After the 2020 postelection protests, state propaganda launched a campaign of negativity against Kastuś Kalinoŭski, a leader of the 1863-64 anti-Russian uprising seen by historians as the founding father of the Belarusian national idea. The drive comes in response to the opposition’s effort to emphasize the rebel leader’s legacy and integrate it in its platform.
The negative campaign was initiated by influential officials from Alaksandar Łukašenka’s inner circle. Although the Belarusian ruler has no sympathy for Kalinoŭski and encourages his vilification, he has not been directly involved in the attacks.
Empire strikes back
In 2013, Belarusians marked the 150th anniversary of the 1863-64 uprising and the 175th anniversary of Kalinoŭski’s birth. As expected, the government largely ignored it. Nevertheless, the state post service Biełpošta printed cards with a stamp dedicated to the uprising leader, while the National Library held a special exhibition. A local authority restored a memorial plaque to Kalinoŭski in Minsk.
Ten years later, the country has changed radically. Minsk has completely ignored the 160th and 185th anniversaries, respectively, and commemorative events in the National Library were out of the question.
In June, Vadzim Hihin, a senior propaganda official known for his admiration for the Russian Empire, was appointed as director of the National Library. The rising propaganda star openly admires Mikhail Muravyov, then governor-general of Vilna who played the key role in suppressing the uprising.
Hihin is working hard to ruin the Kalinoŭski legacy. He presents the uprising as Polish and Kalinoŭski as a bad guy who executed Belarusian peasants, a Catholic, an enemy of the Orthodox, a Pole, and a fighter for the interests of Poland.
These clichés currently dominate state propaganda. On Hihin’s initiative, the education ministry removed Spikes Under Your Sickle, Uładzimir Karatkievič’s iconic novel about the uprising, from the school curriculum.
Aleksander Dyukov, head of the Moscow-based Historical Memory foundation, also joined the crusade against Kalinoŭski, along with Belarusian propagandist Ryhor Azarjonak and pro-government activist Volha Bondarava. The foundation pushes Russian interpretations of history in post-Soviet countries, promoting imperial narratives.
Propaganda likens fighter against autocracy with Bandera
On May 16, the state-controlled daily SB. Belarus Segodnia ran a lengthy interview with the head of Łukašenka’s administration, Major General Ihar Sierhiajenka, who is also head of the National Council for History Policy. Sierhiajenka, a historian by training who made his career in secret services, admitted that the government will continue to use history for its propaganda interests.
Speaking of key figures in national history, the general noted that Kalinoŭski had played a role similar to Ukrainian nationalists Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera. Sierhiajenka sees Kalinoŭski as a fighter for the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and a historical figure used by “the external enemy” to “drive a wedge between brotherly peoples and divide society.”
Sierhiajenka jabbed at Poland and Lithuania, as well as pro-democracy politicians who cherish Kalinoŭski’s legacy.
In 2006, protesters against the rigged presidential election gathered at Minsk’s Kastryčnickaja Square and renamed it Kalinoŭski Square. A Polish scholarship program for young Belarusian activists and victims of repression, established in the same year, was also named after Kalinoŭski.
The reburial of Kalinoŭski’s remains in Vilnius in November 2019 was attended by hundreds of Belarusians, many of whom traveled a long way from Belarus to the Lithuanian capital. During 2020 protests, Kalinoŭski was a source of inspiration for the opposition. And a military unit of Belarusian volunteers fighting alongside Ukrainians against Russian invaders was named after him.
Minsk’s negative campaign was initiated by senior officials like Hihin who have been given a free hand to push pro-Russian narratives. The government sees Kalinoŭski, just like the white-red-white flag, as a symbol of its opponents.
The struggle against opposition symbols is seen as a means of stabilizing and consolidating the regime in the fight against its external and internal enemies. The growing ideological pressure from Moscow is forcing Minsk to adopt the Russian perspective on the 1863-1864 uprising and its leader.
Łukašenka busy with other things
In the Soviet Union, Kalinoŭski was commemorated as a fighter against tsarism. Local authorities named streets in Minsk, Hrodna, Mahilioŭ, Lida and other Belarusian cities in his honor. They renamed a village in Svisłač district, where Kalinoŭski spent his childhood, Kalinoŭskaja, and named a school in Svisłač after him. Outstanding sculptor Zair Azhur designed a monument to Kalinoŭski, which was erected in Svisłač in the late 1950s.
In the early 1990s, the Belarusian Popular Front and other pro-democracy forces promoted Kalinoŭski as a national hero, but Łukašenka, who came to power in 1994, took a more cautious approach.
In November 2019, he called Kalinoŭski “our man,” but would not describe him as a national hero, and claimed instead that the rebel leader was a contradictory personality.
In the second year of his presidency, in 1995, Belarus established the Order of Kastuś Kalinoŭski as the highest state award. The decision had been probably made before Łukašenka took office. He abolished the order nine years later.
Since the late 1990s, historians and publicists cast the “anti-Russian uprising” in a negative light and blasted Kalinoŭski, sensing the tacit support of officials.
More recently, authorities in Belarus have bulldozed Polish graves associated with the 1919-1921 Soviet-Polish war and Armia Krajowa (Home Army) Second World War soldiers. The law enforcers branded works of literature by Vincent Dunin-Mracinkievič, a participant in the 1863 uprising, extremist content. Last week, media reported that authorities renamed a school in Svisłač that used to bear Kalinoŭski’s name.
There is still a Kalinoŭski street in Minsk and probably there are streets named after him in other towns. Azhur’s monument to him is still standing in downtown Svislač.
For Łukašenka, who is preoccupied with holding on to power, the fight for “historical truth” is not yet a top priority.
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Kalinoŭski is one of the most politicized characters in Belarusian history. After the 2020 protests, Hihin and his comrades-in-arms have been trying to compromise his image as a leader of the uprising against autocracy.
The campaign is still somewhat half-throttle. If Łukašenka gives his go-ahead tomorrow, his cronies will start erasing the Kalinoŭski memory with all the ruthlessness they can muster.