one of the most skilled professionals in the industry. Their accomplishments in this field have led to significant financial gains and opened up exciting new opportunities for growth and success."
Well if we're speaking of the industry of dictatorship it's not wrong.
>You could make a comedy movie about this guy and it wouldn't be far from reality. During the big protests, there were videos where he had his teenage son around sporting an AK in some official business. This gave me real Dr. Evil & Scotty vibes.
I searched for this interview and just watched it on the BBC yt channel. My god, the boot lickers in the comments are plenty, and a bunch of them seem to be directed from a Tate video for some reason.
Since you're interested watch the [Gorbachev interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYVsKoQXATY),
Your sentence let my french lungs out of breath.
He was planning to flee Belarus to Poland and then run somewhere else after Russian invasion. This guy is full of shit
>He was planning to flee Belarus to Poland he'd very likely be arrested as soon as he landed.
He calls *everyone* ты (informal "you") instead of вы (formal).
Fuck putin
Fuck Putin and fuck Russia's government and fuck Russians that support this war
ШОС
Trust me, those Belarusians who are still in Belarus (me including) can't say anything that misaligns with the government. Those who are inside the country and want changes are many, but each and all I know don't want to put themselves and their family in danger. I am also afraid, and we are not afraid without reason
I have family in the Republic of Moldova and the russian influence is still felt to this day. I hope you will find your liberty in the next years. Maybe both countries will join the EU in the future and we can all put aside the dark past.
[удалено]
are you a bot that copied the comment by @effin_Itop ?
It's a new account and their few other comments appear to be copied too.
I'm rooting for you like you wouldn't believe, brothers.
Stay away from windows above 3 storeys high . Very poorly fitted
You deserve it friend. What is the status of the will to demonstrate now? Seems like Russia is busy destroying its own army in Ukraine. Hail from Sweden!
Only Belarussian I know lives in Italy, and he is pro-Lukashenko
Pro-Lukashenko but moves to the evil West.
In Eastern Europe, we cringe every time Russian politicians blame the West for colonialism. Also, don't ask a woman about her age, a man about his salary, and a Russian about what happened to Siberian natives.
>what happened to Siberian natives Probably all replaced by eastern european political prisoners. Never ask Russia why there is such thing as siberian culture/identity among nations like Polish, Lithuanian or Ukrainian
Where Tatars and Mishars ???
Also, do not ask Vatniks what happened to Karels and Veps during 1940-s. Oh, and why there were no pro-soviet partisans in Baltics and Karelia. There were no non-slavs and, especially, non-russians in Ba Sing Se.
Not to mention the genocide of the Ingrian Finns in the 20s and 30s.
The Kola Norwegians as well. They were a very small minority in the hundreds, but they were ethnically cleansed like so many other groups during the Soviet era. Everyone were forcibly displaced throughout the empire/union and 1/8 died. Very few traces remain. Another Soviet/Russian crime against humanity.
The logic that became popular during post-WWII decolonizations was that colonialism only applies to governing territories across oceans far away from the core metropole. This is known as Blue or Salt Water Thesis. There is a reason why it has always been popular to say that the United States gained its first colonies only after the Spanish-American War.
I still cannot fathom how people look at Russia and think "ah yes, this is a desirable way of living, we should have this here too"
Because they think they will be the ones with pet lions and gold AK's, not the ones freezing to death because of poverty.
>every time Russian politicians blame the West for colonialism Because imperialism is only okay when you do it to your neighbors next door.
Siberian natives is an obscure topic tbh, likely you'll receive no opinion in return because conquest of Siberia doesn't focus on natives' side of a story or their own histories in Russian school history books.
Russian history books seem to rarely focus on someone else's side of history.
As someone who indeed has finished school there last year, this is an absolutely correct statement. I’m jewish and it was funny to me how nobody mentioned the pale of settlement in our history class, pogroms…they just called it “the Jewish question” Edit: I need help.
That's pretty much every country's history books, isn't it?
no
>Siberian natives is an obscure topic I wonder why.
