EMOTIONAL CLIMATE IN THE BELARUSIAN SOCIETY

Not every single man can clearly outline his/her political preferences or at all has any preferences. At the same time every man has certain feelings. Their temperature and direction in the society or its groups, i.e. the emotional climate, appears a powerful political factor ensuring stability or bringing changes. (See Table 1)

Data on Belarus (as well as on Russia) show that hope is the prevailing feeling in both countries. It is found with every fourth citizen. The most popular alternative to hope is not negative feelings but apathy – tiredness and hopeless tranquility. This to a certain extent accounts to the fact that willingness of changes doesn’t receive wide support in both countries. Noteworthy is the following peculiarity of Russia’s data: respondents are more likely to apply positive feelings to themselves and negative – to the people around them. This means they to a certain extent fall captives of catastrophic interpretation of the reality when they attribute lower emotional temperature than theirs to other people and to the society in general.

We should like to mention the points in which Russians and Belarusians differ considerably. This is first of all pride for their nation. Perhaps, the reason is that Belarusians are the nation with young statehood and they haven’t yet got accustomed to it, this is why they feel so happy about every appearance (true or pretended) of their common success. As for the Russians, they most likely compare their current state (or, to be more exact, what they had in 2003) with the other pages of long Russian history. This comparison appears not in favor of the present time.

However, tiredness and apathy are characteristic of the Russians to much greater extent than of the Belarusians. Every third Russian marked this feeling even in answers to “personal” question while among Belarusians less than a quarter of respondents chose this variant of answer. Thus, the Belarusian society appears to have slightly more contrasts: those who are not heated and not cold are fewer within it than it was in Russia in 2003.

Concerning the feeling of freedom, it can hardly be placed among pure emotions, yet difference is also significant here: it is to a less extent characteristic of the Belarusians than Russians, although the latter put it into the very bottom of the list.

This or that temperature of emotions can conceal absolutely different directions. Thus, hope can be related both to trust to authorities and to distrust to authorities, i.e. hope for their quick replacement. Table 2 shows connection between emotional climate in the Belarusian society and political preferences.

Data in the two columns is mirror-like. Supporters of the president have mostly positive emotions, the first of which is hope. The highest indicators of negative emotions are found among respondents distrusting the president: anxiety, spite, exasperation and offence. Hence, support to A. Lukashenko has a solid basis, including emotional: his adherents get not only some material benefits but hope as well.

Consequently, the positions when emotional balance is broken appear especially important. presidential supporters show hopeless tranquility, to a greater extent than his opponents. This is by the way one more support of power – those who fully lost hope and yielded to the existing order of things.

At the same time, prevailing feeling among A. Lukashenko’s opponents (two out of five respondents marked this alternative) is tiredness and not aggressive emotions. Hope takes the seventh out of seventeen places but it is not tied with the head of state.

Noteworthy is data about the feeling of freedom. It is not unusual for president’s opponents and in occurrence stands in the bottom. Only few people have this feeling among presidential opponents. However, it is possible to conclude from combination of this fact and occurrence of other positive emotions that the feeling of freedom is not so important for them.

In Table 2, feeling of loneliness appears nearly the only emotion not related to political preferences. The number of lonely supporters and opponents of the president is approximately equal here.

Data in Table 2 prove the conclusions of previous researches: the figure of president splits the Belarusian society into two parts living in very different emotional climates. The first part – A. Lukashenko’s adherents – not simply supports the president, but current reality feels them with a whole set of positive emotions including strong emotions like hope and pride for their country. The second part of the society, a considerable one, lives under constant and extensive stress. As of now, these people don’t pose any threat for the authorities because this stress mainly generates apathy rather than readiness to actions in the name of changes. However, negative emotional potential doesn’t cease. As V. Bykov said, this is a bomb that is waiting for its time.

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