Okategoriserade The Flag Revolution. Understanding the political symbols of Belarus

The protestors and officials in Belarus use different national flags. Why is the massive state-run propaganda against peaceful protests focusing on the white-red-white flag and the history of World War II? Referring to the white-red-white flag the official propaganda described the leaders of opposition as inheritors of the pro-Nazi collaborators. The fact that under this flag Belarus proclaimed its independence in 1918 and again in 1991 has been muted. In a study of political symbols of Belarus the author contributes to a more detailed understanding of the ongoing situation in the country.

Published on balticworlds.com on September 14, 2020

Long live the Belarusian spirit brave,

The bold free spirit of our nation!

White-red-and-white the banners wave

Above our fight for liberation.

Vajatski marsh (1919) – the national anthem  of the Belarusian Democratic Republic.  Fragment. English translation by Vera Rich.

Introduction

Belarus remains one of the most little-known countries in western and northern Europe. There are several reasons for this. The primary one can be ascribed to the fact that in modern times Belarus did not exist as a political entity. During this time Belarus had no sovereignty, being initially a province of Poland-Lithuania and the Russian Empire.[1] The cold war contributed to the disappearance of Belarus from the Western political and academic discourse. Very few scientific books and articles about Belarus were published in the West before 1991.[2] Despite the membership of the Belarusian SSR in the UN, Belarus was absorbed by the Soviet Union. Unlike neighboring Latvia or Lithuania, Belarus was not independent during the interwar period and had no large diaspora in Europe after 1945. Therefore, the Belarusians often considered by people outside Eastern Europe as the so called ‘white Russians’, a nation without a tradition of the statehood, native language and culture as well as political symbols. For the first in its history Belarus make headlines in global media in August 2020. The rigged elections after 25 years of authoritarian rule by President Lukashenka led to the mass protests across the country for the right to vote at free and fair elections. The international readers are fascinated of peaceful nature of the protests as well as thousands of white-red-white flags wore by protestors.

Protest in Minsk, August 2020. Photo: Radio Free Europe

The tradition to have a national flag is old. From the beginning national flags were effective medium of political messages that could be passed on to people without having to rely on a certain level of literacy.  During the era of nationalism in Europe several new political nations constructed their own flags that supposed to mobilize the movement and unite a nation around powerful political symbol. As Gabriella Elgenius pointed out in modern world the national flags continue to be used as political symbols, as tools of propaganda and control, as devices for inclusion and exclusion of different social groups within the entire nation.[3]  Why do then the protestors and officials in Belarus use different national flags? What do the white-red-white and red-green flags symbolize for the people in Belarus? Why is the police hunting the white-red-white flag? Why is the massive state-run propaganda against peaceful protests focusing on the white-red-white flag and the history of World War II? In this paper, I outline how a study of political symbols of Belarus can contribute to a more detailed understanding of the ongoing situation in the country.

Historical background

The Belarusian national movement was one of the latest in Europe that emerged after the 1905 revolution in the Russian empire. The first political party, Belarusian Socialist Party Hramada, was founded in Minsk in 1905. The first Belarusian-language newspaper was established in Vilna (nowadays Vilnius) in 1906. The first publishing houses were established in Vilna and St. Petersburg in 1906. The first history of Belarus, written by a Belarusian writer in Belarusian, was printed in 1910.[4] The first network of Belarusian-language schools was created only in 1916 in the German occupation zone.[5] The first grammar of Belarusian literary language was published in 1918. As everywhere in Europe, the students took an active part in the national awakening known in Belarusian as ‘the renaissance of a nation’ (adradziennie). In the summer of 1917, a student at the Petrograd Mining Institute Klaudzii Duzh-Dushevsky designed a white-red-white flag. Klaudzii Duzh-Dushevsky was born in 1891 in Hlybokae, Vitsebsk region, in a Roman-Catholic family of Belarusian farmers. He came to St. Petersburg (aka Petrograd) to study at the University, because there were no universities in Belarusian lands after the tsarist government closed the Jesuit Academy in Polatsk and University of Vilna. The red-white-red flag he designed was based on traditional colours of Belarusian folk dress and military banners of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. Historically, the white-red-white stripes appeared on the dress of Belarusian Orthodox bishops. The flag quickly became popular among the people and the first all-Belarusian Congress, which held in Minsk in December 1917 accepted this flag as national symbol. The congress that gathered 1872 delegates from different regions of Belarus was violently dispersed by Bolshevik military. Klaudzii Duzh-Dushevsky was one of the founders of the short-lived Belarusian Democratic republic (hereafter the BNR). The government of the republic that proclaimed its independence in Minsk on 25 March 1918 adopted the white-red-white flag as a national flag.