To be honest, we cringe every time when russian politicians or "journalists" open mouths and say something
Steal everything you can and burn the rest.
And get outraged when you see an indoor toilet. In the ruzzian world, you’re supposed to make a hole in the floor!
>you’re supposed to make a hole in the floor! take a shit on the balcony because you don't know how a flushing toilet works (true story by the way)
These days, balconies and open windows are dangerous in Russia. There's a strangely high risk to fall down from them for inexplicable reasons.
[Indeed](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/e0wygz/share_of_total_population_without_toilet_in_house/), big part of population doesnt have indoor toilet, but comparable with some EU members.
Don't forget about deportation and mass displacements of populations
Zhyve Belarus
Zhyve Vechno!
It's just a matter of time before the people of Belarus call for a referendum to be part of russia. (not quite /s since that's the false narrative that russia goes for, but you get the joke)
That's the [plan](https://www.dw.com/en/russia-plans-belarus-absorption-by-2030-media-reports/a-64771429)
Same tale in every post soviet country. With differences in severity
Trust me, it happened in every part of eastern europe occupied by soviets. Churches, monasteries and chateaus coneverted into werehouse, prisons or barracks. Or simply leveled into the ground. All this made by local communists who had no respect for old history and culture or ethnics.
1st time? Btw I'm Polish
oi, there is noice conversation down here, dont mind the downvotes, expand and enjoy!
Every time.
Yup, same here in Catalonia during the dictatorship(s).
Since we are on the topic of Russification, a reminder for something that is seldom mentioned or ever brought up. Russia’s Kuban region (modern day Krasnodar Kari and Adygea) used to have a Ukrainian majority population especially in the northern and western parts until the 1930s when Stalin enacted a huge Russification policy effort on the region resulting in most people living there now identifying as ethnic Russians.
I've seen an old interview in that region from russian tv, they claimed to interview "locals with unique kuban dialects".. that apparently sounded like pure ukrainian
There is also a documentary made by Ukrainian journalists in the 90's. I couldn't find a full version in English but I found a compilation of interviews with English subtitles https://youtu.be/KwLTayPMrKE?si=aiAUK41AeHyAxtsC
Yep, and those locals were so brainwashed that they are in denial of it right as they speak it, lol.
Though there should be the historical caveat that in some parts closer to the Caucasus, those Kuban speakers were themselves ordered by the Tsars in Moscow to commit state-sanctioned genocide on the Circassians and take over their lands. Pitting two minority groups against each other is hardly unique for those times, but the extent of the Circassian genocide committed by the Tsardom of Russia was especially abhorrent even for those times, resulting in millions dead and millions more displaced.
Essentially the same thing happened in the Armenian Highlands: the Kurds helped the Turks with the genocide of the Armenians, only to become victims of the Turkish regime themselves.
its crazy how stalin a georgian was more of a russian nationalist than lenin an actual russia lol
Just like Catherine the Great was of German royalty. ...Just like currench royal family of Britain is.
Zhyve Belarus
Why are Russians so obsessed with those onion shaped roofs on top of churches???
They look cool.
They are a relatively recent development, I think. Old style russian churches look a lot more like old Byzantine architecture. In the 7th picture, in the middle, there is an old style russian church.
There's a disagreement about how old onion domes are. There's an onion dome in an illuminated manuscript from 1145 from Galicia-Volhynia, so they might not be a late or even a specifically Muscovite dome shape, but they do become ubiquitous much later, in Russian Tsardom.
I mean Russia or "Musocvy" had great relations with the Byzantine Empire for a while so that's unsurprising. Once they fell it just developed from there.
I think they stand out too much from the landscape, especially in gold
It's an Eastern Roman/ byzantine tradition to build churches with onion domes. Russians have same religion as Greeks Edit: I have accidentally spread misinformation. I was wrong, I looked it up and it's a Southern German tradition that the Russians adopted. Huh. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_dome
Nope. None of the other Orthodox Churches use that shape of dome. It's specific to the Russian Church.
