Stanislau Shushkevich: Changes In Belarus Are Inevitable

In the early 1990s, the starting conditions of Belarus were better than those of Poland, Lithuania and some other countries.

The first head of independent Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich told about what awaits us during the Reshape-2017 conference within the framework of the Idea platform. zautra.by writes about it.

– In the early 1990s, the starting conditions of Belarus were better than those of Poland, Lithuania and some other countries. And today the average salary in Poland is three and a half times higher than the Belarusian one.

It is impossible that the salary in not much more educated and no better organized Latvia was three times higher than in Belarus, and in Belarus itself the work of a cashier who graduated from a technical school, and the work of a university teacher, who wrote a thesis, would be evaluated equally.

It is clearly seen that Belarus has chosen an economically incorrect direction, which guarantees only the preservation of the existing power.

There are no simple solutions in political and state affairs. Therefore, highly educated people should head the country. And Belarus has problems with this issue – many have huge ambitions and poor education.

What is done now is not what is to be done in the situation in which the country has found itself. And the reason for this is the general political ignorance that has remained, because we came from the country where there was no political education.

The policy should always be corrected for the state to develop. It does not happen in Belarus. Moreover, the local self-government has been completely liquidated in the country. A system in which a higher body always corrects the decisions of the lower, without division of functions, cannot be effective.

It can be seen that capitalism is beginning to establish in Belarus, it is a more progressive system than the barracks communism, but I would not want this capitalism to follow the path of Latin America.

About his achievements

– I consider the Belavezha Accords and the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from the territory of the country my personal great achievements.

For the first time since 1794, Russia recognized the independence of Belarus by the agreement on the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Moreover, the division of the Soviet Union, contrary to the expectations of some world politicians, was carried out without a civil war.

But the greatest achievement of the 1990s was the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from the territory of Belarus. After all, its presence on the territory of the country threatened with the destruction of the Belarusian nation and even Europe. Would we use it to protect ourselves from possible aggressors?

About the European state for all

– Changes in Belarus will take place, it is difficult to say how long this will take, but they are inevitable. I would not only want them to be revolutionary, since we have already suffered from revolutions. We should look for other possibilities.

This is not a simple question, it is connected with the education. There are those in the country who believe that we are Europeans, and those who defend the idea of the "Russian world".

I am against the "Russian world", because I believe that Russia does not deserve to dictate to Belarus, ideologically and philosophically it is not a country which one can take as an example to follow.

Our task is to develop a European state for all. People should decide via elections what kind of state it will be.

And then a question arises: Belarusians are praised that they have always survived under any conditions, but one must distinguish between survival and obedience. There can’t be any obedience when we are talking about fundamental political issues, there must be a compromise, interaction between those structures that want to change the political system to a more democratic one.