Struggle Against Pyotr Masherau’s Memory :: Charter'97 :: News

Renaming of the main avenues and streets of Minsk by Belarusian authorities has caused protest in Belarusian society. Protest rallies with demands to return names of Frantsysk Skaryna and Pyotr Masherau (Masherov) had started in the center of Minsk. The protest was faced by harsh reaction of Minsk riot police. People with portraits of famous Belarusians are driven away from the streets of the city brutally. On May 30 SWAT policemen arrested the famous human rights activist, leader of the civil initiative “Veterans for democracy”, leader of the “Free Belarus” Valery Schukin. While disbanding the rally, Belarusian policemen tore the portraits of the former Head of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, Pyotr Masherau, in the sight of the veterans. Until recently Lukashenka had publicly admired this personality and boasted of being confidant to his family. Today Belarusian dictator deprives the main avenue of his name, and policemen arrest veterans with portraits of Masherau, and tear the portraits defiantly…

Syarhei Kalyakin, chairman of the Belarusian Communist Party:

-It shows the poor knowledge of Belarusian history by Minsk riot policemen. To make such actions against a person who had done so much for making Belarus a developed country, who restored it after the war, who always defended independence of Belarus, is vandalism and barbarity.

Anatol Lyabedzka, leader of the United Civil Party of Belarus:

- There was a war against living people: the Supreme Soviet, vendors, trade unions, public associations, journalists. And now a struggle against those who cannot defend themselves started. I think that Lukashenka does not want to share attention and love of the nation even with those who are no more.

Stanislau Shushkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada, former chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus:

- I think Lukashenka is jealous of all those who are more famous. Masherau is more famous from the positive side, unlike Lukashenka.

Uladzimir Parfyanovich, former deputy and member of the group “Respublika”:

- I think that descendants of more than two thousand of collaborators in Belarus act in this way. It’s a struggle against the memory about Masherau and about the partisan movement in our country. Lukashenka would not succeed in killing the memory of him. People remember Pyotr Masherau in a different way, not like they would remember Lukashenka, who has too heavy crimes.

Yuri Khaschevatsky, a well-known filmmaker, member of the Council of Civil Initiatives “Free Belarus”:

- Lukashenka’s desire to destroy all signs of Belarus in Belarus is obvious. Masherau had always been adored as, according to a people’s legend, Masherau had always defended interests of Belarus in Moscow. It the heads of the Belarusians Masherau was in fact a fighter for independence. But the time is to come, when the same policemen “in mufti” would tear the portraits of Lukashenka, after a respective command.