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A TRUE PATRIOT MUST SUPPORT AUTHORITY

There was a hitch with Belarusian state ideology. And what an amazing start there was in March 2003. Let us cite the Report, made at the seminar on ideological work: “Ideology for a state is the same thing as immune system for a living organism. If immunity weakens, any infection, even the most insignificant, will become mortal. This is also valid for a state: when ideological basis of a society is destroyed, its downfall becomes only a question of time, no matter how strong and threatening may the state appear from the outside”.
What do Belarusians have today? On the 20th of May 2004 in an interview to the Russian TV-channel “Dozhd” A. Lukashenko could only certify that after a massive brainstorm leaded personally by the head of state the mountain of national intellect brought forth a mouse: “They have suggested me patriotism. Patriotism isn’t new. National idea should be different from the ideas of other countries. Isn’t patriotism important for Russia? It is trite, it is banal. And we need something that could captivate people, something that can be pleasant for souls”.
Nevertheless, patriotism, evaluated as trite and banal by A. Lukashenko, enjoys positive attitude from most Belarusians (Table 1). Among adherents of the head of state the share of positive evaluations amounted to 60.5%.
Table 1. Distribution of answers to the question: “In an interview to the Russian TV-channel “Dozhd” President A. Lukashenko made a supposition that state ideology in Belarus should be created on the basis of patriotism. Some people are positive about it, some people are negative, and others are indifferent. What is your attitude to this?” depending on attitude to A. Lukashenko, %
Variant of answer
All respondents
Attitude to A. Lukashenko
Trust
Don’t trust
Positive
45.9
60.5
21.1
Indifferent
39.6
30.5
56.2
Negative
10.5
4.7
19.9
DA/NA
4.0
4.3
2.8
We would not recommend caring about the serious divergence of evaluations of patriotism’s potential as a pivot of state ideology between A. Lukashenko and his adherents. Question doesn’t mention triteness and banality. As it is known, respondents formulate their answers on questions of a questionnaire in the process of answering; hence respondents defined their attitude to patriotism through the prism of their attitude to the head of state.
Let us note that the first variant of answer was supported by 30.5% of respondents in the age group of 18-29 years old and by 67.4% of respondents in the age group of 60 years old and older.
According to a tradition formed during Soviet and pre-Soviet era about one third of Belarusians are unable to draw a line between love to Motherland and love to power and state. A. Lukashenko should be attributed to this one third. Our certitude in this opinion is based on the following citation, taken from the Report made at an ideological conference: “Before we were battling against the church; today the church has patriotic moods, they support us”. He couldn’t be more frank: he is a patriot who supports us (the authority).
This viewpoint on patriotism is shared by 45.1% of supporters of their political idol. Among his opponents this point of view finds popularity only among 11.2% respondents (Table 2). The difference is fourfold!
Table 2. Distribution of answers to the question: “Do you agree that “a patriot should support authority whatever it may be”?” depending on attitude to A. Lukashenko, %
Variant of answer
All respondents
Attitude to A. Lukashenko
Trust
Don’t trust
I agree
10.5
17.5
3.2
I rather agree
20.0
27.6
8.0
I rather disagree
40.9
35.3
46.9
I disagree
25.4
15.7
40.9
DA/NA
3.2
3.9
1.0
But tempus fugit. A true patriot must support power, but that doesn’t deprive him of a right to criticize this power. 75.1% of Belarusians agree with this free interpretation (64.9% of A. Lukashenko’s supporters and 89.4% of his opponents). The idea that patriotism is incompatible with criticism of power is shared by 19.9% of respondents (31.3% and 4.8% accordingly).
American’s patriotism, as you know, manifests itself in their readiness to exhibit American flags on their houses on any occasion. There is no such tradition in Belarus yet. Flying flags is a responsibility of the state. But in case of such an order, only 4% of respondents have a big national flag at home. It is quite unexpected, but the shares of people having a big national flag at home among adherent and opponents of A. Lukashenko are equal – 4.3% and 4.4% accordingly.
As for small flags, the share of people possessing them didn’t even amount to one third – 29.2% (34.6% and 19.2% accordingly).
The question of Table 3 is inspired by the events in Ukraine. We can say that Belarusian respondents were caught off guard by this question, as its topicality for Belarus was never discussed publicly. Hence the insignificant divergence in answers of adherents and opponents of A. Lukashenko. And this is despite the fact that the question is very politically-charged! There isn’t even a significant difference in regards to military methods of combating separatism.
Table 3. Distribution of answers to the question: “If an initiative of separation from Belarus appeared in some region of Belarus, which actions should Belarusian power take?” depending on attitude to A. Lukashenko, %
Variant of answer
All respondents
Attitude to A. Lukashenko
Trust
Don’t trust
To carry out a referendum on separation in this region
10.0
11.9
7.2
To carry out a national referendum on separation of this region
18.4
15.4
20.8
To negotiate with people desiring this separation
36.3
34.1
40.7
To put under arrest the instigators of the initiative
16.9
18.9
15.8
To suppress this initiative by all means
14.0
16.0
11.2
DA/NA
4.4
3.7
4.3
Patriotism in Belarus is based on the memories of a “glorious past” because there are no important examples in the present. As for the “vision of the future”, there isn’t even a sketch of it.
Let us back the last statement by A. Lukashenko’s answer to the question of Y. Zisser, owner of TUT.BY portal on Belarus in 30 years: “…a sovereign and independent state. This is my main task, which I must accomplish. […] so that Belarus was a state and our people were never under someone’s whip”. And that is all.
But while political elite is busy carving up the administrative rent “here and now”, in almost every fourth Belarusian family one of its members is obliged to pack their bags and work abroad (Table 4).

 

Despite this sad statistics the share of Belarusians believing that young people could make career in the homeland grew by 11.4 points over the last two years (from 46.2% up to 57.6%). Probably, this is an effect provoked by Russian TV-channels.

 

We started the patriotic subject with a citation of A. Lukashenko. It would be logic to cite him again, closing this subject: “Personal honesty of every person, conscientious work in every area (be it a machine-operator, a driver, a teacher, a programmer, a builder or a scientist) – this is what patriotism is. At the same time this is the basis for a strong economy. And strong economy is a pledge for independence, freedom and prospect of Belarus”.
It’s hard to suggest a more strict definition of patriotism within the framework of authoritarian political model. Employers give orders, employees execute orders. They do it honestly, conscientiously and don’t reach into politics.