Themes in Belarusian national thought: the origins, emergence and development of the Belarusian "national idea"

ENViewed in a comparative context, the post-Soviet ‘nation-building’ process in Belarus appears to have lagged seriously behind those of its immediate neighbours - Poland, the Baltic states and, to a lesser degree, Ukraine. This dissertation attempts to account for this lag by investigating the question of Belarusian national self-consciousness and identity within the rubric of what is defined as the Belarusian ‘national idea’. A conceptual framework emphasizing the ‘mythical’, ‘synthesized’, ‘contested’, and ‘structured’ character of the ‘national idea’, as well as the basic stages in its development, is used to paint the picture of a profound Belarusian identity crisis deeply-rooted in history. Using a variety of sources in the Belarusian, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian and English languages, it is shown how the Belarusian ‘national idea’ emerged in the 19th century deriving from a complex and fluctuating ‘synthesis’ of ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ cultural, philosophical, religious and political influences. Although pre-dating the Soviet period, the legacy of ‘Sovietization,’ while in some respects having created the necessary pre-conditions for the existence of a modem Belarusian state, appears nonetheless as the major cause of this crisis typified by a pronounced and widespread national nihilism within Belarusian society today. This crisis is compounded by the current policies of the political regime of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka (elected in July 1994) who has consciously obstructed the effort begun in the early 1990s to return the ‘national idea’ to Belarusian society. Although grave, the dissertation concludes that there are modest grounds for long-term optimism concerning the future of the Belarusian identity.This is founded on several key defining elements of the Belarusian ‘national idea’ itself: deeply-rooted traditions of tolerance, respect and democratism within Belarusian national thought; the fret that Belarusians themselves define their national identity primarily in political and not ethno-linguistic terms; a deeply-engrained ‘confederal’ dimension in accordance with which Belarusian nationalism has been of an integrative variety seeking the federalization and democratization of existing states as opposed to secession; finally, notwithstanding the historical strength of Russophilic tendencies in Belarusian national thought, the existence of a significant constituency of support for the idea of Belarusian ‘belongingness’ to Europe today among younger generation Belarusians.