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Belarus Political Parties
Stanislaw Shushkyevich observed at the beginning of
1993 that
almost 60 percent of Belarusians did not support any
political
party, only 3.9 percent of the electorate backed the
communist
party, and only 3.8 percent favored the BPF. The influence
of
other parties was much lower.
The Communist Party of Belarus (CPB), part of the
Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), claimed to rule the
Belorussian
SSR in the name of the proletariat for the entire duration
of the
republic's existence. For most of this period, it sought
to
control all aspects of government and society and to
infuse
political, economic, and social policies with the correct
ideological content. By the late 1980s, however, the party
watched as Mikhail S. Gorbachev attempted to withdraw the
CPSU
from day-to-day economic affairs.
After the CPB was banned in the wake of the August 1991
coup
d'état, Belarusian communists regrouped and renamed
themselves
the Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB), which became the
umbrella organization for Belarus's communist parties and
proRussian groups. The PCB was formally registered in
December 1991.
The Supreme Soviet lifted the ban on the CPB in February
1993.
The most active and visible of the opposition political
groups in Belarus in the first half of the 1990s was the
Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), founded in October 1989
with
Zyanon Paznyak as chairman. The BPF declared itself a
movement
open to any individual or party, including communists,
provided
that those who joined shared its basic goal of a fully
independent and democratic Belarus. The BPF's critics,
however,
claimed that it was indeed a party, pointing out the
movement's
goal of seeking political power, having a "shadow
cabinet," and
being engaged in parliamentary politics.
The United Democratic Party of Belarus was founded in
November 1990 and was the first political party in
independent
Belarus other than the communist party. Its membership is
composed of technical intelligentsia, professionals,
workers, and
peasants. It seeks an independent Belarus, democracy,
freedom of
ethnic expression, and a market economy.
The Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly (Hramada)
emerged
in March 1991. Its members include workers, peasants,
students,
military personnel, and urban and rural intelligentsia.
Its
program advocates an independent Belarus, which does not
rule out
membership in the CIS, and a market economy with state
regulation
of certain sectors. The assembly cooperates with other
parties
and considers itself part of the worldwide social
democratic
movement.
The Belarusian Peasant Party, founded in February 1991,
is
headquartered in Minsk and has branches in most
voblastsi.
The party's goals include privatization of land, a free
market, a
democratic government, and support of Belarusian culture
and
humanism.
The Belarusian Christian Democratic Union, founded in
June
1991, was a continuation of the Belarusian
Christian-Democratic
Party, which was disbanded by the Polish authorities in
western
Belarus in the 1930s. Its membership consists mainly of
the
intelligentsia, and it espouses Christian values,
nonviolence,
pluralism, private property, and peaceful relations among
ethnic
groups.
The "Belaya Rus'" Slavic Council was founded in June
1992 as
a conservative Russophile group that defends Russian
interests in
all spheres of social life, vociferously objects to the
status of
Belarusian as the republic's sole official language, and
demands
equal status for the Russian language.
In 1995 other parties included the Belarusian
Ecological
Party, the National Democratic Party of Belarus, the Party
of
People's Accord, the All-Belarusian Party of Popular Unity
and
Accord, the Belarusian United Agrarian Democratic Party,
the
Belarusian Scientific Industrial Congress, the Belarusian
Green
Party, the Belarusian Humanitarian Party, the Belarusian
Party of
Labor, the Belarusian Party of Labor and Justice, the
Belarusian
Socialist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus,
the
Polish Democratic Union, and the Republican Party.
Data as of June 1995
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