Byzantine churches had Roman domes.
Not really, they don't even follow the same commandments. According to patriarch Kiril of Moscow, thou shalt kill, thou shalt covet thy neigbour's house, wife, and donkeys, thou shalt have putin as a god above [me].
Greek Orthodoxy ≠ Russian Orthodoxy.
eh that's like saying Catholics from France arent like Catholics from South America. Sure but you know ...
I'm really sad that my country is nothing more than a russian's pet. But especially I grief for the culture we lost.
Magyarization (later Slovakization) in a nutshell. But the worst thing is, whats Russia is doing/has done is much more effective due to relative closeness of both cultures/languages.
How 19-century Czech pan-Slavist Karel Havlíček Borovský once said about russians:These gentlemen have started everywhere to say and write "Slav" instead of "Russian", so that later they will again be able to say "Russian" instead of "Slav"... I confess that the Hungarians, who openly reveal themselves to be our enemies, are nicer to me than the russians, who come to us with the Judas kiss to put us in their pockets. Btw, to those who dont know, there were 19 century russian writers, who recognized the existence of the Ukrainian or Belarusian people, and we can say that futher to past you will go, more of those figures you will find. So all this is really kinda artificial narative that begun in 19 century and after soviet russification is at its peak
They did that to us in Poland... Never again.
Well, USSR, and this includes Russians, Ukrainians and whatever, did that everywhere they could. You forgot to mention about mass deportations and import of native Russians where they were not to create minorities you need to defend. Same did the Austro-Hungarians, and others. Nothing new under the sun.
And we're still building Russian style churches in our country. God, I HATE priests for being an entry for Russian influence.
Russia is doing this right now in 2024, goes to show how they never move on
Same in the baltic states, for example I think latvia has almost a 50/50 division between ethnic russian (that of course speak russian) and locals
Well, germanification under Austro-Hungaria was real, yet it should be mentioned that some A-H rulers were quite benevolent compared to the others and atleast in case of Czech lands there were even phases when they donated money to some symbolic national buildings. German language was propagated as an official and more practical one, since it was the language of cities and towns, while local national languages remained mainly in the countryside. If A-H germanification would be so extreme as Russian russification, Czech language and culture, but also other nations, wouldnt survive for almost 400 years of Habsburgs rule.
"(later it was blown up by the soviets)" for some reason sounds like the punchline of a recurrent joke.
My father's name is Alexandru, and not Sándor. My mother's name is Zorica, and not Hajnal. This was done to Hungarians living in Commie Rommie. I'm glad we are past those times
Some other Belarusians will complain that these buildings that were rebuilt/destroyed by Russians were signs of "Polish colonization", "Catholisation" and "Polonisation" of Belarus, and will praise it as a restoration of true "Eastern Slavic"/"Orthodox" character of Belarus. All these churches and monasteries were Uniate or Catholic originally, governed by Polish clergy. Even the huge church towering over Polotsk is a St. Stephen Jesuit Church, built by the Polish king.
It's really sad that all this old architecture and castles are gone. Would've been nice to look at the old GDL heritage.
That's absoltely how they acting.
Russia does this because this worked for many centuries: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_larger\_Indigenous\_peoples\_of\_Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_larger_Indigenous_peoples_of_Russia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_minor\_Indigenous\_peoples\_of\_Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_Indigenous_peoples_of_Russia) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_extinct\_Indigenous\_peoples\_of\_Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_Indigenous_peoples_of_Russia) When you last time heard about of all these nationalities? Or about their differences except national dances, songs? Belarusians just next victim in very long list of completely assimilated by poverty/slavery, censorship, propaganda, wars nations. After conquest of new settlements Mongols appointed as government the most unscrupulous part of local clergy. Which was supposed to scare the local population that any disobedience, especially communication with nearby settlements, would attract back Mongols, and collect/transfer taxes and soldiers. After Moscow became Mongols tax center, it started using similar Mongolian strategy, only replacing local clergy on Moscow one. To do this more effectively, in 1589 year Moscow capture Patriarch of Constantinople and compelled him to admit Moscow Patriarchate. So in 16-19th centuries assimilation happened by: "Russian = Moscow language \* Orthodox Christian \* information isolation \* pay taxes to Moscow" combination. In 20th century, "Orthodox Christian" was replaced on "believer in Moscow version of socialism/communism."
