Belarus, which has created a political and military alliance with Moscow, is being further Russified as schools ditch the Belarusian language.
ADVERTISEMENTWhen school started this year for Mikalay in Belarus, the 15-year-old discovered that his teachers and administrators no longer called him by that name. Instead, they referred to him as Nikolai, its Russian equivalent.
What's more, classes at his school — one of the country's best — are now taught in Russian, not Belarusian, which he has spoken for most of his life.
Belarusians like Mikalay are experiencing a new wave of Russification as Moscow expands its economic, political and cultural dominance to overtake the identity of its neighbour.
This isn't unprecedented. During the czarist and Soviet eras, Russia imposed its language, symbols, and cultural institutions on Belarus. However, after the USSR dissolved in 1991, Belarus began to reclaim its identity. Belarusian briefly became the official language, and the white-red-white national flag replaced the Soviet-era red hammer and sickle.
The situation shifted in 1994 when Alexander Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm official, came to power. He made Russian an official language alongside Belarusian and removed the nationalist symbols.
Now, with Lukashenko in power for over three decades, he has permitted Russia to dominate various aspects of life in Belarus, a nation of 9.5 million. Belarusian is rarely heard on the streets of Minsk and other large cities. Official business is conducted in Russian, which also dominates the media. Lukashenko speaks only Russian, and government officials often avoid using Belarusian.
The country relies on Russian loans and cheap energy, forming a political and military alliance with Moscow. This alliance allows President Vladimir Putin to station troops and missiles in Belarus, using it as a staging area for the war in Ukraine.
“I understand that our Belarus is occupied. … And who is the president there? Not Lukashenko. The president is Putin,” said Svetlana Alexievich, the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, who lives in Germany in effective exile. “The nation has been humiliated and it will be very difficult for Belarusians to recover from this.”
Belarusian cultural figures have faced persecution, and hundreds of nationalist organisations have been shut down. Experts suggest that Moscow aims to implement in Belarus what it intended for Ukraine when the war there began in 2022.
“It is obvious that our children are being deliberately deprived of their native language, history, and Belarusian identity, but parents have been strongly advised not to ask questions about Russification,” said Anatoly, father of a Belarusian student, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution.
“We were informed about the synchronisation of the curriculum with Russia this year and were shown a propaganda film about how the Ukrainian special services are allegedly recruiting our teenagers and forcing them to commit sabotage in Belarus,” he added.
Only a few schools have managed to retain some paperwork and courses in Belarusian. In recent years, one of these schools saw dozens of its teachers fired, and the Belarusian-language section of its website disappeared.
Lukashenko derides his native language, stating, “Nothing great can be expressed in Belarusian. … There are only two great languages in the world: Russian and English.”
Belarus was part of the Russian empire for centuries and became one of the 15 Soviet republics after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Daily use of Belarusian decreased and continued only in the country's west, north, and rural areas.
In 1994, about 40% of students were taught in Belarusian; now, it's under 9%. Speaking Belarusian is seen as opposition to Lukashenko and a declaration of national identity, which played a key role in the mass protests after the disputed 2020 election that gave Lukashenko a sixth term. In the harsh crackdown that followed, half a million people fled the country.
ADVERTISEMENTAt the same time, “more people want to speak Belarusian, which has become one of the symbols of freedom, but they're afraid to do it in public,” said Alina Nahornaja, author of “Language 404,” a book about Belarusians who faced discrimination for speaking their native language.
Like Ukrainians, Belarusians desired closer ties with Europe, accompanying their nationalist sentiment, noted Belarusian analyst Valery Karbalevich. “But the Kremlin quickly realised the danger and began the process of creeping Russification in Belarus,” he added.
This led to the emergence of pro-Russian organisations, joint educational programmes, and cultural projects, “like mushrooms after the rain — against the backdrop of harsh repressions against everything Belarusian,” Karbalevich said.
Censorship and bans affect not only contemporary Belarusian literature but also its classics. In 2023, the prosecutor’s office declared extremist the 19th-century poems of Vincent Dunin-Martsinkyevich, who opposed the Russian Empire.
ADVERTISEMENTWhen the Kremlin supported Lukashenko against the anti-government protests in 2020, it ensured his loyalty and received carte blanche in Belarus.
“Today, Lukashenko is paying Putin with our sovereignty,” said exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. “Belarusian national identity, cultures, and language are our strongest weapons against the Russian world and Russification.”
In February she had posted on X that "being labeled as 'extremist' means loving your country & speaking your language."
Four cities in Belarus now host a “Russia House” to promote Russian culture and influence, offering seminars, film clubs, exhibitions, and competitions.
ADVERTISEMENT“The goal is to plant Russian narratives so that as many Belarusians as possible view Russian as their own,” said analyst Alexander Friedman. “The Kremlin spares no expense and acts on a grand scale, which could be especially effective and dangerous in a situation where Belarus has found itself in information isolation, and there is almost no one left inside the country to resist the Russian world.”
“Putin published an article denying the existence of an independent Ukraine back in 2021, and even then we understood perfectly well that he was pursuing similar goals in Belarus," Latushka said.