Belarus Audiobook By Andrew Wilson cover art

Belarus

The Last European Dictatorship

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Belarus

By: Andrew Wilson
Narrated by: Daniel Henning
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A comprehensive and revelatory history of modern Belarus—from independence to Lukashenka's contested 2020 re-election.

Protests continue in Belarus in the aftermath of 2020's fraught presidential election. In this updated edition of his exploration of Belarus's complicated road to nationhood since it gained independence in 1991, Andrew Wilson has added two new chapters that reveal the extent of Aliaksandr Lukashenka's grip on power, the growth of the opposition movement and the violent crackdown that followed the vote. Wilson also examines the prospects for Europe as a whole of either Lukashenka's downfall or his survival with Russian support.

©2011 Andrew Wilson (P)2022 Tantor 20th Century 21st Century Modern Russia Soviet Union Socialism Imperialism Middle Ages Interwar Period

Critic reviews

"Andrew Wilson has done all students of European politics a great service by making the history of Belarus comprehensible, and by showing how the future of Belarus might be different than its present."—Timothy Snyder, author of Bloodlands
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This book is not a general history of Belarus. It's a recounting of every attempt to dislodge the Belarusian president-for-life Alexander Lukashenka from power. The book also presents a prehistory of modern Belarus that concentrates on regional power struggles. Some of the material seems to have been included merely to provide ammo against Lukashenka's conceptions of Belarusian nationhood.

There is a noticeable shift in tone in the new chapters. In contrast to the dry prose of the original chapters, the language is emotional. Everything the Belarusian government does is labelled inept, fake, and fraudulent. Everything the opposition does is lavished with praise. I don't know if this reflects a change in public discourse in general or US foreign policy messaging style in particular. The book also dates itself in two ways. First it provides a play-by-play of the then-current opposition political campaign in what is in hindsight clearly unwarranted level of detail. I'm sure that the Twitter battles felt really exciting at the time. Secondly it criticises Lukashenka's gung-ho response to COVID-19. The public health theatre of the time with its "social distancing" and other bizarre rituals ironically now make Lukashenka seem like a level-headed statesman in comparison.

While Russia's meddling in Belarusian affairs gets coverage in the book, the United States is conspicuously absent from the narrative. It's an accomplishment to talk about geopolitics without bothering to include in the picture the reigning global hegemon. The book occasionally compares Belarus to Ukraine. US influence in the affairs of the latter are well-known, yet in the book the omerta is kept diligently.

Being Alexander Lukashenka

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