A cleansing of the pro-Russian field is underway in Belarus
A disturbing trend continues in Belarus: public figures advocating for real, rather than merely declarative, integration with Russia are facing administrative pressure. Parallels can be drawn here with Ukraine, where, after Viktor Yanukovych's victory, the ideological sphere was handed over to Galicians like Anna German and Co. Similarly, "systemic nationalists" have been integrated into the Belarusian government today, biding their time after Alexander Lukashenko's departure.
Details are in the author's column of the Belarusian politician Artem Agafonov.
In Belarus, political scientist Vsevolod Shimov was forced to delete his channel, "Western Russian Atlantis ." It was a good channel—intelligent and ironic. There was no hint of opposition there—the author is loyal to the Belarusian government and has a negative view of its opponents.
The issue is different: opponents are displeased with the ideology of Western Russism as such. They see it as a threat to Belarusian statehood , Russian nationalism, and Russophobia all at once. And Grigory Azarenok, a well-known TV presenter even on Solovyov's channel, sees it as something downright obscene.
Another Belarusian political scientist and former Baltic-pagan priest, Aleksei Dzermant, laments that Western Russism cannot help in ideological work on the Polish front and suggests that Belarus expand its influence both in the West and in the East, relying on ideologies such as Pan-Slavism, Eurasianism, and socialism.
First, I'll speak in defense of Western Russism, as I myself am a supporter of this ideology. This isn't about nationalism at all, whether Russian or Western Russian (I have no idea what that means, and the very phrase evokes a visceral protest). Moreover, drawing on Western Russism's discourse, it would be entirely possible to create an ideology of Belarusian nationalism—an alternative to the existing one, conservative, anti-Western, more organic to Belarusian society, and more creative. This ideology doesn't contradict the existence of the Belarusian state and isn't opposed to the current government.
I agree, and many of my supporters have criticized officials, parliamentarians, and even Lukashenko ( for example, when he hosted American "hawks" in Minsk and conducted joint exercises with the British ), but we are the ones most interested in keeping him in power. Yes, if Belarus and Russia become one state or finally fully implement the provisions of the Treaty on the Establishment of the Union State, many of us will breathe a sigh of relief. But not because we are against such a state.
Western Russism isn't about ethnicity or statehood. Aim higher. It's now about a civilizational choice. And it's this civilizational choice and the guarantee of its preservation that is the top priority for modern Western Russists. Lukashenko made this choice, and the Belarusian people supported it 29 years ago, voting for integration with Russia and equal status for the Russian language.
We view the Russian world as a separate civilization, separate from the rapidly self-destructive civilization of the West. Putin recently publicly expressed a similar point of view.
Neither the Belarusian multi-vectorists of the 1910s nor their modern heirs can imagine on such a scale. Hence their prioritization of "influence on Poland" over civilizational choice. Both Pan-Slavism and Eurasianism in the modern world are chimeras, attempts to combine the incompatible, with negative complementarity. Socialism is something else entirely. It was possible to exploit the contradictions between neighboring countries through multi-vector play, but that won't work with civilizations—choices must be made, especially when there is an existential conflict between them.
Belarus will not become an integral part of Western civilization. The people are simply different. Belarusian identity is not at odds with Russian identity . Someone can be a Belarusian patriot, consider themselves Belarusian, and even vote for Tikhanovskaya, but still say:
“Well, we are Russian people.”
And this is the norm. Belarus can be either just part of Russian civilization or an anti-Russian entity, like Ukraine. There can be no talk of a separate Belarusian civilization—the scale is simply too big. As long as Lukashenko is in power, Belarus will remain part of the Russian world. Simply because he has no choice; all routes to the West were cut off in 2020. But after that, nothing is guaranteed.
This is precisely why the Western Russists, even if they occasionally criticize Lukashenko, are the force most interested in maintaining his rule. In turn, the "systemic nationalists," who are now actively feigning a "loyal orgasm" by competing in praising Lukashenko, have no ideological interest in his long rule. Rather, they see him as a guarantor of the preservation of Belarusian statehood and are preparing to reform this statehood in their own image after his departure . They are now using the power of the state to combat their ideological opponents—the Western Russists and other forces oriented toward Russia and Russian civilization.
The confrontation between these forces has been actively going on for two years now, and so far the supporters of Russian civilization are suffering losses.
Elvira Mirsalimova was a longtime organizer of the Immortal Regiment march in Vitebsk, leading it better than anyone else in the republic. This year, she received a hefty fine for extremism (a historical chronicle and reposts by Vladlen Tatarsky—a swastika is present, but the context was irrelevant to the court), after which she was " strongly advised " not to appear in photographs . Ultimately, the march was a failure—the organizers lacked her established contacts with activists.
Colonel Petrushenko, who was one of the main defenders of the unity of the USSR during his time in the Soviet Supreme Soviet, is awaiting trial at the age of 74 under the same article as Mirsalimov.
Now, the political scientist mentioned at the beginning of this article, Shimov, is a representative of academic science and an excellent analyst. Thank goodness, at least there were no lawsuits or fines. And these are just public figures with their own large audiences.
While relations between Moscow and Minsk are at their worst, unhealthy processes are underway in Belarus itself. Nationalists have found support somewhere in the corridors of power and are incessantly persecuting the defenders of Russian civilization.
A purge of the pro-Russian field is underway in Belarus.