Uladzimir Matskevich: Sovietism is in the head of every Belarusan

photo by bnp.by

It is through establishment of sound nationalism that identification of ourselves as an adult nation responsible for our own fate happens.

On November 28 an international conference “Post-communist transformations: rethinking programs of democratic transit” took place in Minsk, gathering together experts on the matters of transformation processes from Germany, Latvia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Belarus.

What reason lies in some countries’ resistance to the transformation processes in the XXI century? The researchers focused on reflecting the processes of democratic transformations and spreading the standards of the European model of democracy in the countries of the former communist block.

Belarus has a special place at the post-Soviet area: it is still called a communist conservancy area, though it is now more that 20 years since the Soviet Union was dissolved – the whole era has passed. Sociologists state that the Belarusan society today is made of Soviet people by two thirds.

Why are we stuck in the Soviet Union? How much are Belarusans dependent on the Soviet past? How can we treat this dependence? “EuroBelarus” Information Service decided to search the answers to these questions together with Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”.

- Belarus is now called the last communist conservancy area, though 23 years have passed since the Soviet Union dissolved. What features indicate “Sovietism” of the Belarusan society?

- First of all, social and political structure of the country indicates that. Then comes the content of study programs, content of education, approach to knowledge, and the situation with the humanities. All the other features basically result from the first two.

-  How deep is Belarus buried in the Soviet past?

- Many observers and experts say that Belarusans were the most Sovietized people in the USSR. And it is because of that why Belarusans find it hard to overcome the consequences of Sovietization.

- Sociologists assume that about 65 per cent of the Belarusan society is made of Soviet people. There is no iron curtain any longer; Belarusans can freely go abroad and compare Western life with Belarusan, and this comparison is clearly not the benefit of Belarus. What makes us cling to the archaic past instead of changing our life for the better?

- It is impossible to count the exact number of Soviet and non-Soviet people; we can rather talk about a certain amount of Sovietism in everyone and in the society in general. Sovietism is revealed in the semiotics, i.e. in the way we fill our life with signs: in architecture, for instance, in Soviet residential areas built around industrial plants.

Belarusan cities remain being Soviet. Even Minsk, the biggest and the fastest growing city is Soviet-like: we still see residential areas that supply industrial plants in downtown Minsk. The infrastructure is not adapted to the development of city life; and what is worse, the society doesn’t seems to need the development of city life and urban environment.

It doesn’t matter where we go, what TV programs we watch; everything depends on what we want from ourselves, from the city, from the society. Sacralization of power is also a Soviet feature, as well as constant waiting for improvement of our material situation from the authorities – we put all our hopes on the authorities. We don’t expect the executive authorities to be limited by legislative or judicial authority; we live in expectations that the court will be afraid of the president and make just decisions. We blame the authorities for prices’ growth, or think that the authorities are able to bring them down.

The situation in the society is characterized by Soviet approach to everything.

- The further we move away from the USSR, the less Soviet we become. How can we stop being dependent on the Soviet past?

- Changes in the society are not only related to the disruption of the former institutes or social order that came from the Soviet past, but also with the realization that we are Belarusans – a united people, we are independent and responsible for our own fate.

It is through establishment of sound nationalism that identification of ourselves as an adult nation responsible for our own fate happens. It means that people make all the important decisions about themselves independently, without thinking about authorities, Moscow, the EU, or whoever else. Acquiring self-identity and responsibility for one’s own fate is an integral part of the national growth.

We can name three most important periods of nation formation: desovietization with simultaneous Belarusization, acquiring identity, and the last stage – Europeanization, I.e. Belarus’ inclusion in the family of European nations. It is needed for Belarusans in order not to mingle in European nations, as it has almost happened in the melting pot of the Soviet Union where a “new historical unity of people – Soviet nation – was created”, as it was stated in the decisions of the C.P.S.U. conventions and in the theories of social sciences at that time. It is needed for entering the united family of the European nations as a nation with equal rights instead; a nation equal to the Germans, the French, and the Italians.

Acquisition of identity, recognizing ourselves a nation and recognizing responsibility for our fate is the required condition for give positive interpretation of the disruption of the Soviet past, which lies in building the civic nation, And this civic nation consists from Belarusan citizens regardless of their ethnical origin, religion or political stance. Our nation includes all citizens of Belarus, not people born from Belarusans. One can become subject of the state by birth, but one only becomes a citizen consciously; civil thinking can and should be learned and worked upon.