Vasily Lyavonau: “Serfdom” to cause mass exodus from collective farms

A person’s “wage slavery”, forced labour will never work effectively.

Such an opinion has been expressed by the former agriculture ministry Vasily Lyavonau in an interview to charter97.org website.

- Alyaksandr Lukashenka is preparing to impose “serfdom” in the agricultural sector in a form of a decree, which is to ban employment termination for workers of agribusiness. How is it to influence development of the agro-industrial complex of our country?

- By the way, I am a former “serf” myself, in 1956 I finished a school in the country, and I did not have a right to go anywhere and receive a passport without sanction of the chairman of the collective farm. But even in the Soviet school, where I studied, we were taught that it is bad for economy to deprive a worker of his freedom. We were also told that when serfdom was abolished in Russia, productivity of labour sharply increased there, and it is a well-known fact and is reflected in statistics. Forced labour will never be productive. It is a tendency of any society, including such a little state as Belarus.

- The Belarusian ruler has stressed he is going to save the village by that.

- Lukashenka will never save agribusiness by that, but he is going to make the situation even worse than it is now.

- What outcome implementation of this decree could have?

- It can cause mass exodus of collective farmers. But one can choose not to flee, but simply work ineffectively. I would like to repeat that a serf will never strive for effective work. And the bondage in the form of serfdom was abolished in Russia, as it was a road to nowhere.

- You have said that you were “a serf”. What would you advise to the future unfree collective farmers then?

- I would advise them to break free.