PART SIXTY TWO: THE SOVIET UNION OF BELARUS
PART SIXTY TWO: THE SOVIET UNION OF BELARUS
Well, we finally get a visit from the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, and his entry into this TL throws another wrench into this Shakespearean power struggle going on in the former Soviet Union…
Some new names in this update:
Alexander Lukashenko:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lukashenko
Sergei Stepashin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Vadimovich_Stepashin
Article 58 of the RSFSR criminal code from 1934, I couldn’t find the Belarusian version of this law, but I am sure Stalin didn’t stray too far from this in Belarus…
http://www.cyberussr.com/rus/uk58-e.html#58-10
Let’s Go Eastern Europe 2003
Eastern Europe on a Budget
Let’s Go Inc.
Publication Date: December 2002
928 Pages
Belarus, UIS
Minsk
Minsk is like nowhere else on earth. It is quite literally the last bastion of Vladimir Lenin. The largest city in the UIS Republic of Belarus, it also serves as its capital. No visit to the recently reopened Union of Independent States would be complete without a visit to the last place on earth where old school communism is still en vogue. While the rest of the country has torn down its statues of Lenin, Belarus polishes hers. While the rest of the country seems to embrace the new Union of Independent States, Belarus seems to long for the good ol’ days of the Soviet Union. While Belarus’ large neighbor to the east seems to relish in the free market reforms that at times serve to disenfranchise minorities, Belarus seems determined to quash any sign of private ownership or capitalism. And while the tri-colored flag of the Union of Independent States is common all over Russia, it is the outlawed sickle and hammer that hangs from many of the government buildings in Minsk. Belarus is like a crazy uncle who still wears bell bottoms. You just shake your head and wonder when they will realize the 21st century is waiting for them. But until that day comes, it still remains one of the most fascinating places to visit in the UIS. From the old school Stalin-esque architecture to the complete lack of ATM machines and
Starbucks, Minsk is a time machine that will give you a glimpse of what the Soviet Union used to look like. But it might be a good idea to hurry. In November of 2002 it was announced that McDonalds was opening up a restaurant in Minsk before the end of 2003.
Minsk, UIS in March 2001 (Getty Images)
Estonian Russian leader arrested in Minsk for “insulting Lenin”
By Jeff Coleman
The Detroit Free Press
July 4, 1995
(Minsk, UIS) – One of the leaders of the Russian Republic of the Baltic was arrested in the UIS Republic of Belarus yesterday when he called former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin “worse than Hitler” during a press conference in Minsk and called on Belarusians to “follow the Russian Republic of the Baltic’s lead and break free from the chains of the Zionist.” Dmitri Vasilyev, leader of the radical right wing Pamyat Party in Estonia, was detained shortly after the press conference and charged with “insulting the state” and “agitation” under a law that was originally codified in 1934 by Joseph Stalin. The move was widely applauded in Belarus, where over 250,000 communist Russian sympathizers have fled after the failed Constitutional coup of 1993-1994. However, the move has been criticized in Russia as an assault on free speech.
“I don’t condone what Mr. Vasilyev said,” Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis told UIS state television, “but we simply cannot have a situation where a politician can be arrested under a Stalinist era law because it ruffles feathers. If that is the case what is to stop Russia from arresting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for calling me an ‘apologist for fascism.’ I don’t want Lukashenko arrested because I respect his right to speak freely in this country.”
Lukashenko is one of the last political leaders in the former Soviet Union who remains an unapologetic communist, and his Communist Party of Belarus is widely seen as the last bastion of the once dominant Communist Party. Lukashenko has severed ties with the Worker’s Party of Russia, calling it a “watered down Liberal Democratic Party.” The UIS Republic of Belarus has, according to many international observers, emerged as a separate country which operates independently from Moscow.
“It basically has emerged as a Slavic East Germany,” commented Jim Hood, an American diplomat in Warsaw, “A communist Taiwan to a capitalist UIS if you will. It has become an island unto itself. But Lukashenko is not interested in declaring independence. He has his eye on a restored Soviet Union and is clearly looking for an opportunity to march into Moscow as the new Stalin.”
