|
Belarus Perestroika
The early days of Mikhail S. Gorbachev's
perestroika (see Glossary)
in Belorussia were highlighted by two major
events: the Chornobyl' disaster of April 26, 1986 (the
Belorussian SSR absorbed 70 percent of the radioactive
contaminants spewed out by the reactor), and a December
1986
petition sent by twenty-eight intellectuals to Gorbachev
expressing the Belorussian people's fundamental grievances
in the
field of culture ("a cultural Chornobyl'").
Whereas the full impact of the physical effects of
Chornobyl'
was kept secret for more than three years, the "cultural
Chornobyl'" became a subject of hot discussion and an
inspiration
for considerable political activity. The petition pleaded
with
Gorbachev to prevent the "spiritual extinction" of the
Belorussian nation and laid out measures for the
introduction of
Belorussian as a working language in party, state, and
local
government bodies and at all levels of education,
publishing,
mass media, and other fields.
The document embodied the aspirations of a considerable
part
of the national intelligentsia, who, having received no
positive
answer from the CPSU leadership either in Moscow or in
Minsk,
took to the streets. A number of independent youth groups
sprang
up, many of which embraced the national cause. In July
1988, the
Organizational Committee of the Confederation of
Belorussian
Youth Associations called for "support of the radical
restructuring of Belorussia."
In June 1988, mass graves, allegedly with up to 250,000
of
Stalin's victims, were found near Minsk at Kurapaty. This
sensational discovery fueled denunciations of the old
regime and
brought demands for reforms. An October demonstration,
attended
by about 10,000 people and dispersed by riot police,
commemorated
these victims as well as expressing support for the
Belarusian
Popular Front (BPF), which had been formed earlier in the
month
in hopes of encouraging reform.
The group of activists who called for reform was
relatively
small; most people, although angry about the graves,
remained
both attached to Soviet ways and politically apathetic,
believing
that all these public activities would make no difference
in the
long run. The March 4, 1990, elections to the republic's
Supreme Soviet (see Glossary)
illustrated the extent of political
apathy
and ideological inertia. Of the 360 seats in the
legislature,
fifteen were unfilled (at least eleven remained so more
than a
year later); of those elected, 86 percent belonged to the
Communist Party of Belorussia (CPB). This conservative
majority
was not alone in slowing the pace of reforms. A majority
of the
republic's population, 83 percent, also voted
conservatively in
the March 17 all-union referendum on the preservation of
the
Soviet Union, even though the Supreme Soviet of the
Belorussian
SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the
Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic on June 27, 1990
(following
the Russian example of some two weeks earlier).
A series of strikes in April 1991 put an end to the
Belorussian SSR's reputation as the quietest of the
European
Soviet republics. The demands were mainly economic (higher
wages
and cancellation of a new sales tax), but some were also
political (resignation of the Belorussian government and
depoliticization of republic institutions). Certain
economic
demands were met, but the political ones were not.
However,
increasing dissent within the party led to thirty-three
CPB
deputies joining the opposition as the Communists for
Democracy
faction one month later.
Data as of June 1995
|
