Pyotr Masherau: people remember, but authorities forgot

13 February is the 90th anniversary of Pyotr Mironavich Masherau’s birth. He was an outstanding Belarusian politician, chairman of Central Committee of the Communist Party ob the Belarusian Soviet Socialistic Republic (BSSR), died tragically in a car accident in 1980.

Pyotr Masherau was born 13 February, 1918, in village Shyrki (Sennitsa district, Vitsebsk region). During the Great Patriotic War he was a commander of a partisan grout, commissioner of a partisan brigade, secretary of an underground region committee of Komsomol Party. Since 1965 he was a chairman of the Communist Party of the BSSR.

He died in a car crash on 4 October 1980. Masherau’s death is a subject of controversy. There is no full conviction the car crash was an accidental one.

Pyotr Masherau, Hero of the Soviet Union, stood out among other members of the political Bureau (governing body of the USSR) of that time. Modest and winsome, he was much regarded not only in Belarus. There were rumours the prestige of Masherau among the party and the soviet people irritated the Kremlin groups. They stood against transfer Masherau to Moscow and his appointment as a member of the Political Bureau and head of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.

His daughter Natallya Masherava doesn’t believe her father’s death was an accident: “I read the investigation materials, saw photos. Even a dilettante could notice forced arguments and wrenches... Though I have no direct evidence. I understand, my father was uncomfortable for many people. It was the time, when in October 1980 Gorbachov became popular. If my father had been alive, the history of the USSR would have developed in another way.”

One of the central Minsk avenues was named after Masherau in mid 1990ies. But in 2005 by Lukashenka’s decree it was renamed into Winners Avenue. Natallya Masherava, daughter of Pyotr Masherau, run for the office of president in 2001, but later withdrew her candidature.

“It was like a death certificate of my father,” Natallya Masherava commented on the renaming Masherau Avenue into Winners Avenue in May 2005. It was made allegedly due to numerous requests of war veterans. “My father didn’t desert it. He did nothing to be thrown out of time, history and memory,” daughter of the BSSR head said.

Renaming of the main Minsk streets by the Belarusian authorities caused protest in the Belarusian society. Actions with requirements to return the capital streets names of Francysk Skaryna and Pyotr Masherau are organised in the Minsk center. The protest aroused a severe reaction of the Minsk riot militia. People with portraits of famous Belarusians were forced out of Minsk streets. It is remarkable that Belarusian riot militiamen tore portraits of Pyotr Masherau in the face of war veterans. Not long time ago Lukashenka admired that man and boasted of his close relations with that family. But later he deprived the central avenue of its name and militiamen arrested war veterans carrying Masherau portraits, and tore them defiantly.