Zyanon Paznyak: New Belarusian Nation Arising – Lukashenka And Moscow Can Do Nothing

The process of forming of a new Belarusian nation has been set in motion and no one can stop it.

Zyanon Paznyak, the chairman of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, said in his interview to Belsat.

“The formation of a new Belarusian nation is on its go. And no one: neither Lukashenka, nor Moscow can do anything about it. This happened as follows. In the 60s the collective farmers obtained their passports and got a possibility to leave for the cities. So they left – the population of Minsk was 600 thousand in the 60s, while 10 years later it already constituted a million and a half. Everybody left for the cities and destroyed them because they didn’t feel at home there. Those people coming to the cities were not free people with their own property, land, those were slaves. They queued up for flat allotments for the following 15 years, they adopted Russian language, this culture of occupation. That was the way the degradation of the nation happened.

Then, their children were born, and now the third generation – these are city people. They speak Russian, they were not exposed to Belarusian culture, but they are Belarusians. They turn to their roots, their culture, Francysk Skaryna, their literature at the cultural level. They understand everything to the extend that those collective farmers were unable to understand. The nation and its culture are driven by the city, not by the village. And the process has been set in motion. The regime wants to end up this process, but they won’t succeed”, – the politician said.