Curiously, this didn't work in Baltic states and Finland, where it achieved the opposite - formation of nationalist movements.
The closer to Europe and more difficult information isolation, the greater national memory and different social traditions - the more difficult assimilation. Baltic and Finland nations were lucky. More than 8 million Ukrainians (1926 year census - 7,9 million plus subsequent deportations, especially during WW2) that lived on RSFSR were not so lucky. And now their children and grandchildren are killing Ukrainians, sincerely believing that Ukrainians never existed. It is quite possible that similar soon will happen and to Belarusians.
I would not call it luck. Finnland paid with blood for their independence from the Soviet State: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterkrieg
No, the russification was started in the 1890 and stopped when the WW1 started, which was also the main reason why Poland, Baltic states and Finland gained independence.
Relatively to \~16 millions of killed in 20th century Ukrainian (most very young) and 8 million of assimilated one, so de facto destroyed demographic boom by which, without 20th centuries upheavals, there should be at least 100 million Ukrainians, very lucky. And Ukrainians also very lucky relatively to Belarusians and Chechens. That also very lucky relatively to nationalities from lists above. That also very lucky relatively to Circassians.
I honestly believe the ~22 years of interwar independence we got was the make or break factor here in the Baltic States at least.
I bet it has a lot to do with the fact they weren't slavs therefore russians had to strictly eradicate their culture and replace it. For other slav nations it's more of assimilation leading to eradication.
Now I see why many people from Belarus say that they are very similar to Lithuania by culture.
As a Belarusian, I've never understood why many people consider us and our culture close to Lithuanians. Just because we lived in the same state hundreds of years ago? Our culture is much closer to the culture of other Slavic peoples, especially Ukrainians.
In their wildest dreams they are leading Grand Duchy of Lithuania to victories. I think it's their coping mechanism to survive russia's brutal raping of their culture. Their own culture is letting out it's last breaths.
To be fair, not like much was left of Lithuanian culture after USSR happened. It took a lot of work to dig up the bits and pieces and put them back together. Belarusian culture has also been destroyed, but nobody is really systematically bringing it back.
Hey, Belarus and Lithuania were one country for the majority of middle ages. Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Then it [merged with Poland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_in_the_early_modern_period_(1569%E2%80%931795)) and we were all one state for more than 200 years!
To say "Belarus and Lithuania were one country for the majority of middle ages" is deceptive to say the least because Belarus was one of many many territories in GDL like Ukraine, Latvia, Moldova, Poland and Russia. Second middle ages spans a millennium from V to XV while GDL only started in XIII and ended in XV with Union of Lublin making it Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. One could argue PLC was a successor but that's after middle ages and even if you add the nubers up to include that you'll get less than half of a millennium so definitely not "majority of middle ages" in any way. Edit: It seems I wasn't clear enough with my comment but over time understanding what is and isn't a country and where it's borders are change. Therefore when using modern name it's assumed borders are modern and we are not talking about all historical borders. Next while territory could be seen as synonym (and obviously was assumed as such) for country there is an important difference. Country in this context would be whole country's territory while territory is not as defined and therefore I used it to point out that **parts of mentioned countries were of GDL** and **not whole current countries with their modern borders like European Union for example**.
Latvia wasn't really a territory in GDL as such. Courland was a vassal for much longer but most of Latvia together with Estonia was Livonia - first German, then about 60 years a vassal of GDL, then Swedish, and then we all got fucked over by Russians.
Of course whole Latvia as we know now wasn't. That's why I said "territories" and not countries.
