Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko calls for objective assessment of historical truth

An archive photo

MINSK, 31 March (BelTA) – The historical truth should be approached objectively, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he delivered his annual Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly on 31 March, BelTA has learned.

The head of state said that the periods of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rzeczpospolita were too romanticized back in the day. “We swallowed this bait very quickly. As if we were all descendants of the Radziwills and the Sapehas. By the way, major landlords were few and far between on our land. Were they patriots of their Fatherland? No, absolutely not. As we know, they easily changed their religion and language for Polish nobility privileges, titles and positions. Medieval oligarchs made money off the hard work of ordinary people who were really struggling. But is it mentioned during excursions around these castles, these palaces that we restored and refurbished? This is a question of the historical truth and objectivity,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The president urged to sort things out in this field. “These are small things that play a very important role in preserving our statehood and sovereignty,” the Belarusian leader added.

Lukashenko explains Belarus’ hardline stance on historical truth

MINSK, 31 March (BelTA) – Time has forced the state to take a tougher stance on preserving the historical truth. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement in his Address to the nation and the parliament on 31 March, BelTA has learned.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that historical truth and national traditions represent some of the conditions of sovereignty and independence. “We, Belarusians are a nation with a rich millennia-old history. Ages of prosperity and slump of many states that used to be in our lands are intertwined in it. The origins of Belarusian statehood are the foundation of our sovereignty. For nearly one third of a century this topic (origins of the statehood) has been causing hot discussions and bitter disputes both in the academic community and in the general public. The Belarusian opposition is particularly concerned about it. They stay abroad and keep looking for non-Slavonic origins of Belarusians. And under the guidance of Western curators at that. History is a weapon for them. They say so themselves and use their myths to shatter the society. Time itself has forced us to take a tougher state stance on matters concerning the preservation of historical truth. To give a principled and uncompromised evaluation of individual facts,” he said.

The president reminded that the Belarusian nation had evolved at the junction of the western and eastern Slavonic civilizations, on the basis of Christianity but with an overwhelming advantage of the Orthodox Christian Church. “Many of our people say that we are Orthodox Christians. It was the religious choice that our ancestors made over 1,000 years ago that determined the cultural code of Belarusians and our mentality. At the most drastic moments of history – during the blatant polonization in the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Poland in between wars, during the times of all the wars that rolled over our territory, Belarusians dealt with terrible oppression to preserve faith, the mother tongue and culture, their identity. The way of establishment of the Belarusian nation was thorny. It is not surprising that we acquired our national statehood in the Eastern Slavonic cradle,” the Belarusian leader stated.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks