I would recommend three works to quickly get up to speed on Belarus and to dispel a lot of Western propaganda:
The Last Soviet Republic, by Stewart Parker (short book)
Market Socialism in Belarus: An Alternative to China’s Socialist Market Economy, by Cheng Enfu (academic study from the head of China’s Academy of Social Sciences)
The Moral Economy of Ordinary Belarusians and a Critical Examination and Re-Evaluation of the 2020 Post-Electoral Uprising, by Geoffrey Blank (academic study from an American who lived in Belarus for a few years and spent some time interrogating citizens as to their political views)
Worth noting is that despite not (openly) identifying as a Communist anymore Lukashenko still governs in coalition with the Belarusian Communists, Belarusian Communists take up key posts in the state administration, and most of the Belarusian economy remains state-owned/run and inequality is kept low, unlike in neighboring Russia.
The Belarusian-Russian relationship is also highly complex and cannot be boiled down to the typical western narratives but that’s outside the scope of this discussion; suffice to say that the narratives being pushed nowadays by the West (Lukashenko is Putin’s lapdog, Belarus is a colony of Russia, etc.) are being pushed by certain factions which have an interest in obscuring what’s really happening and blocking actual analysis of the differences between the two countries.
I just mean that he talks like your typical Soviet grandpa, clearly educated in the Soviet system and holding on to a lot of that education, while not actually being an ideologically committed communist. One moment he can say something very based, the next some boomer conservative cringe.
Ah you reminded me that I have to post something based that Lukashenko did recently where he said to the leader of the KPRF:
Welcome to the territory of a country with a socialist ideology!
(Paraphrase) People were very enthusiastic about the market offered by capitalism thinking that it will save them and that it is the best thing of the world. Now, everything is the contrary!
Can you elaborate? I have no knowledge about him at all, besides western propaganda i assume.
I would recommend three works to quickly get up to speed on Belarus and to dispel a lot of Western propaganda:
Worth noting is that despite not (openly) identifying as a Communist anymore Lukashenko still governs in coalition with the Belarusian Communists, Belarusian Communists take up key posts in the state administration, and most of the Belarusian economy remains state-owned/run and inequality is kept low, unlike in neighboring Russia.
The Belarusian-Russian relationship is also highly complex and cannot be boiled down to the typical western narratives but that’s outside the scope of this discussion; suffice to say that the narratives being pushed nowadays by the West (Lukashenko is Putin’s lapdog, Belarus is a colony of Russia, etc.) are being pushed by certain factions which have an interest in obscuring what’s really happening and blocking actual analysis of the differences between the two countries.
Thank you very much. I will add this to my reading list.
I just mean that he talks like your typical Soviet grandpa, clearly educated in the Soviet system and holding on to a lot of that education, while not actually being an ideologically committed communist. One moment he can say something very based, the next some boomer conservative cringe.
Ah you reminded me that I have to post something based that Lukashenko did recently where he said to the leader of the KPRF:
Edit! Done, here it is https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9880818 . I added the translation in the body.
The last part is what I didnt know. Thanks for elaborating. :)