AN ALLEY OF HEROES

It is possible to define the state of historic consciousness of the society by what figures of the near and distant past, as well as of the present time they consider their heroes. In this connection respondents in the course of the opinion poll were once again asked a question whom they considered an ideal politician. At that they were allowed to choose all the figures from the list if they wanted. Dynamics of respondents' answers to the question is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Dynamics of answering the question: "Which of the listed below political figures do you like most; which of them corresponds to your ideal of a politician?", % (more than one answer is possible)

Variant of answer	06'96	06'04	06'08
Vladimir Putin	–*	39.3	31.2
Alexander Lukashenko	–	21.3	25.2
Peter Masherov	45.2	32.7	23.5
Peter I	34.2	30.9	18.5
Kastus Kalinovsky	4.2	11.0	13.6
Catharine II	–	15.4	12.5
Margaret Thatcher	19.5	–	10.1
Prince Vitovt	2.2	6.6	8.8
Vladimir Lenin	18.7	8.6	8.2
Mikhail Gorbachev	4.2	8.7	7.6
Charles De Gaulle	3.9	–	6.5
Joseph Stalin	10.8	9.0	6.3
Lev Sapega	–	6.5	4.9
Franklin Roosevelt	–	–	4.9
Winston Churchill	2.1	–	4.6
Vaclav Havel	–	–	3.6
Ronald Reagan	–	–	2.3
Lech Valensa	–	–	1.9
Leonid Brezhnev	20.0	13.2	–
Nikita Khrushev	6.4	6.5	–
Yuri Andropov	12.9	–	–
Peter Stolypin	10.8	–	–
John Kennedy	9.1	–	–
Augusto Pinochet	2.4	–	–
Adolf Hitler	2.2	–	–

*The marked politician was not on the list of the corresponding opinion poll

As it can be seen, in the opinion poll of 2004 researchers limited themselves to the list of Belarusian, Russian and Soviet figures. Data of Table 1 show that such limitation is to a certain extent valid – heroes of this circle in particular occupy the upper part of the rating-list also in case when politicians of other countries appear there. Most likely it is conditioned by the following: an answer to such a question is motivated not only by an impartial comparison of the politicians’ merits, but also by cultural and historical distance, roughly speaking, by an assessment which follows the principle "ours – not ours". Quite high marks given to P. Masherov, a former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (the CPB), whose contribution into the world history was less than modest, are caused exactly by the above mentioned mechanism. Generally speaking, characters of Belarusian, as well as of Russian history, turn out to be "ours" for the Belarusians.

However, although this pattern has remained invariable for 12 years of research, the hierarchy of heroes is notably changing. The most evident changes are the almost twofold decrease of P. Masherov, Peter I and V. Lenin’s rating in comparison with 1996, and national heroes’ rating growth: threefold by K. Kalinovsky and fourfold by prince Vitovt. It is symbolic that in the poll of 2008 the leader of the rebellion against the Russian dominion left behind the Russian empress, and one of the most outstanding heroes of the Grand Duchy – the creator of the communist empire.

However, the same politicians who were in the lead in the poll of four years' prescription remain the leaders of the list. As it was mentioned in the analytical material of the IISEPS devoted to the opinion poll of 2004, the past in the public consciousness of the Belarusians is losing to the present, and great heroes (and evildoers) of the past – to the modern characters, who impartially yield to their predecessors in heroism as well as in evil deed.

During four years passed since the previous opinion poll A. Lukashenko has finally managed to surpass P. Masherov. Perhaps, renaming of the avenue in Minsk, as well as a campaign conducted in order to conceal the name of the BSSR leader, turned out to be quite effective. However, even if sympathy to P. Masherov has automatically passed on to A. Lukashenko, it has happened to quite a small extent: the former secretary of the Central Committee of the CPB has simply sunk several stages in his popularity.

The high enough rating of M. Thatcher, "the iron lady" of the British policy, should be mentioned among the mysteries of the post-Soviet (and, by the way, Soviet) consciousness. It is not clear by what means she captivated the hearts of the Soviet people at the beginning of Perestrojka and how she continues to captivate the Belarusians at the present time. At that her brother-in-arms in the victory over communism R. Reagan was honored with much more discreet assessments. Perhaps, the Belarusian men (and the Belarusian women!) in general like strong and determined women resembling the British prime minister and the Russian empress. In other words, a woman must know her place, but if she "does not know it" and proves that according to her deserts she is not content with the modest place assigned to her, than she is highly respected.

Extremely low ratings of the leaders of "velvet" revolutions in Poland and Czechia also attract attention to themselves. The eastern European way to Europe embodied in V. Havel and L. Valensa, the way, most real for Belarus as well, to all appearances does not captivate the Belarusians too much. And it is interesting, because the Belarusians have no common Euro-phobia, which is proved by their attitude to M. Thatcher, for instance. Simply for the Belarusians "serious" Europe is Western Europe.

However, the public consciousness is quite ambiguous. For example, in June of 2006 at the grand opening of the National library building A. Lukashenko declared that "Lenin and Stalin were symbols of the Belarusian people". One might also recall the erection of the pompous "Stalin line". However, in reality both communist leaders arouse little sympathy by the Belarusians, and after a number of years – still less. What kind of people the Belarusians are, they perhaps do not know themselves, but we can definitely say: they are not Soviet any more. In this sense it is of interest to find out how "the alleys of heroes" differed in June, 2008 by the youngest and the oldest respondents (Table 2).

Views of elderly respondents are logical in their own way: the list is headed by Soviet and Russian heroes, and the sequence order is patriotic: first come A. Lukashenko and P. Masherov, and then – V. Putin. The first non-Soviet Belarusian hero K. Kalinovsky finds himself only on the sixth place, and all the western politicians, as well as Vitovt and Sapega "discovered" by the society after 1991 – at the end of the list. However, the picture is much more complicated by the young people. The first heroes are Russian – V. Putin and Peter I, but K. Kalinovsky occupies already the third place. And in general "ratings" of the Russian czars, as well as of the Belarusian heroes of the distant past, are notably higher among the youth than among the oldest age group.

The latter circumstance reveals all the complexity and ambiguity of the nation building process in Belarus: young people are much freer than the older generation from the Soviet heritage, but the extent of their participation in both the Belarusian and Russian cultural and historic context turns out to be higher than by the older generation.

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