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This timely book examines how the regime of President Aliaksandr Lukashenka has used the 'Great Patriotic War' (1941-45) as a key element in state and identity formation in Belarus. The campaign was discernible from 2003 and intensified after a rift with Russia that led to a re-examination of the earlier policy of close political and economic partnership. David R. Marples focuses in particular on the years 2009 and 2010, which commemorated two 65th anniversaries: the liberation of Minsk (3 July 1944) and the end of World War II in Europe (9 May 1945). Using a variety of sources, this unique bo.

"In any assessment and understanding of Belarus, the key questions to address include: Why has Belarus apparently rejected independence under its first president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, and sought a union with Russia? Why has the government rejected democracy, infringed the human rights of its citizens, and fundamentally altered its Constitution in favor of presidential authority? Has the country made any progress toward market reforms? How have Russia and the West responded to the actions of Belarus? What is the future likely to hold for its ten million citizens? The author's conclusions, which are based on a full examination of political, economic, and social life in the new post-Soviet Republic of Belarus, are optimistic. Belarus, he believes, will survive into the 21st century, but as a Eurasian rather than European state."--Jacket

Abstract
The 2020 presidential election in Belarus was different from previous elections in the independence period. Three candidates emerged from the economic and political elite, and several factors reduced the popularity of the incumbent president Aliaksandr Lukashenka, particularly his so-called Parasite Laws of 2016, his dismissal of Covid-19 as a psychosis, and the destruction of crosses at the Kurapaty memorial site. Though several candidates were barred from running, the campaign of Svjatlana Cichanoŭskaja emerged as a serious challenge, with popular mass rallies and support from the other two major campaign teams. Yet the announced results gave Lukashenka over 80%. The response was the largest mass demonstrations seen in Belarus since the late 1980s, to which the government responded with repressions and arrests. The paper discusses the various analyses of the election results and whether the "national awakening" can herald real political change.