Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 28 February (BelTA) – New school books should reflect the history of the Belarusian statehood objectively, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said during the visit to the National Research Center for Organ and Tissue Transplantation on 28 February, BelTA has learned.

When getting familiar with the projects nominated for the 2016 State Prize in Science and Technology, the President paid attention to the cycle of scientific works The Roots of Belarusian Statehood: The Lands of Polotsk and Vitebsk in the 9^th-18^th Centuries that present a new point of view on the process of formation of the territories of Eastern Slavonic early states and their centers.

According to Olga Levko, the head of Belarus’ archeology and ancient history department at the NASB Institute of History, the research showed that the Belarusian statehood began to take shape in the middle of the 9^th century thanks to the establishment of the Principality of Polotsk. The development of Polotsk as the center of this state took place on the local tribal basis. Just for comparison, Varangians were involved in the process of state formation in Novgorod and Kiev. The Polotsk land developed in an autonomous way, even in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Alexander Lukashenko said that these issues concerning the development of the Belarusian state should be included in new school books. “This should be included in school books. We should present these processes to our people in an objective manner,” the President stressed. “If there is certain nationalism, it is healthy nationalism.”

The head of state drew a parallel between the past and the present. “Indeed, we are self-made, we were respected back then,” Alexander Lukashenko said. “Some people are trying to shake this boat under the guise of “freeloading” or something else. They are trying to prove that these are not our lands. Therefore, it is very important for us. “Freeloaders” should know that they are used for someone else’s benefit, they are used to destroy what we have, to ruin the things that we have restored, to impede our development.”