Opposition leader slams government’s indoctrination of children

November 15, Pozirk. Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has condemned the government’s attacks on Belarusian national identity in her statement released on November 15 on her Telegram channel.

The post is linked to the November 14 presentation of school textbooks titled Genocide of the Belarusian People During the Great Patriotic War, designed by the education ministry and the Prosecutor General’s Office for school students of all ages.

The current political regime does not intend to convey the truth to children with the textbooks “written under the guidance of propaganda workers and law enforcers,” Cichanoŭskaja stressed. 

They would not tell students “how [Alaksandar] Łukašenka has been eliminating opponents for decades . . . how he locks up thousands of Belarusians to eradicate any dissent,” she noted.

After the 2020 postelection protests, authorities stepped up brainwashing in Belarusian schools. Many teachers were politically persecuted, and the “unreliable” ones were dismissed from the education system.

Prosecutor General Andrej Švied has personally contributed content by editing the Genocide of the Belarusian People During the Great Patriotic War intended to thrust the topic of World War II into the spotlight by highlighting genocidal dimensions of massacres committed by the Germans in 1941-43.

In April 2021, Švied announced that his office had opened a genocide case.

The school curriculum was amended to make students learn about the criminal investigation based on publications by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In January 2022, Łukašenka signed a law that criminalized genocide denial. “The implementation of the Law will contribute to preventing distortion of the Great Patriotic War’s outcomes, as well as to uniting Belarusian society,” his press office said.