In 1921 after the treaty of Riga that divided Belarus between Soviet Russia and Poland Klaudzii Duzh-Dushevsky went to exile in Lithuania. Where he worked as an architect. During the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, he was arrested by the Germans for helping local Jews and therefore sent to prison. After the war he was arrested again, this time by Soviet secret police MGB, as “a Belarusian nationalist” and sent to prison. He died in the town of Kaunas in 1959.

In 1918 on the behalf of the government of the BNR Professor Mitrofan Dounar-Zapolski, wrote a work entitled The basis of Belarusian state individuality, which was published in English, German and French languages.[6] Dounar-Zapolski pointed out that both the Belarusian state emblem (Pahonia) and the white-red-white flag have deep historical roots in the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia.

In interwar Poland the white-red-white flag was adopted by different political and non-governmental organisations of Belarusian minority, apart from the Communist party. Among them, the Belarusian Student Union at Wilno University, the Association of Belarusian-language schools, the social-democratic Hramada and the Christian-Democratic party. At that time the flag was considered by Belarusians in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania as “a national flag”. However, the Communist Party of Western Belarus in Poland followed the directives of Comintern and opposed the white-red-white flag as being “burgeons”. [7]

The national flag continued to be used by civil collaborators to the Nazis, during the occupation of Belarus in 1941–1944. At that time the Soviet partisans used the red flag. During the first years of occupation the Nazis moved to Belarus several police and anti-partisan regiments recruited in the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Russia. The Belarus Police Guard (Weißruthenische Heimwehr) and the 30^th Belarusian Waffen-SS brigade were formed only in 1944, in the end of the occupation and after the final stage of the Holocaust in Belarus. The soldiers and policemen of these formations used the national flag, that at the time was the only one alternative to the red flag.

 On this occasion, Vasyl Bykau, the prominent Belarusian writer and Soviet veteran of World War II ironically noted: “It is known that Belarusian collaborators used the white-red-white flag, it is also well known that they used the pants and what? We do not have any other national flag”.[8] It should be noted that most pro-Nazi military and police forces recruited in the occupied republics of the Soviet Union and the Baltic states used their national flags. For example, a national flag of Russia (aka tricolour) was used by SS Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A, which acted in 1943–44 in Belarus and by a paramilitary pro-Nazi Union of Russian youth (Soiuz russkoi molodezhi) — the leaders of each moved in 1943 to Minsk. In the post-war West the white-red-white flag was promoted by Belarusian diaspora as the only one national flag of Belarus. In diaspora the white-red-white flag was used by different political associations, both former Waffen-SS veterans and World War II veterans of Belarusian origin who fought the Nazis in Polish formations of the British army. This situation is typical for many East European peoples.

The present-day state flag of Belarus is a modification of the Soviet Belarusian flag designed under the rule of Stalin. The concept of the history of Belarusian SSR as conceived by the Communist Party was adopted in 1948 and in 1953 a collective monography History of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was sent to print by the Institute of History at Belarusian Academic of Sciences. According to this concept a political history of Belarus began in 1919, when the Soviet government was established in Minsk. In 1922 the Belarusian SSR became one of four founders of the Soviet Union.  Under the Soviet flag Belarus doubled its territory after 1939, in result of the Reunification of Western Belarus (the official term in Belarus of what happened with Eastern Poland after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact). Under the red flag the Belarusians together with Russians and other Soviet nations defeated the Nazi Germany and successfully reconstructed the country after 1944. According to the same concept the international recognition of Belarus as a sovereign republic resulted in the UN membership.[9]  In fact, the membership of Belarusian SSR (together with Ukraine) in the UN was a result of Stalin’s diplomacy, not an initiative of the regional government in Minsk. However, as new member state of the UN they needed a flag. Until the end of the 1940s, the flag of Belarusian SSR was almost identical to the red flag of the Soviet Union. The only distinguishing feature was the abbreviated name of the republic, made in gold paint in the upper left corner.  The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet On the State Flags of the Union Republics from January 20, 1947 allowed the use of other colors and additional symbols to reflect the national character of the republics. The flag of Belarusian SSR, adopted in 1951, was designed as a compromise between communist and national symbols. The red-white-red stripes was put on the green-red background and a white and red folk ornament was put on the vertical stripe at the flag pole near the communist symbols. The flag was designed by a group of scholars and artists led by Mikhail Karcer, historian at the Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Mikalai Huseu, professional artist.  According to the 1956 statute this flag represented both Soviet and national traditions. The ornament in white and red colors was named in this document “Belarusian national ornament”.[10]  The ornament was added to a golden sickle and hammer and a red five-pointed star on the red-green background.

