BPR Rada: Soviet Inertia In Belarus Presented By Corrupt Lukashenka Regime

Here is the statement to the 80th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

A statement of the Rada of the Belarusian People's Republic to the 80th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact has been published by the website of the BPR Rada radabnr.org:

- On this day 80 years ago, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a nonaggression pact, the secret part of which is provided for the division of Eastern Europe between the two totalitarian states. Western Belarus, which at that time was under the Polish control, was in the Soviet sphere of influence, which at that time already controlled the eastern part of Belarus.

A week after the signing of the agreement, Germany invaded Poland, that was the beginning of the Second World War.

Two weeks later, the Soviet Union joined Hitler, having attacked Poland from the east, and thus de facto entered the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany. In 1939-1941, the Soviet Union seized the Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, Bessarabia and the Baltic countries. Only Finland managed to defend independence in the unequal war against the Soviet military machine.

The war between Germany and the Soviet Union began in the summer of 1941, almost two years after the start of the World War II. Within three years, Belarus was occupied by the German troops. The German occupation was accompanied by genocide of the Belarusian Jewry, political terror, crimes against civilians.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact symbolizes the tragedy of our region in the twentieth century. Millions Eastern Europeans were destroyed by the Nazis and the Communists for their political views, ethnic or social origin. Millions died in the Second World War, the culprits for the start of which were totalitarian regimes in Germany and the USSR.

Once under Soviet and Nazi occupation, Belarus and other countries in the region lost decades of free development.

Belarus suffered from the Nazi and Soviet occupations more than many other countries. We still have not overcome the effects of decades of repression and propaganda that shaped several generations of our people.

The Soviet inertia in Belarus is represented by an authoritarian and corrupt regime of Lukashenka, whose ideology and methods of management, first of all, are based on the legacy of the Soviet regime. Early in his presidency, Aliaksandr Lukashenka publicly expressed admiration for the power system built by Adolf Hitler in Germany. The years after this scandalous statement confirmed the sincerity of this delight.

At the same time, the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the impetus for our neighbors to achieve the restoration of their independence from the USSR. These days, the Baltic countries celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the “Baltic Way” - an unprecedented peaceful protest, which in 1989 brought together several million people in the Soviet Baltic area, demanding independence for their countries. The civil movement in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia became a strong inspiration for Belarusians.

Despite the terror and propaganda, our people managed to survive and restore their independence in the late twentieth century. There is a great historic victory also of the Belarusian people.

The BPR Rada confirms its assessment of the Nazi regime in Germany and the communist regime in the Soviet Union, in this Statement to the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War (2015), the Declaration of Memory and Solidarity (2016) and other documents.

The BPR Rada strongly condemns tacit promotion of Stalinism, which has been happening in Russia in the recent years, and under its influence - in Belarus. The BPR Rada draws attention to the need for legal and historical assessment of the actions of the Soviet regime in Belarus, similar to the current assessment of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime.

The BPR Rada claims that the future of Belarus should be built according to the values of freedom and democracy, with indisputable priority of individual rights and the value of human life.

The BPR Rada draws attention to the critical importance of international solidarity and strong international resistance to the dictatorial regime based on the values of freedom and democracy - in the Second World War, and in the present. Let the experience of the twentieth century become a reliable vaccine against totalitarianism for humanity.