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Nanovic Institute for European Studies
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higher than the USSR-wide average.11 Organic desire from citizens in the BSSR to form a sovereign Belarusian state simply was not a major force driving Belarusian independence unlike most of the other USSR constituents. Belarus did eventually gain sovereignty, but it was not the direct result of a cohesive anti-USSR sentiment from Belarusians. Interestingly, the Belarusian Communists were the ones who proposed official Belarusian independence. On July 27, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of Belarus enacted a Declaration of Belarusian State Sovereignty. One year later, the leaders of Russian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics met with the new leader of Belarus, Stanislav Shushkevich, to promulgate the Belavezha Accords, signed in December 1991. These accords officially declared the dissolution of the USSR. While Belarus’s signing of these accords may seem like a proactive move for Belarusian independence, in reality, the state was following the decision made by the much more politically powerful entities of Russia and Ukraine.12 The fall of the Soviet Union in Belarus came not as a shout but as a whisper, and leaders in the new country of Belarus failed to effect any meaningful changes to transition the country from its Soviet past. The lack of a distinct, non-Soviet national Belarusian identity as well as political polarization and government inaction after the Union’s fall left a vacuum of power at the dawn of independence.
2. Post-Soviet Belarusian Politics: The Rise of Lukashenko Alexander Lukashenko has dominated Belarusian politics since he rose through the ranks of the Belarusian government, an ascent made possible by the power vacuum following the fall 11 12
Wilson, “Politics Either Side of Independence,” 150. Savchenko, “Borderland Forever,” 156, 158.
University of Notre Dame | Keough School of Global Affairs