Although UIS President Yuri Luzhkov called Vasilyev “an idiot” and criticized him for going to Belarus as part of his tour of the UIS, he also called on the Belarusian President to release the controversial politician.
“This move is a clear slap in the face of Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky and UIS president Yuri Luzhkov,” added Hood, “Lukashenko is letting them know that Belarus is enemy territory. He is letting them know the UIS doesn’t have any power in Belarus. He does, and he has declared a Soviet Union of Belarus.”
Although Vasilyev is facing a maximum sentence of 12 months of hard labor, it is believed that he may be released later this week. Belarusian President Lukashenko said that he was of the opinion that Vasilyev “was mentally retarded” and added that “under Belarusian law a mentally retarded person cannot be charged with a crime.” Russian Prime Minister Burbulis also expressed his belief that Vasilyev was mentally retarded and said that the releasing Vasilyev would be “appropriate under the circumstances.”
Dmitri Vasilyev was often featured in Russian Media next to the word "idiot" after his arrest in Minsk in July of 1995.
“My Russia- An Autobiography by former Russian Prime Minister Gennady Burbulis”
Published by Interbook, © 1998
CHAPTER FIFTY NINE
“What else could go wrong,” I thought to myself as I turned off the television. Dmitri Vasilyev was now back in Russia, being given hours of free publicity thanks to his standoff with Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. He didn’t seem to notice that both Belarus and the UIS declared him “mentally retarded”. He considered himself some great political prisoner: the fascist Nelson Mandela. He was smiling as young fascists came out to cheer him and greet him at the airport with fascist salutes. At least Vice President Andrey Zavidiya thought he was an idiot too. Considering Zavidiya was slowly taking absolute control over every media outlet in Russia that proved to be important, no picture of Vasilyev would appear in any newspaper in Russia without the word ‘idiot’ next to it, and almost every broadcast of Vasilyev on state television featured a clip of him drooling and looking like a half wit. I am sure there were hundreds of hours of footage of Vasilyev not looking like a complete idiot, but Zavidiya was also making a point. While Lukashenko was telling Moscow that Belarus was not under federal control, Zavidiya was telling Zhirinovsky to pull back on his free market reforms or else he would be the one drooling on state television! In fact, it had been at least six weeks since Vladimir Zhirinovsky had even been seen on state media. He was already in an uproar over the media blackout, and the fact that he was being ignored was making him unpredictable. He started doing and saying stranger things, trying to get attention. He was acting like a spoiled child whose parents were ignoring him, screaming louder and louder until his face was red. Sooner or later a western journalist would hear him and then we could be looking at another international incident.
I heard a soft knock at the door.
“Come in,” I said.
It was General Sergei Stepashin, deputy to KGB director Vladimir Putin. I glared at him briefly before asking him curtly what he wanted.
“Sir,” he said nervously, “I think we need to talk.”
I was sick of Generals, all trying to wiggle their way onto the 16-man Committee for State Security and Defense. All they did was create drama with some blown up crisis that only they could solve.
“Your supervisor is Director Putin,” I replied coldly, “why don’t you talk to him?”
“That’s the thing,” he replied. “It's about him.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, suddenly very interested.
“Sir,” he said handing me a folder, “I think we may have a situation.”
UIS Presidential Candidate Vladimir Putin in an interview with the BBC on August 1, 2011.
Discussing his ousting as head of the KGB.
BBC: You claim that Prime Minister Burbulis “set you up” in July of 1995. That he had you ousted in order to put one of his supporters on the 16-man junta.
Putin: Yes. General Sergei Stepashin was one of the few people poised to get on the committee who didn’t owe his allegiance to either General Lebed or to Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He was one of the few “Yeltsinites” in the military, and as a result Prime Minister Burbulis knew that he was a potential ally.
BBC: But even international observers feel that the evidence against you was damning. In 2000 the Russian government released over 15,000 pages of documents linking you to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and clearly establishing that you were plotting to oust Zhirinovsky, Burbulis, and UIS President Yuri Luzhkov and to help install Lukashenko as Premier of a restored Soviet Union.
Putin: Do you know why they released it in 2000 as opposed to 1995, the year I was arrested?
BBC: Why?
Putin: Because it took them five years to forge that many pages of documents.