Two flags, one nation

The symbolic value of the white-red-white flag was kept through the post-war period by Belarusian intelligentsia as well as by the Belarusian diaspora in the West. Since 1984 this flag was promoted by the members of the first underground youth organisation Maistrounia established in Minsk. In 1988 the white-red-white flag appeared, for the first time after WWII in public at the first oppositional rally in Kurapaty. This site is the largest single mass grave in Minsk, where in 1937–41 the NKVD murdered from 10 000 to 30 000 residents of Belarus, as well as citizens of the Baltic states and Poland.[11] The peaceful demonstration was brutally dispersed by Soviet militia that confiscated the oppositional flags.  However, the discovery of the previously secret site of mass killings and selective exhumation of bodies in 1988 led to a rapid de-Sovietization of Belarusian society. The exhumation team was led by archeologist Zianon Paźniak, the leader of the Christian-conservative party and the anti-Communist movement the Belarusian Popular Front. Mr. Pazniak was the leader of the opposition to Lukashenka until 1996, when he was to leave the country for exile in the USA. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the growing public awareness of Stalin’s terror in Belarus led to the discreditation of Soviet political symbols, including the red-green flag. In 1991 after the decision of Parliament and the scientific expertise made by the Institute of History at Belarusian Academic of Sciences the white-red-white flag proclaimed to be a national flag of Belarus. As Gabriella Elgenius pointed out this is a normal praxis for many East European countries when changing of ideological regime lead to modification of old flag or adoption of a new one.[12]

Aliaksandr Lukashenka became a president of Belarus in 1994. This was the first presidential and democratic elections held in Belarus after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The result was a great victory for Lukashenka, who received 80.6 per cent of votes in the second round. The inauguration of Lukashenka was held under the national white-red-white flag and the president took the oath under this flag. However, a year after taking office, Lukashenka won a controversial referendum that gave him the power to dissolve the parliament. In 1996, he won another referendum that dramatically increased his authoritarian power and allowed him to rule the country in an authoritarian way for the next 25 years. In 1995 the white-red-white flag was replaced by a red-green flag with a certain modification. From this moment the white-red-white flag became a symbol of democratic opposition and was visible at all actions of protests. The authorities started to term a white-red-white flag “illegal symbolic” and ordered police to arrest people who wore the flag, or put it on their private balcony.  The main headline of the non-governmental media in 1995 was news about “Miron”.  This was a nickname of an unknown person, who settled white-red-white flags on top of towers and high buildings across the country. In July 1995 the large white-red-white flag was settled by Miron over the 40-meters factory chimney in Liozno near Vitsebsk – a home town of Marc Chagall. A note was attached to the flag: “Return memory to the people! Miron.” This was the beginning. Between 1995–2010 Miron settled dozens of white-red-white flags across the country. The political performance was supported by young followers. For over 15 years the police and KGB hunted Miron.  In 2010 he was arrested after the installation of a white-red-white flag on top of main Christmas tree in Vitsebsk. Miron turned out to be Siarhei Kavalenka, an ordinary construction worker. The court gave him three years of suspended sentence for ‘illegal activity’. In 2014 Mr. Kavalenka was arrested again and this time sentenced to prison.[13] However the appurtenance of white-red-white flags in public space continued and many resources within the police and KGB was sent to hunt this flagging.

The current design of Belarusian red-green state flag was introduced in 1995. The communist symbols were removed as well as white-red-white stripes along the national ornament.

The official propaganda promoted this flag as a symbol of great Soviet history and even more over the great life under Lukashenka. In fact, also the red-green flag has a dark history behind it. Under this flag the Stalinist regime implemented a forced collectivisation in Western Belarus (prior 1939 a part of Poland). Thousands of people in the countryside were to leave their farms and resettle by force in new-established kolkhozes, some of them were sent to the Gulag.  Under this flag the security police destroyed the patriotic youth organisations in Western Belarus and last detachments of anti-Soviet partisans. Therefore, in the beginning this flag was associated for many Belarusians with mass violence and political repressions. It is interesting to note that the designer of the 1951 flag, Mikalai Huseu, worked as an artist for the Nazis during the occupation of Minsk, for which he was sentenced four years in prison. However, for young generations that grew up under the long-term rule of Lukashenka, the red-green flag became the national flag. Under this flag national teams won international competitions. Under this flag official holidays and ceremonies were held in Belarus. Since the middle of the 1990s the state flag, court of arms and portrait of Lukashenka was put in each classroom, military barracks and administrative offices of Belarus.  As a result, the normalisation of the red-green flag took place.

