The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Emperor’s New Clothes A Fairy Story The Emperor ordered yet more new clothes from his courtiers and this was announced in the press. The courtiers knew the guidelines. They would describe the clothes down to the minutest detail and show how well it enhanced the Emperor’s reputation. The Emperor, ever flattered with the descriptions […]
The Slutsk Uprising – Belarus’ forgotten Milestone
The Slutsk Uprising Belarus’ forgotten milestone One of the most significant milestones in the forging of Belarus’ national identity, the Slutsk Uprising, began on 27th November 1920 when the Belarusian insurgents commenced battle with the Red Army. Yet the Belarusian population know little about the event. The Uprising started two years after the end of […]
August 1980; August 2020
A Tale of Two Countries In August 1980, in the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk, Poland, 17,000 striking workers shook the authority of the Polish Communist party. The strikers convinced the Polish authorities to agree to their demands and over the following sixteen months, the newly-formed Solidarity Trade Union movement evolved to help Poland develop a […]
The Battle of the Ribbons
The Battle of the Ribbons I pass the fence every day and things keep changing. In the morning, the fence is covered with white-red-white ribbons. The next day the ribbons are not there. Then they reappear. Then they are gone. Local residents put the ribbons up and the authorities take them down. Nearby, the construction […]
A President’s Dilemma
A President’s Dilemma It’s a tough one for President Putin. On the one hand there’s a certain schadenfreude in seeing a person he intensively dislikes being in such a bind with his own people. In a perverse twist of events, Lukashenko is turning to Putin for help and therefore now risking his come-uppance for outsmarting […]
The Protests – What’s Different?
The Protests – What’s Different? In recent weeks, elements of society have been expressing their discontent which has been sparked by the government’s response to the rival presidential candidates. The Belarusian authorities have again implemented their time-honoured formula of dealing with discontent: to come down heavily on the protesters who will then either see the […]
Things just ain’t what they seem
Things just ain’t what they Seem As the Protests in Belarus disappear from the world’s media and the conflict itself sets in to an oft violent stalemate, both sides are squaring up in their respective ways. Self-elected President Lukashenko and his supporters are hoping that the street protests will die down as winter approaches and […]
Virus? What Virus?
Virus? What Virus? While the rest of Europe has been in various stages of lockdown, Belarus is behaving differently. The old normal Observing the streets of Minsk, it seems like ‘business as usual’ as if the Corona virus never happened. In the weekday mornings, the traffic is only slightly lighter than in pre-corona days. Buses […]
Ihar’s War
Ihar’s War Ihar has a passion for Belarusian history. He has written 28 books and numerous articles. He has been interviewed by some Belarusian and foreign media, though not yet by Russian or the official Belarusian media. He has held hundreds of exhibitions in Belarus and outside and conducts tours of the pre war Polish-Soviet […]
It begins with an essay
It Starts with an Essay Having marked essays in a number of countries and written by people from many nationalities, it is interesting to note the relationship between essay construction, how people argue and ultimately, how their judicial and political systems function. With essays, there are two basic approaches. The first method is to start […]