Belarus in the 21st century between dictatorship and democracy

The collective monograph “Belarus in the 21st Century: Between Dictatorship and Democracy” was published in 2023 in English in London. This book claims to be a comprehensive overview of recent events in Belarus. Its authors explore why and how the people rose up for the idea that Belarus should change. It shows how the old regime, eager to preserve the Soviet legacy, reluctant to reform, and slow to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, faced a surge in public mobilization — both vertical (bottom-up) and horizontal — against the backdrop of deteriorating economic conditions. Participants in this movement demanded a transformation of the relationship between the state and society, developing a new understanding of Belarusian popular subjectivity.

The book outlines the course of recent events. The authors, weighing how deeply rooted the current demands for change are in society and how promising they are, describe in detail various aspects of public mobilization. Overall, the book proves that although the old regime persists, Belarusian society has changed fundamentally, and this gives hope that change will eventually happen.
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I urge you to read this book not just as a scientific treatise — I recommend that you familiarize yourself with it through a personal lens. Many of the authors and respondents interviewed for the book were forced to leave the country. Many are unable to return home, some were arrested. In addition to their scientific work, they can also share details of their personal biographies. Over the past two years, I have learned a great lesson: “national subjectivity” […] is formed from thousands of such small human stories. Our duty is to preserve them, reflect on them, and build our identity on them, and this book helps us do just that. — Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya

Contents
Authors
Introduction
Political symbols and interpretation of statehood in the modern history of Belarus
Andrei Katlyarchuk, Andrei Radoman, Elena Sinitsyna
The "Genocide of Belarusians" and the Survival of the Lukashenko Regime
David R. Marples, Veronika Laputska
The Soviet Roots of the 2020 Protests: An Unusual History of Belarusian Nationalism
Natalia Chernyshova
Are the foreign policy views of Belarusian protesters in 2020 traditional "in-betweenness"?
Huawei Zheng
Stolen Decades: Unfulfilled Expectations from the Belarusian “Economic Miracle”
Ales Alakhnovich, Yulia Karastsyalyova
COVID-19 in Belarus: politics, protests and healthcare
Christopher Gehry, Cora Newman
The Belarusian law enforcement system: what we can learn from Georgia and Ukraine's struggle for independent justice
Lyudmila D'Cruz, Lyudmila Kazak, Pavel Kuryan
Belarusian legislation as an agent of change
Thomas Krusman, Anna S. Social movements and political changes in Belarus in 2020 and beyond
Tatiana Chulitskaya, Elinar Bindman
Public self-organization in Belarus after 2020: the rise of popular subjectivity
Elena Karasteleva, Irina Petrova
How was national subjectivity tempered in Belarus and Ukraine: a comparative study
Anastasia KudlenkoWhere is Belarus going?
Viktor Shadursky

Investor

Elena Karastyalyova is a professor of political science and global sustainable development, and director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) at the University of Warwick in the UK.
Irina Petrova is an associate professor at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College London.
Nastassja Kudlenko is a researcher at the Institute for Global Sustainability at the University of Warwick in the UK.