Iryna Ramanava
Professor of History at the European Humanities University (Vilnius), Head of the Center for Belarus and Regional Studies (EHU)
Iryna Ramanava holds a Ph.D. from Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Her research explores the relationship between authority and society in the period of Stalinism and in the years after it, Politics of Memory. She has been a visiting fellow at the Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (University of California, Berkeley), La Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (L'ecole hautes etudes de sciences sociales, France, Paris). She was a visiting professor at the Le Centre et le Département d'histoire, à Sciences Po (Paris), a visiting professor at Justus Liebig University in Giessen (2021-2024).
The Genocide of the Belarusian People:
A Useful Concept for the Regime
A Useful Concept for the Regime
On the seven of April 2021, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus opened a criminal case on the Genocide of the Belarusian people through mass murder, destruction of settlements along with their inhabitants, deportation to forced labor, creation of concentration camps and death camps during the Second World War (or Great Patriotic war, as it is still called in Belarus and Russia). In the country began a large-scale questioning of witnesses1. Prosecutor General Andrei Shved became one of the main spokespersons and actors of the politics of memory who actually led this work. The result of this investigation should be an appeal to international organizations to make them recognize the genocide of the Belarusian people.
Questions arise: What was the reason that, after almost 80 years, the authorities again updated the consequences of the Second World War for Belarus? To what extent is the new investigation into material damage and the number of victims based on materials and approaches from the previous period, what is new? Why did the concept of genocide appear now and how do authorities use this concept? What are the "Belarusian" people in this concept? How the topic of Holocaust will be present in Belarus, given that so far it has appeared in public space only within the framework of European projects but today it is impossible.
On the one hand, the opening of this criminal case in 2022 can be explained as attempts of the Belarusian official authorities to respond to external and internal situation for regime (mass protests, confrontation with the West, Russian war in Ukraine). The recognition of the genocide by international organizations will probably mean for the authorities а moral victory over the West and their sanctions against regime. On the other hand, drawing parallels between opponents of the regime and collaborators of the Second World War allows to discredit opponents and their symbols and the protest movement itself, justifies the need for repression. Undoubtedly, this is also an attempt to find ideological justifications for uniting Belarusians around the ruling regime.
Questions that remain: The new investigation is largely based on materials from the activities of the Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), which began its work during the war and continued after the war. However, researchers rightly question her data. The secrecy of work former new commission, on the one hand, does not allow them to be trusted, and on the other hand, analysis of these data is impossible for researchers today both due to their lack of involvement in the work and in the case of dispute some results they may be accused of denying the genocide of the Belarusian people.
1. Закон Республики Беларусь от 5 января 2022 года № 146-З "О геноциде белорусского народа" Pravo.by, дата обращения 23.07.2022
Questions arise: What was the reason that, after almost 80 years, the authorities again updated the consequences of the Second World War for Belarus? To what extent is the new investigation into material damage and the number of victims based on materials and approaches from the previous period, what is new? Why did the concept of genocide appear now and how do authorities use this concept? What are the "Belarusian" people in this concept? How the topic of Holocaust will be present in Belarus, given that so far it has appeared in public space only within the framework of European projects but today it is impossible.
On the one hand, the opening of this criminal case in 2022 can be explained as attempts of the Belarusian official authorities to respond to external and internal situation for regime (mass protests, confrontation with the West, Russian war in Ukraine). The recognition of the genocide by international organizations will probably mean for the authorities а moral victory over the West and their sanctions against regime. On the other hand, drawing parallels between opponents of the regime and collaborators of the Second World War allows to discredit opponents and their symbols and the protest movement itself, justifies the need for repression. Undoubtedly, this is also an attempt to find ideological justifications for uniting Belarusians around the ruling regime.
Questions that remain: The new investigation is largely based on materials from the activities of the Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), which began its work during the war and continued after the war. However, researchers rightly question her data. The secrecy of work former new commission, on the one hand, does not allow them to be trusted, and on the other hand, analysis of these data is impossible for researchers today both due to their lack of involvement in the work and in the case of dispute some results they may be accused of denying the genocide of the Belarusian people.
