{"id":197140,"date":"2026-07-24T16:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/197140\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T16:41:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:41:59","slug":"forced-conscription-lukasenkas-new-punishment-for-lazy-workers","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/197140\/","title":{"rendered":"Forced conscription \u2013 \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s new punishment for lazy workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s order to send lazy workers to the army might seem bizarre and despotic, but officials and generals have taken it seriously and are unlikely to raise any objections.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n (\u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s website, Jan Harbaniuk for Vajar\/Pozirk\u2019s collage)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On June 21, the Belarusian strongman told officials to send lazy and undisciplined farm workers to southern Belarus to guard the border with Ukraine alongside Belarusian troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAsk [Defense Minister Viktar] Chrenin, pass my instructions to him: everyone who doesn\u2019t know how to work should be with the army, at the southern border. In the forest. Our guys, the Special Operations Forces, have been deployed there along the Ukrainian border by my order,\u201d he said at a government conference on the harvest campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy \u2014 mosquitoes, flies, midges and so on. So send them there, to be with the army. As ordinary soldiers. After a week of training, [with] a grenade launcher, a machine gun, put them at the disposal of the Special Operations Forces,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, lackluster and unfit soldiers will not strengthen the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disciplinary battalion instead of commandos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Defense Minister Viktar Chrenin said after he met with \u0141uka\u0161enka the following day that those \u201cwho don\u2019t want to work at all\u201d would be called up for military drills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general probably argued to \u0141uka\u0161enka that the Special Operations Forces do not need inexperienced, unfit and undisciplined soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will not take anyone for correctional education. We will take them to hone their combat skills,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, D\u017amitryj Krutoj, \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s chief of staff, said that poor workers would be called up for drills lasting two or three months, with a focus on correctional training. He added that they would do mostly non-combat support work. So, instead of joining the Special Operations Forces, they would be assigned to disciplinary battalions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, officials have had to improvise to account for the implementation of \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s unexpected order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff shortage persists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka cited labor shortages as grounds for his decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, what will we do? Handcuff [send] them [to prison] amid persisting staff shortages? . . . So send them there, to be with the army. As ordinary soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If farms lack employees for the harvest campaign, it would probably be better to discipline lackluster workers and compel them to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way, \u0141uka\u0161enka also threatened to send lazy officials to the army. That is very unlikely given his short bench of substitutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be noted that there is no law stipulating military service as punishment for poor performance at work. Calling up poor workers for military training is generally a bad idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, enlistment officers select reservists for training to ensure that they improve the skills they acquired during compulsory military service. Calling up anyone to perform non-combat work can hardly be called effective management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally, Krutoj said that a lack of military specialization and health issues would not be taken into account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former farm boss cannot effectively manage the economy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, aging dictators often come up with bizarre ideas. Not a single official present at the government conference dared to say that the order was absurd. This is how autocrats become unhinged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka, a former collective farm boss, has been in power for 32 years, but he continues to use the same old methods based on intimidation and coercion, which are hardly compatible with good management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good economy relies mostly on material incentives. A Western farmer does not need officials to lambaste him into working hard and conscientiously. A Western farmer would never have a crazy idea like stealing fuel from his own farm. They do not need a whipmaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for the army, many young people are unwilling to perform compulsory military service. Propaganda does its utmost to present military service as an honorable duty. However, \u0141uka\u0161enka has made it clear that military service is punishment through forced labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was already a precedent in history in tsarist Russia, where serfs were forcibly conscripted as punishment for wrongdoing. But this seems far too odd for the 21st century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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