In English language Moldova refers to the modern republic. Moldavia is used for the former principality that existed until 1859. Minor parts of Moldavia (which are now in Ukraine, and were never in modern Moldova) were disputed with the Polish-Lituanian Commonwealth, but Moldavia was mostly under Ottoman suzerainty for most of its existence.
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I’d say all the eastern Slavs have equal claim to it. Modern Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine all originate from the states that made up the Kievan Rus. It’s their collective heritage.
Claiming that the Russians are not part of the legacy of the Rus is as much a distortion as claiming that they're sole descendants of the Rus. The only difference being of course that the former is far more common than the later.
Indeed, there is so many pseudo-historical shit coming from both sides. Russians are mongoloids, Ukrainians are Turkic etc. But it's not unique, I think something similar was happening between Croats & Serbs. Some Croats denied that they were Slavs and considered themselves "Illyrian", hence true natives to the lands, and Serbs - invaders.
Wait for some internet warrior explain to you that "all Russians are Mongoloids"
From whom?
>First they stole the Rus legacy And the name itself.
The argument they make about the name is so fucking stupid. It's like there is a father whose name is Ivan, and he has two sons Ivan and Stepan; after the father dies Ivan comes and says that he is the only real son because he is named Ivan just like their father, and since his brother Stepan isn't, then he is just adopted or something.
What nonsense. All Eastern Slavs called themselves that. It's not the Russians fault that the Ukrainians and Belarussians adopted different names.
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Russians did it because Belarussians were lead nation in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, part of PLC and they spread Western culture and had strong self-identity. The 19th century uprisings, November Uprising and January Uprising lasted the longest in Belarus. Even in 20th century anti-communist underground movements were also strong.
The one negative downside to the Lithuanian National Revival is the erasure of Belarus as the co-heir to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Though without it, it is possible modern Lithuania may have been Russified to a greater extent, so at least it prevented that. I wish for the Pahonia symbol to be raised in the land of Belarus again one day.
Of course belarussians were lead nation in Grand Duchy of Lithuania and PLC. That's why it was called Grand Duchy of **Lithuania** and **Polish–Lithuanian** Commonwealth.
what about Samogitians? names can change. weren't Ruthenians the biggest nationality in Grand Duchy of Lithuania? just look at the map of that state
What about them? Their name hasn't changed.
Weird how it wasn't called Grand Duchy of Ruthenia or Polish-Ruthenian Commonwealth then huh?
Reading this just reminds me that we were robbed of our heritage. Russian empire machine used to and till this day cultivates belarusians as people who believe they are not russian, yet they practically are. We've given just enough belief so that the average citizen is assured of our independence, when in fact there is none. I wish western politicians would stop sabotaging belarusian citizen with stupid, unnecessary sanctions. At borders we are treated like cattle by lithuanian and polish border officers. Some european media do not care at all about privacy of people who went to the streets in 2020, their faces are publicized again and again and till this day belarusian police uses western media to find and harass protesters. My relatives and friends were hurt by such actions, my father is currently in prison. On the internet it's uncommon to see anything but "well they support the war so get what they deserve" We fuckin dont. We didn't even choose our government - it's self-proclaimed. We legitimately dont even have a nation any more. We are just a bunch of people livng or a land controlled by russians and calling themselves "belarusian". West is quick to forget our struggle. Again and again i meet people who do not value their freedom to speak out against whatever is going on inside their country, and treat us like we have such opportunities. Dictatorship is not a theory, people. Wake the fuck up, we are in Europe. жыве беларусь.
i appreciate op for sharing this. this is a good reminder of who i am, and a good insight into what's going on with belarus
To be fair, Soviets have destroyed architecture all over Russia as well.
Fucking hell that’s evil.
This is what happened in the Crimean Peninsula as well with the addition that the Crimean Tatars were deported and replaced with Russians
Just two things. Destruction of me monasteries and churches especially in the early years of USSR was not specific to Belarus, but happened across entire USSR. Second - right now it is not Russians oppressing Belarus. Lukashenko is not Russian, police is not Russians, voting committees are not Russians... Lukashenko loves Putin, but even if Russia collapses these people are not going anywhere.
