Stanislau Shushkevich: «Russia wants to make Belarus its province»
17
9:55, — Politics
In an interview to newspaper “Vovriemia.ru,” former chairperson of the Belarusian Supreme Council Stanislau Shushkevich commented on the events that had followed the collapse of the USSR, the present situation in Belarus, and the Belarus-Russia relations.
- Mr. Shushkevich, you said once in an interview: “I’m proud of what we did in Belovezhskaya Puscha.” Looking at what is going on in Belarus, have you ever regretted about the signature put in the Belovezhskoye Treaty, just like Leonid Kravchuk?
- I have never regretted and I never will.
- Today certain Russian politicians label your actions anti-Russian…
- There are many such politicians in Russia. They are called “sovereignty-adherents,” but it would be better to call them “empire-adherents.” They want Russia to remain a big colonial empire. Unlike the former British and French overseas colonies located far from the continent, Russian colonies have common frontiers with their metropolis. The Belovezhskoye Treaty put a halt, at least de jure, to a range of these colonies that became independent states.
- But still you are criticized for having signed the Treaty and destroyed the USSR. Now, after all this time, what is your attitude towards this event?
- Extra positive. It was for the first time in two hundred years that we managed to get Russia to recognize independence of Belarus without blood, massacre, or demonstrations. Many countries attempted to use resistance methods while we succeeded to achieve our goal with political methods, we benefited from a favourable situation.
The USSR had collapsed before the Treaty was signed. The collapse was natural. We just fixed that state of events in the Belovezhskoye Treaty, which wasn’t a mistake but a rather courageous act, since the majority of the world population saw the USSR as something enormous, eternal and frightening, which threatened the entire planet with its nuclear capacity. I’m proud of having acted this way. I did the right thing right on time.
I also regard the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Belarus as an extremely positive achievement. I can’t even think of what would happen if Lukashenka had got the weapons! Moreover, I studied the basics of military tactics and strategies in a soviet high school and I’m perfectly aware that, if a conflict evolves, communication means and most destructive weapons dislocations are the first objects to be destroyed. This posed a threat of complete destruction in a military conflict to our nation. Now we don’t live in such a danger anymore.
- You have been lecturing on political science in foreign universities lately. So, what do you do know – exact science or humanities?
- The division between these sciences was entailed in the soviet times when the people who studied humanities had to dissemble so much that it was hard to perceive even with formal logics. In their professional activity, exact science specialists couldn’t clash with these logics since, first of all, background in physics and mathematics cannot be carried to an absurdity unlike certain “humanities” such as scientific communism or philosophy of Marx and Lenin. Second of all, a physical experiment, the criterion of validity for a physical theory, cannot be controlled by ideology. In such conditions the opinion of exact science specialists on ordinary problems of the humanities seemed more attractive than the statements made by those who had to submit to “ideologisms.”
Appropriate liberal education never entails such problems. Angela Merkel, Xavier Solana, and many other outstanding politicians are educated in natural sciences, but nobody limits their capacities to humanities.
It’s hard for me as a scientist to claim physicist’s title today. This is my past. I haven’t had an opportunity to do physical research for 12 years already, which is due to both personal ambitions and exterior factors. Political science doesn’t demand expensive equipment; only a computer is needed. And this science is very captivating. I like this science and, pardon my immodesty, I have some achievements here, otherwise I wouldn’t be published and invited to lecture in the best universities and research centers of Poland, the USA, France, Japan, South Korea, and other countries.
- Some people say today Belarus is a platform for the so-called re-animators of the USSR. Is it true? What can it bring to?
- Yes, it is true, but they will get what other re-animators got – those who tried to restore the Roman, Austrian-Hungarian, Ottoman, and other empires.
- The most disgusting thing is that Lukashenka’s regime destroys professionals and intellectuals of Belarus. Can this process be terminated somehow?
- Don’t confuse professionals and intellectuals. Lukashenka’s regime needs professionals as much as Bolsheviks needed them after the October revolution. Professionals are needed not only in economy, science, or technology, but also in ideology. The latter, however, are to give an absolute support to the ruling regime – the support must be both sincere, which is nearly impossible, and insincere, which must be invented and passed off as sincere.
The national elites are being eradicated in Belarus using various means: violent russification, perverted education, forced emigration, etc. It’s difficult to terminate this process because of the diligence, traditionally high discipline, and, strange though, high professionalism of Belarusians – the number of top professionals in Belarus is several times higher than in Russia! You can be paid 3.5-4 times more for a high-skill job in Poland than in Belarus, not to mention Europe, Canada, or the USA. That’s why people leave. And normally they prove the reputation of diligent and, I repeat, disciplined, professional Belarusians. Many hundreds (!) of young people study in Polish, Czech and other European high schools; many are enrolled to the European post-graduate programmes.
The question is, whether they will be back. Some will. If the political situation improves, many will come back. But today people only leave. Every fourth marriage contracted in the Palace of Marriages in Minsk is between a Belarusian and a foreigner.
- Can Belarus be incorporated into Russia, or is it just a political trick of Lukashenka?
- The Russian leadership is eager to make Belarus its province, at least as a compensation for the negative image that Russia has as an heir of the regimes that scorned many peoples who lived in Russia. Lukashenka makes use of that.
- You said once in an interview, “I have come to you from the Soviet Union. Soviet regime is being restored in Belarus.” Present Belarus – mini-version of the USSR?
- Yes, there are many similarities. The difference is that the regime doesn’t try to hide the majority of its illegal actions with a screen of decency.
- You said once, “I’d love to see Lukashenka’s political end...” And what if he runs for the 4th, 5th, 6th presidency?
- The end will come before the events you suggest.
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