Belarusian Generation Y logbook

Today Belarusians are celebrating the 90th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR). Although this is not an official holiday, people still celebrate it and remember it as an important date of national history. This day is traditionally commemorated through a big street action and a meeting in the center of Minsk. This year’s 25th of March is celebrated with particular enthusiasm because of its big date – the 90th anniversary, as events associated to Belarus are held not only inside the country but also abroad.

The proclamation of BNR was a very important moment in the history of Belarus, as it marked the cornerstone for the foundation of the independent state of Belarus.

For the democratic movement in Belarus during the Soviet era, the BNR was an ideal to struggle for – i.e. an independent and democratic Belarusian state without communism and soviet-Russian rule. At the beginning of the 90’s this was finally possible to attain, and that is also why the symbols of Belarus during the first years after the collapse of the USSR were the ones of the BNR: red-white-red flag and the coat of arms with a knight on a horse. In 1995, however, President Lukashenka reinstated the old soviet symbols.

The Belarusian People’s Republic (Belaruskaya Narodnaya Respublika) was an independent Belarusian state, which declared independence in 1918. It is also called the Belarusian National Republic, in order to distinguish it from communist People’s Republics, and the current BNR Rada refers to it as Belarusian Democratic Republic. The BNR was not recognized by the majority of other states, and ceased to exist as Belarus was taken under Soviets control. The foundation of the Belorussian SSR followed in 1919, as the BNR authorities formed a government in exile.

Similar governments-in-exile of the neighboring countries (Lithuania, Poland and others) handed back their “authorities” to the corresponding independent governments in the 1990s, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The BNR council has not done this because it views the current Belarusian government of president Alexander Lukashenka as an anti-Belarusian, anti-independence, and an anti-democratic power.

Ivonka Survila, the President of the BNR Government in Exile since 1997, spoke to Generation.by at the conference in Prague last weekend, and said:

It has become a tradition that on March 25th people go out to celebrate Dzien voli that can be translated from Belarusian both as ‘Freedom Day’ and ‘Day of Strong Will’. Together with April 26th, the day when Chernobyl power station exploded in 1986, this holiday gives an agenda for Belarusian people to protest against the dictatorship rule in the country. The actions of police become more and more brutal each year. Today’s action is already over and the estimations and analysis are yet to come. But all bloggers and journalists report that this year the police were especially brutal, beating up and detaining everyone they could catch, including journalists.