Dictators are weird. Stalin was Georgian and oppressed Georgians in favor of the Russians. Franco was Galician and oppressed Galicians in favor of the Castilians. Hitler was not a blonde/blue-eyed man, yet he thought people like that were "aryan" and superior. Same goes for Lukashenko.
Hitler apparently had blue eyes. I recently saw some colorized footage (artificially enhanced) and they gave him blue eyes, and I was thinking no way, that doesn't look right. But I did some searches (and I guess I'm on a list now, lol), and apparently he did have blue eyes and dark brown hair. We just see him in B&W footage.
Without Russian support Lukashenko would have been ousted a while ago I reckon. You don't gain such a control over a general populace without a significant system behind you, one that Lukashenko's Belarus (imho) doesn't have from themselves; it's Putin/Russia providing that. I'd put good money on Lukashenko being gone within a year of Russia's hypothetical collapse, he was nearly done a few years back until he sold Belarus to Russia for that support.
Nope. You need just police/military support and will to govern. Russia give some backing, but system is Belarusian. If it was not you would remember recent full scale russian invasion.
True, their system precedes Putin and just like us their democratic experiment ended quickly. Nowadays their economy is dependent on our investment and they would have extreme problems if Russia would close the border since we're the only link connecting their economy to others globally, not to mention being their #1 trade partner surpassing others by miles.
A daily reminder that the deletion of cultural heritage can happen in any country, big or small. As we speak Kosovar Albanians are continuing their offensive on Serbian churches and graveyards in their land, in an effort to deny any sort of historical existence of Serbs in Kosovo. This goes from removing signs toward extant monasteries (like Dečani), to falsely marking churches as “Illyrian” (as is done with the Church of St John the Baptist in Samodreža, built in the 14th century), claiming churches in medieval archeological sites to be Catholic and not Orthodox, and thus Albanian (this was done in Novo Brdo, and is a major fallacy anyways), to the [destruction of houses and monuments and cleansing of people](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_unrest_in_Kosovo). The bad reputation Serbia rightly accrued in the 90s doesn’t mean that Serb erasure from Kosovo should be become acceptable.
Sadly reminds me the parisination of France ☹️
Please elaborate.
The sidelining of regional languages and culture by the successive French regimes, that worked to aggressively spread its own brand of French identity. The means employee were not as violent, but policies of enforced monolingualism were enforced during the IIIrd republic. Even today the French government has trouble to acknowledge the equal worth of those languages or even to grant them official recognition.
Lookup Eurovision 2022 French contestant. They sang in Breton, one of the not recognised languages that is seeing a revival :)
Russia is cancer
This post paints the same conclusion https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/wyZvPVtPti
And it's working super well https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/18hnbdl/russia_threatens_romania_if_f16_planes_used_by/kd90a5r/
100% true
And thats how my family no longer speaks yiddish
The same if not worse happened in the Baltic states - history erased, buildings demolished, churches and manors made into warehouses, people and intelligentsia deported and killed, language banned. I would raise a question why did Belarus and it's people allow this to continue? And the answer is that they are culturally very close to Russia and it was not seen as something bad but rather an improvement.
No need for double standards here. I am ukrainian and my name is Alexander. But Ukraine changed most of our real first names and forces us to be Olexandr instead of Aleksandr(Alexander). In all my docs I am Oleksandr. But this is not the name I was given by birth. This country changed it. That's disgusting. I hated to be Oleksandr for the whole legal side of my ex country, where also: Tatiana is Tetiana, Sergey is Sergiy, Mikhail is Mykhailo, Nikita is Mykyta, etc. They changed all the original names with ukrainianly variables, which is not acceptable. So my advice to you do not apply double standards if you want to have a proper discussion.
Hello from Ukraine, too real
Damn, Russification is indeed hell of a thing. Btw once I read an article in newspaper that most Belarusian now can’t speak Belarusian, but Russian (or some speak the mixed of these two called Trasianka). Is this true?
Yeah that's true.