1. Закон Республики Беларусь от 5 января 2022 года № 146-З "О геноциде белорусского народа" Pravo.by, дата обращения 23.07.2022
Iryna Ramanava
Professor of History at the European Humanities University (Vilnius), Head of the Center for Belarus and Regional Studies (EHU)
Iryna Ramanava holds a Ph.D. from Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Her research explores the relationship between authority and society in the period of Stalinism and in the years after it, Politics of Memory. She has been a visiting fellow at the Institute of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (University of California, Berkeley), La Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (L'ecole hautes etudes de sciences sociales, France, Paris). She was a visiting professor at the Le Centre et le Département d'histoire, à Sciences Po (Paris), a visiting professor at Justus Liebig University in Giessen (2021-2024).
The Genocide of the Belarusian People:
A Useful Concept for the Regime
A Useful Concept for the Regime
On the seven of April 2021, the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus opened a criminal case on the Genocide of the Belarusian people through mass murder, destruction of settlements along with their inhabitants, deportation to forced labor, creation of concentration camps and death camps during the Second World War (or Great Patriotic war, as it is still called in Belarus and Russia). In the country began a large-scale questioning of witnesses1. Prosecutor General Andrei Shved became one of the main spokespersons and actors of the politics of memory who actually led this work. The result of this investigation should be an appeal to international organizations to make them recognize the genocide of the Belarusian people.
Questions arise: What was the reason that, after almost 80 years, the authorities again updated the consequences of the Second World War for Belarus? To what extent is the new investigation into material damage and the number of victims based on materials and approaches from the previous period, what is new? Why did the concept of genocide appear now and how do authorities use this concept? What are the "Belarusian" people in this concept? How the topic of Holocaust will be present in Belarus, given that so far it has appeared in public space only within the framework of European projects but today it is impossible.
On the one hand, the opening of this criminal case in 2022 can be explained as attempts of the Belarusian official authorities to respond to external and internal situation for regime (mass protests, confrontation with the West, Russian war in Ukraine). The recognition of the genocide by international organizations will probably mean for the authorities а moral victory over the West and their sanctions against regime. On the other hand, drawing parallels between opponents of the regime and collaborators of the Second World War allows to discredit opponents and their symbols and the protest movement itself, justifies the need for repression. Undoubtedly, this is also an attempt to find ideological justifications for uniting Belarusians around the ruling regime.
Questions that remain: The new investigation is largely based on materials from the activities of the Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), which began its work during the war and continued after the war. However, researchers rightly question her data. The secrecy of work former new commission, on the one hand, does not allow them to be trusted, and on the other hand, analysis of these data is impossible for researchers today both due to their lack of involvement in the work and in the case of dispute some results they may be accused of denying the genocide of the Belarusian people.
1. Закон Республики Беларусь от 5 января 2022 года № 146-З "О геноциде белорусского народа" Pravo.by, дата обращения 23.07.2022
Questions arise: What was the reason that, after almost 80 years, the authorities again updated the consequences of the Second World War for Belarus? To what extent is the new investigation into material damage and the number of victims based on materials and approaches from the previous period, what is new? Why did the concept of genocide appear now and how do authorities use this concept? What are the "Belarusian" people in this concept? How the topic of Holocaust will be present in Belarus, given that so far it has appeared in public space only within the framework of European projects but today it is impossible.
On the one hand, the opening of this criminal case in 2022 can be explained as attempts of the Belarusian official authorities to respond to external and internal situation for regime (mass protests, confrontation with the West, Russian war in Ukraine). The recognition of the genocide by international organizations will probably mean for the authorities а moral victory over the West and their sanctions against regime. On the other hand, drawing parallels between opponents of the regime and collaborators of the Second World War allows to discredit opponents and their symbols and the protest movement itself, justifies the need for repression. Undoubtedly, this is also an attempt to find ideological justifications for uniting Belarusians around the ruling regime.
Questions that remain: The new investigation is largely based on materials from the activities of the Extraordinary State Commission (ChGK), which began its work during the war and continued after the war. However, researchers rightly question her data. The secrecy of work former new commission, on the one hand, does not allow them to be trusted, and on the other hand, analysis of these data is impossible for researchers today both due to their lack of involvement in the work and in the case of dispute some results they may be accused of denying the genocide of the Belarusian people.
1. Закон Республики Беларусь от 5 января 2022 года № 146-З "О геноциде белорусского народа" Pravo.by, дата обращения 23.07.2022