The administrative persecution of people with a white-red-white flag led to the next phenomena.  Since the beginning of the 21^st century the national flag began to be associated with anti-Lukashenka democratic opposition only. Referring to the white-red-white flag the official propaganda described the leaders of opposition as inheritors of the pro-Nazi collaborators. The fact that under this flag Belarus proclaimed its independence in 1918 and again in 1991 has been muted.  The use of the memory of World War II by propaganda was not by accident. The Nazi occupation was the biggest disaster ever experienced by the civilian population of Belarus. According to the historian Per Anders Rudling, World War II in particular became a foundation for the creation of modern Belarusian identity. As a matter of fact, there is no historical event with greater influence on today’s Belarus.[14] Lukashenka’s nation-building project is based in great measure on the memory of World War II. Exploiting the mythology of the war and the occupation, certainly has a practical political significance for the regime. This is not only by claiming a special place for Lukashenka as the last defender of Europe against the Nazism, but also supporting the myth that the democratic opposition is ‘heirs’ of the Nazis and ‘servants’ of the West. Speaking in 2010 at a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the victory in World War II, Lukashenka noted:

The Great Victory is sacrosanct for every Belarusian. And even if a bunch of such rogues exist [democratic opposition], who like the idea of ‘an independent Belarus in the new Europe of Adolph Hitler’, we know them. We know in whose service their idols were during the Great Patriotic War, and we fully understand whose lackeys they are now.[15]

Unlike many other East European countries, the Lukashenka’s regime politically marginalizes such ethnic referents of Belarusians like native language and national history and instead based the national building on an idealized past of Soviet unity.[16] Since 1995 the country has two official languages: Belarusian and Russian. However, the officials and stat-run media use mostly Russian and the opposition and independent newspapers and digital resources Belarusian. Therefore, the white-red-white flag as ‘anti-Soviet and nationalistic’ is described in negative terms only, and the narrative of the red-green flag avoids any references to the dark pages of its history.[17] The ornament of the state flag was designed in 1917 by Matrona Markevich (nee Katser) a sister of Mikhail Karcer. Her husband Aliaksei was arrested by the NKVD during the Great Terror, murdered without trial and buried in an unmarked mass grave. The family found out about this only in 1986. Today the relatives of Ms. Markevich visit both a monument devoted to the red-green flag, which was erected in her hometown Sianno, and a mass grave of the victims of Soviet terror at Kabylitskaia Hara.[18]

The Flag Revolution

The political symbolism of the white-red-white flag illustrates the rule of law that existed in independent Belarus in 1991–1995 before Alexander Lukashenka taking office. The white-red-white flag is also symbolizing the peaceful heritage of the BNR that was destroyed by military forces of Soviet Russia and Poland that divided Belarus in 1921. Mass oppositional celebrating of the 100-anniversary of the BNR in Minsk in March 2018 was a strong showcasing of the fundamental principles of democracy violated by Lukashenka’s regime. For decades official media constructed an iconic image of the red-green flag as a symbol of stability and prosperity. August 2020 changed this picture dramatically and this flag became a symbol of state-run mass violence. At the same time, the regime played with existed contradiction around the flags in order to divide the society and spark off the conflicts. On the next day after the brutal police repressions against protesters a red-green flag was settled on all police vans and prison tracks in Minsk.

The official mass media that monopolized all TV-channels in Belarus and dominated periodicals began a massive propaganda campaign against the white-red-white flag, and blamed it in the Nazi connection. According to the propagandists “under this flag the Nazis and their collaborators burned the population of Katyn and other Belarusian villages”.[19] In fact, the population of Khatyn, a Catholic village near Minsk was almost fully exterminated in 1943 by  German Dirlewanger SS special battalion and Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118, which was consisted of Ukrainian nationalists and Soviet POWs.[20] These detachments never used a Belarusian national flag. The national memorial was opened in Khatyn in 1969 and the former policemen of Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 was tried in a Soviet court in Minsk and executed in 1975 and 1986. Khatyn is a symbol of mass killings of the Slavic civilian population by the Nazis and a site of memory known to every Belarusian person.