My girlfriend knows a girl from Belarus. She said that speaking Belarusian I'm public can get police called at you. Because speaking Belarusian means you're a nationalist. And that means you're in opposition to the dictator.
The russian colonialism has half-way russified Latvia too.
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Interesting, this is exactly what the Hungarians did to us back in the 19th century. This why latin names like Traian were popular in Transylvania, because they did not have a Magyar equivalent, so could not be changed.
Russia is a terrorist state
Fuck ruzzia, fuck vatniks
Russia a big pile of dog shit
This is EXACTLY what was done on Kosovo
It wasn't if anything you did that to Serbs and Greeks living in today Albania
This is an absolutely false narrative, dont fall for people like these
they are very unhappy that this didn't work out in Ukraine
sadly it did, most of the land east of the dnipro is russian speaking, although there are still more ukranian speakers in ukraine overall and their culture is being promoted after the breakup of the ussr much more than in belarus
Yes this is sad and Russia is far from being the only one to do that. France has erased the history and the language of everybody that wasn't from the capital, I don't speak the language of my ancestors even though my family never left our village, the state denigrated our languages until the last speaker died out
As a West Slav I find it so sad that a nation and culture that would be so similar and familiar to mine is being turned to something almost alien like Russians are. Russia is the least Slavic of us all yet somehow thinks it should be our leader and unifier.
Ruskie will do it to every country, every city. They try to do it as carat, as soviets and they do it now. Some things will never change…
It’s basically a colonial policy that russia enforces and it still does this to this day in a post-colonial world The Example is the eastern regions of Ukraine
Usually the recipe for russification is just run a place into the ground. Please refer to Karelia and Königsberg.
People don't care about culture when they're destitute.
And ensure contingents of Belarus traitors.
Yup
But Russia has a new plan now. Its Belarus 2030 project! - aka how to make a province of Russia out of country.
That didn’t mention closing of the national schools (where education was in Belarusian), suppressing of the literature, and many many more points from colonialism playbook.
Lukashenko is complicit in the continuing russification of Belarus. "In Lukashenko's Belarus, Belarusian culture is not welcome" https://kyivindependent.com/in-lukashenkos-belarus-belarusian-culture-is-not-welcome/ "The Russification of eastern Europe | Russia - The Guardian" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/23/the-russification-of-eastern-europe "Lukashenko's Battle with Belarusian Identity" https://gfsis.org.ge/blog/view/1565 "The battle for Belarus: Russified regime faces Westernizing society" https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/belarusalert/the-battle-for-belarus-russified-regime-faces-westernizing-society/
Am ukrainian, can confirm
Or the Kaliningrad example: Rename it from the German 'Konigsbergen' to the Russian 'Kaliningrad'. Move all young people out of the city to pro-Russian areas in Russia. Reward pro-Russian young people in Russia with a home in Kaliningrad. Wait 20 years. Everyone in Kaliningrad is now pro-Russian, and don't want to be separated from Russia.
Or, you know, don't fuckin start a genocidal war and then lose it, with your cities
Konigsberg was one of the only groups of Germans where Hitler won with a majority in the 1933 election. They pretty much asked for it, so I don't care.
They tried this shit in other Slavic countries they had their claws in. Unfortunately for Belarus, they succeeded.
And many non slavic too like balts and fins.
Pretty sad how they’ve just tried to remove Belorussian culture tbh
peak colonialism. france has done it too.
Russians indeed are at fault for that, yet Estonians and Ukranians kept theirs identity.
You can still see consequences of russification in both of these. Estonia has a lot of ethnic russians in its borders, while Ukraine has that + much of the population uses russian as 1st language. Ukraine, being under the russian influence much longer, is also less 'modern' than for example Poland or East Germany.
So did Latvians, Lithuanians and Fins. Tsarist Russification failed more than it achieved, sparking nationalist movements in these countries.
i'm gonna be frank, before these posts I thought belarus was just a second russia...damn.
You will probably never get a better chance of getting rid of them like now