Natallia Radzina's Article About Collapse Of Russia And De-Occupation Of Belarus Becomes The Most Popular On Gordon Ukrainian Website
- 9.10.2024, 14:43
A resonant speech by the Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website.
On October 4-5, the 13th Forum of Free Russia was held in Vilnius. Natallia Radzina, the Editor-in-Chief of Charter97.org, took part in the panel entitled “Infinite Empire: Decolonization Real Or Not”. She spoke about the European roots of the Belarusian people, the Russian occupation and named two possible scenarios for the liberation of Belarus.
Natallia Radzina's speech had a great resonance. Its text was reprinted by the Gordon website. The speech of the Belarusian journalist takes the first place in the category "Most Popular" on this Ukrainian website. We repeat it for our readers:
— I would not talk about decolonization, but about de-occupation. After all, Belarus has been under the occupation of the Russian Empire for more than 200 years.
Russian official historiography blatantly and shamelessly lies. Therefore, most Russians believe that since the end of the ice age, Belarusians have only dreamed of reuniting with "Mother Russia". For this reason, I will briefly recall the historical facts.
Belarus is a historically European country. The history of Belarusian statehood begins with the Principality of Polatsk — the state of the Kryvichy on the "Path from the Varangians to the Greeks", which in the 10th century was ruled by the first known prince Rahvalod. And Polatsk of the 5th century is mentioned in the Varangian chronicles — the famous "Acts of the Danes".
Since the 13th century, the territory of Belarus has become part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) — one of the largest state associations of that time. The Belarusian nation was formed within the GDL on the basis of a mixture of Slavic and Baltic tribes.
We're not brothers at all. For 300 years, from the middle of the 14th to the second half of the 17th century, 12 full-scale wars took place between the Principality of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Except for constant civil strife and border conflicts.
In Soviet times, it was argued that during the Second World War Belarus lost every fourth inhabitant, but few people know that during the war of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with Muscovy in 1654-1668, every second inhabitant died on the territory of our country, and in the eastern part of it more than 80 percent of the population were killed, died of diseases or were taken into slavery to the East.
In the 16th century, in order to protect the eastern lands of the principality from the Moscow state, the Kingdom of Poland was united into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth — the Republic of Both Peoples. It was a confederate entity, where the Grand Duchy of Lithuania retained all the institutions of statehood, including the army, legislation, self-government bodies, the court, the monetary system, and so on.
At the end of the 18th century, Russia seized the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by force of arms and money (meaning the infamous "three partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth"). By order of the Russian tsars, we, the Litvins, were renamed Belarusians and turned from Uniates into Orthodox.
And then — for more than 200 years — first in the Russian Empire, then in the USSR — they tried to destroy the Belarusians as a nation.
Numerous uprisings were suppressed, which were carried out by Belarusians together with Poles and Lithuanians in the occupied territories. In 1918, the Bolsheviks suppressed the attempt of the Belarusians to create an independent state — the Belarusian People's Republic.
Our culture and language were destroyed, the best representatives of the national intelligentsia, writers, poets, artists, musicians were killed. They destroyed the national elite, including the best managers, economists and politicians. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were deported to Siberia, where they died. Among them were my ancestors, who were "dispossessed", that is, robbed, and then sent to die in Russia.
Yes, in 1991 Belarus gained independence. However, the coming to power of dictator Lukashenka in 1994 practically stopped the process of building a truly independent national state.
Lukashenka paid for cheap oil and gas with independence and Russification. There is not a single Belarusian-speaking university in the country, there are practically no Belarusian-speaking schools left, the number of hours of teaching subjects in the native language in schools is scanty. All state media, including TV channels, are Russian-speaking. The history taught in schools and universities is falsified to please Russia. Many historians and writers have been declared extremists, imprisoned or exiled.
In political, military, and economic terms, Belarus is dependent on Russia, but 2020 mass protests showed that the nation is alive. People took to the streets (about a million people across the country) with historical national symbols — White-Red-White flags and Pahonia coat of arms. Belarusians declared their desire for freedom and independence.
Yes, with the support of the Kremlin, Lukashenka managed to suppress the national uprising. But the main thing happened — the whole world saw that Belarusians are a European nation, Belarus is not part of Russia.
And now I will talk about how I see the liberation of Belarus. I am sure that the current backward Russia will inevitably lose the war it is waging against Ukraine. Perhaps this is Russia's last throw to the West. In the future, Russia will face inevitable defeat and, probably, disintegration.
And for us, Belarusians, this will be a historic chance.
Let's recall what happened on the eve of 1991. In parallel with the collapse of the USSR, the socialist bloc collapsed. Since 1989, there has been a massive fall of communist regimes in Eastern Europe: a round table and free elections in Poland, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia, the liberation of Hungary and Bulgaria, the execution of dictator Ceausescu in Romania.
The same thing will happen to us. I am sure that as soon as the destructive processes in Russia intensify, changes in Belarus will inevitably begin.
I think there will be several scenarios:
— through mass popular protest;
— through a coup be establishment (possibly with a mass protests).
We remember how quickly the Soviet establishment "rolled over" in 1990-1991 and proclaimed themselves to be democrats. The same will happen this time. For them, this is a matter of survival, today's Belarusian officials do not want to join Russia. And tomorrow they will very quickly stand under the White-Red-White flags.
The problem that the new Belarusian government may face, which will have to include political prisoners who will leave prisons, and representatives of emigration and part of the nomenklatura, is resistance from some of the law enforcement agencies that turned into gangs under Lukashenko. It is they who in recent years have been committing crimes against humanity, of which the regime is accused.
In this case, the new coalition government of Belarus can invite international peacekeeping forces under the auspices of NATO and the UN to the country to ensure law and order and stability. This can be a force under the conditional name BYFOR, following the example of KFOR — an international force led by NATO, responsible for ensuring stability in Kosovo. The KFOR force was established in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution.
Exactly the same peacekeeping forces under the name BYFOR can be invited to Belarus.
Then our path is clear. We must immediately withdraw from the "union state", the CSTO, the EAEU, the CIS and declare our desire to join the European Union and NATO. Even a neutral status in our case is impossible and will inevitably lead to the continuation of Russian influence and occupation. This should be avoided at all costs. Therefore, the future of Belarus lies only in the EU and NATO.