On August 20, 2020, the country’s main state TV channel showed a reportage with Viacheslau Danilovich, the director of the Institute of History at Belarusian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Danilovich stated that the use of the white-red-white flag is absolutely impossible, since it is the flag of collaborators who sought to create a fascist state under Hitler’s protectorate.[21] On August 21, dozens of professional historians, including those from the Institute of History, published an open letter to Mr. Danilovich under the remarkable title Danilovich is lying and this is an act of immorality. In the letter the historians once again tell about the origin of the national flag in the beginning of the 20^th century and pointed out that everywhere a national flag had been used by different political forces. [22] On August 23, the Minister of Defense of Belarus Viktor Khrenin made a statement on the history of the white-red-white flag. According to General Khrenin:

Today we cannot calmly watch the actions under these [white-red-white] flags, under which the Nazis organized mass killings of Belarusians, Russians and Jews, representatives of other nationalities. The mass actions are held near our sacred places, the memorials of Great Patriotic war. We cannot allow this to happen. I categorically warn you that in case of violation of order in these places, you will not deal with the police, but with the Army.[23]

In this speech incorrect references to the past of a national flag work as a tool for propaganda and control that legitimate illegal actions of Belarusian army against the civil population of Minsk.  In response people began in masse to sew white-red-white flags. It should be noted that it is practically impossible to buy white-red-white flags in Belarus, and covid-19 pandemic stopped international commerce via digital shops. On September 6, the media reported that stores with state capital stopped selling white and red fabric.[24] People were to be more creative. Hundreds of flags were settled on the high building in many cities of Belarus. When police and emergency service forcibly remove such flag, the people started to design them from hundreds of stripes that complicated “the work” for police.

Women are playing  the major role in the Belarus revolution. Every Saturday they organise Women’s March protesting against the dictatorship and police brutality. They developed the creative way of thinking further, many of them began to dress in red and white dresses, using red and white jewellry and umbrellas.

The reaction of police was aggressive, and many women were arrested just because of dressing with red and white colours.[25]

Conclusion

The hunting of the white-red-white flag illustrates an ongoing collapse of the dialog between the state and civil society. Unlike the revolutionary events in Georgia and Ukraine, the demonstrators in Minsk practically do not use the flag of the European Union and do not arrange actions against the political symbols of Russia. Moreover, the flag of Russia is presenting at opposition marches. Many of anti-Lukashenka protestors use both the white-red-white and red-green flags.

 

References

[1] Kotljarchuk, Andrej, “Understanding the geography of Belarus”, Baltic Worlds, 2019, 12:1, 73-74, online: http://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1366725/FULLTEXT02.pdf

[2] See as example: Vakar, Nicholas,  Belorussia: the making of a nation: a case study, Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1956; Lubachko, Ivan S., Belorussia under Soviet rule 1917-1957, Univ. Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 1972; The first academic work about Belarus written by Swedish scholar was published in 1997, see: Törnquist-Plewa, Barbara, Språk och identitet i Vitryssland: en studie i den vitryska nationalismens historia, Lund, Slaviska institutionen, 1997.

[3] Elgenius, Gabriella, Symbols of nations and nationalism: celebrating nationhood, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2011, 59–60.

[4] Ластоўскі, Вацлаў, Кароткая гісторыя Беларусі, Вільня, 1910.

[5] Michaluk, Dorota & Rudling, Per. A., “From the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to the Belarusian Democratic Republic: the Idea of Belarusian Statehood during the German Occupation of Belarusian Lands, 1915-1919”, The Journal of Belarusian Studies, 2014:7, 3–36.

[6] Dounar-Zapolski, Mitrafan, The basis of White Russia’s state individuality, Hrodna,1919.

[7] Вашкевіч, Андрэй, ”Нашы сцягі над Заходняй”,  Arche, 2007:4 ,  78–90.

[8] Cited in: Сяргей Шапран, “’Іншага сцяга ў нас няма’. Што гаварылі пра бел-чырвона-белы сцяг Васіль Быкаў, Рыгор Барадулін і Генадзь Бураўкін”,  Новы Час, 28 August 2020.

[9] История Белорусской ССР, ред. В. Н. Перцев, К. И. Шабуня, Л. С. Абецедарский. Минск. 1954.

