{"id":3851,"date":"2023-10-05T09:04:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T06:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/?post_type=longreads&p=3851"},"modified":"2023-10-05T11:34:16","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T08:34:16","slug":"lukasenkas-system-more-repressive-than-post-stalin-soviet-regimes","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/3851\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s system more repressive than post-Stalin Soviet regimes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the recent closure of the last opposition party, there is no more legal opposition left in Belarus. Since 2020, Alexander \u0141uka\u0161enka has been building a system that is already more repressive than Soviet governments after Josef Stalin.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dictatorship is growing stronger <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reprisals have wiped out Belarus\u2019 opposition. This year, the authorities brought the cleansing of the political playing field to its logical conclusion. On September 29, the Supreme Court liquidated the \u201cJust World\u201d Belarusian Party of the Left as the government prepares to make a clean sweep of the 2024 and 2025 elections, leaving no room for political pluralism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also on September 29, \u0141uka\u0161enka announced his intention to proclaim 2024 \u201cthe year of quality.\u201d Consciously or subconsciously, he uses the Soviet matrix: from 1976 to 1980, the USSR had a \u201cfive-year plan for efficiency and quality\u201d but it failed to improve both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, the Belarusian ruler has never tried to hide his sympathy for the Soviet system. In fact, he won his first election on the promise of its restoration. Back then, in 1994, he was supported by a fairly large number of fellow citizens, shocked by the post-Soviet economic discord and declining living standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For quite a long time, \u0141uka\u0161enka enjoyed fairly broad electoral support because he maintained economic growth and improved living standards building on several factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, Belarus inherited a relatively high industrial and agricultural potential from the USSR, which the Belarusian ruler had successfully exploited for quite some time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, and most important, the Belarusian leader managed to gain access to Russia\u2019s resources through an adventurous game of \u201cbrotherly integration.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, under the influence of moderate progressives, \u0141uka\u0161enka at some point approved limited economic reforms. A whole class of private business people emerged in the country, and comfortable conditions were created for the IT sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, shocked by 2020 protests, in which both entrepreneurs and IT professionals actively participated, \u0141uka\u0161enka chose a path toward totalitarianism, and now the regime is increasingly taking on the features of a Stalinist or Central Asian dictatorship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruler of Belarus has always been against \u201cdemonization\u201d of Stalin and Lenin. In 2012 he said that he still had a long way to go to their level. Well, now he is almost there, and in some ways has even outperformed others. For example, he has adopted sophisticated digital tools and techniques to carry out relentless reprisals in the information age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Leonid Brezhnev, people told jokes about him in smoking rooms without much fear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, coercion is seen by the regime as a universal method. The protests have been driven under the asphalt by brutal police force, and fear has forced people to become outwardly submissive. Whether you like the authorities or not, just bite your tongue and do what they tell you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka had recently proposed increasing the term of compulsory job assignment for graduates of budget-funded universities from two to five years, and introducing it for graduates who studied for a fee. The practice is reminiscent of serfdom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar rules existed under Stalin, when peasants were not given passports and therefore could not move to the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, after Stalin’s death and exposure of his personality cult, the Soviet regime softened considerably. A political thaw followed under Nikita Khryshchev as he attempted to carry out economic reforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khrushchev was removed from power by the Communist Party Politburo in a process that implied some sort of internal party democracy. One cannot even imagine that nowadays somebody can remove \u0141uka\u0161enka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the good-natured Brezhnev, people were not particularly afraid to tell jokes about him in smoking rooms \u2013 about his funny diction, slips of the tongue, forgetfulness, etc. They were not persecuted for listening to Western radio stations (“enemy voices”), like people are now prosecuted in Belarus for reading “extremist” Telegram channels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Mikhail Gorbachev\u2019s perestroika people became bolder, they took to the streets and booed party functionaries at rallies. Elections became competitive. The opposition Belarusian Popular Front made it to the parliament in 1990, and \u0141uka\u0161enka was also elected. He has actually made his way into politics thanks to perestroika. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very fact that perestroika took place suggests that people with reformist thinking remained in the upper echelons of power. The Communist Party (of course, within the framework of general loyalty) was not afraid to integrate and appoint talented and bright people with unconventional thinking to high positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, \u0141uka\u0161enka has adopted the most primitive personnel management policy, appointing obedient performers. Under the Soviet rule, some people of his circle would not be able to rise above the level of a factory trade union committee, distributing candy for the New Year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, in the post-Stalin USSR dissidents were imprisoned, but there was never such a number of political prisoners as there are now in Belarus, and Soviet propaganda has never been as bad as nowadays in Belarus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the country by throat to keep power <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since 1994, when \u0141uka\u0161enka seemed like a savior to many, Belarusian society has changed a lot, and 2020 protests have clearly showed that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theoretically, that was a point of bifurcation – the ruler could have agreed to a compromise and quietly resigned, announcing early elections without his participation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He even vaguely hinted at that option in 2020 while he was still in shock. However, knowing the nature of this exceptionally power-hungry and cruel man, it was easy to foresee that he would do all he could to break the back of the peaceful uprising and to take the country by the throat with an iron grip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, he is also trying to offer some benefits to ordinary people: money is printed to increase wages and other payments and prices are controlled (although this is also done with a stick, so it will not have a long-term effect). However, in terms of living standards, Belarus is falling further and further behind Poland and the Baltic countries, which were once under similar control of the Soviet empire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regime has no sustainable ideas for development, and the social contract offered to the people is quite miserable. At a meeting with villagers on September 29, \u0141uka\u0161enka could not find a better formula than this: \u201cIn order to have peace, we need to work hard.\u201d His subordinates repeat primitive Soviet slogans about dedication to labor in the name of the homeland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The notion of homeland is interpreted in the Soviet, imperial sense. Since 2020, \u0141uka\u0161enka talks a lot about \u201ca common Fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok.\u201d On September 29, D\u017amitryj Krutoj, the ambassador of Belarus to Russia, plagiarized him when talking about the need to launch a Minsk-Vladivostok flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outcasts together with Putin <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka also recalls the Soviet Union, when speaking about the prospects for import substitution and countering Western sanctions, as if now, together with Moscow and Putin, he could build a self-sufficient model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarus even posted economic growth after a radical reorientation towards Russia. However, eventually dependence on Russia becomes more and more severe, and Belarus’ sovereignty shrinks. Apparently, \u0141uka\u0161enka hopes that this shagreen skin can suffice for his lifetime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is currently better for the Belarusian ruler to become a Russian governor than to end up in The Hague court, which is what his political opponents are promising. For self-preservation, he is doing his best to destroy the symbolic remnants of the opposition in the country and lock out the opponents who fled for political reasons (strip them of passports, etc.). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, as of today the prospect of \u0141uka\u0161enka handing himself in to The Hague is uncertain. The union of the two autocrats so far looks quite strong and may last. The USSR survived for seven decades. \u0141uka\u0161enka is now openly focusing on the most severe version of the Soviet model – Stalinist-type model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, we no longer live in the industrial era, when the power of a country was measured by the amount of steel produced. Moreover, even Stalin\u2019s Soviet Union purchased factories from the USA and other \u201cdamned bourgeois.\u201d Almost all of the Soviet cars glorified by propaganda at that time were copies of Western models and were produced using foreign equipment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western world seems determined to quietly strangle the Kremlin empire by cutting it off advanced technologies. However, due to gray imports and Chinese goods, Minsk and Moscow still manage to survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two regimes may continue degrading for years. In historical terms, they will eventually lose, just like the USSR. However, for many Belarusians who would like to see their country as a European democracy, this Stalinist experiment by \u0141uka\u0161enka can become a life tragedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the recent closure of the last opposition party, there is no more legal opposition left in Belarus. Since 2020, Alexander \u0141uka\u0161enka has been building a system that is already more repressive than Soviet governments after Josef Stalin.\u00a0 Dictatorship is growing stronger  Reprisals have wiped out Belarus\u2019 opposition. This year, the authorities brought the cleansing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3426,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-3851","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s system more repressive than post-Stalin Soviet regimes | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With the recent closure of the last opposition party, there is no more legal opposition left in Belarus. 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