[10] Указ от 8 мая 1956 года ”Об утверждении Положения о Государственном флаге Белорусской ССР”,  Сборник законов Белорусской ССР и указов Президиума Верховного Совета Белорусской ССР. 1938-1973 гг. Минск, Беларусь, 1974, 30–31.

[11] Kotljarchuk, Andrej, “World War II Memory Politics: Jewish, Polish and Roma Minorities of Belarus”, The Journal of Belarusian Studies, 2013:1, 7–40, online: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:749121/FULLTEXT02.pdf

Дюков, Александр, ”К вопросу о численности расстрелянных органами НКВД в Куропатах”, Международнная жизнь, 2017:7, online: https://interaffairs.ru/jauthor/material/1890

[12] Elgenius, Gabriella, Symbols of nations and nationalism, 61.

[13] Печанко, Сямён, ”Мірон. Легенда”, Наша Ніва, 13 January 2010.

[14] Rudling, Per. A., “Lukashenka and the ‘Red-Browns’: National ideology, Commemoration of the Past, and Political Belonging”, Forum für Osteuropäische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte, 2010:15, 95–125.

[15] Lukashenka, Aliaksandr, 2010. Stenograma vystupleniia na torzhestvennom sobranii, posviashchennom 65-oi godovshchine Velikoi Pobedy, 7 May  2010, online: http://news.tut.by/press88741.html  [accessed 28 January 2020].

[16] Zakharov, Nikolay, & Lastouski, Aliaksei, “Belarus – Another ‘Iceberg Society’?: Class, Memory, Nation-Building and State-formation in European Modernity”, Class, Sex and Revolutions: Göran Therborn – a critical appraisal, edited by Gunnar Olofsson and Sven Hort, Lund: Arkiv förlag & tidskrift, 2016, 168 (155–183).

[17] On the National Day, 3 July 2015 the leading official newspaper SB-Belarus Segodnia published a pathetic article about Matrena Markevich and the erection of the monument in Sianno. The tragic fate of her husband was not mentioned. See: Голесник, Сергей. ”В Сенно открыли памятник Матрене Маркевич, автору орнамента белорусского флага”, СБ-Беларусь Сегодня, 3 July 2015, online: https://www.sb.by/articles/v-senno-otkryli-pamyatnik-matrene-markevich.html

[18] Вярбіцкі, Ян, ”Матрона Маркевіч – аўтарка арнаменту на дзяржаўным сцягу Беларусі і жонка ’ворага народу’”, Belsat TV,12 August 2019, online: https://belsat.eu/in-focus/matrona-markevich-autarka-arnamentu-na-dzyarzhaunym-stsyagu-belarusi-i-zhonka-voraga-narodu

[19] Винокуров, Александр, “У белорусов есть большой исторический счет к нелюдям, которые под бчб-флагом, погоней и свастикой с особым рвением уничтожали нас в годы Великой Отечественной войны”, Беларусь Сегодня 10 September 2020,. Online: https://www.sb.by/articles/u-belorusov-est-bolshoy-istoricheskiy-schet-k-nelyudyam-kotorye-pod-bchb-flagom-pogoney-i-svastikoy-.html

[20] Rudling, Per. A., “Terror and Local Collaboration in Occupied Belarus: The case of Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118. Part Two. War Criminality”,  Historical Yearbook, 2012, 99–121

[21] “Дырэктар Інстытута гісторыі: Пад бел-чырвона-белым сцягам апрыёры рухаюцца да знешняга пратэктарату”, Наша Ніва, 21 August 2020, online: https://nashaniva.by/?c=ar&i=257527

[22] ”Даніловіч хлусіць, гэта антымаральны ўчынак: адказ гісторыкаў дырэктару Інстытута гісторыі”, Наша Ніва, 21 August 2020, online: https://nashaniva.by/?c=ar&i=257595

[23] “Хрэнін: У выпадку парушэння парадку ў святых месцах пратэстоўцы будуць мець справу з арміяй”, Звязда, 23 August 2020, online: http://zviazda.by/be/news/20200823/1598183433-hrenin-u-vypadku-parushennya-paradku-u-svyatyh-mescah-pratestoucy-buduc-mec

[24] ”Дзяржаўныя крамы не прадаюць людзям белую і чырвоную тканіну”,  Новы Час,  6 September 2020.

[25] ”Пятніца, 28 жніўня. Хроніка пераследу і суды”, Viasna, 28 August 2020, online: http://spring96.org/be/news/99272

 

Andrej Kotljarchuk