Editorial – Issue 22
Thirty years have passed since the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of Belarus on the world map as an independent state. While most of the countries of Central …
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Analogue Dictatorship against Digital Multitude
The political crisis in Belarus that unfolded in 2020 uncovered a deep divide within Belarusian society. Two years after the division between the archaic regime and the large part of …
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Features and Effects of the Digital Technologies in the Belarusian Protest
In the following article we aim to show, firstly, how IT and, more broadly, digital systems determine the specificity (both in a positive and negative sense) of Belarusian protests. And …
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Strategy of Language Resistance in Telegram during the Belarusian Civic Movement
The 2020-2021 Belarusian civil protest combined not only traditional methods of disobedience, but also forms of digital counteracting, broadened the concept of information space and in many ways transformed it. …
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Telegram in Belarusian Protests of 2020: Affective Tool for Populist’s Uprisings
Certain political uprisings might be associated with this or that particular digital platform (for example, ‘Arab spring’ and Twitter). The 2020–2021 Belarusian protest is well-known for the popularity of Telegram …
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Ugly Repressions, Protest’s Beauty and Emotional Community on Belarusian Political Instagram
Drawing on ethnographic notes and interviews about Instagram use among Belarusians, this article explores social meanings of the platform in relation to Belarusian protests 2020-2021. First, the context is outlined, …
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The Confluence of Television and Money Flows in Belarusian Authoritarianism
From the very beginning, Lukashenko’s regime was aimed at creating the ‘television society’, in which the vertical unilateral communication should have resulted in the multitude of the obedient viewers deprived …
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‘C’mon, Turn Swan Lake on’: Memories of the 1990s at the Belarusian Protests of 2020
This exploratory study is dedicated to the actualisation of memories of the 1990s during the 2020 protests in Belarus. The public discontent manifested during the latest presidential election campaign in …
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Beyond the ‘Telegram Revolution’: Understanding the Role of Social Media in Belarus Protests
When anti-government protests erupted in Belarus in 2020, journalists and commentators were quick to dub them a ‘Telegram revolution’, by referencing the messenger app that was instrumental in coordinating the …
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The Unintended Female Revolution?
Women have been at the forefront of the presidential campaign in 2020 in Belarus, galvanising a nationwide protest movement against the long-standing autocratic ruler Alexander Lukashenko whose regime seemed unshakeable …
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The Protest Art of Antanina Slabodchykava
While online protest art attracts the public’s attention, the act of its creation or the artists themselves often remain overlooked. This opinion piece will focus on Belarusian protest art in …
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A Religious Factor in Belarus’ Protest: Mediation of the Political Crisis by the Church
During the mass protests in Belarus before and after the presidential election in August 2020, several high-ranking religious representatives in the country publicly took a critical stance to the political …
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Battleground ‘Lukamol’: The Belarusian Republican Youth Union between a Rock and a Hard Place
In summer and autumn 2020, Belarus witnessed unprecedented pre-electoral mobilization during the presidential campaign followed by equally unprecedented mass protests against electoral fraud and subsequent disproportionate state violence across the …
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‘Dissenting Belarus’ through the eyes of Belarusian documentary filmmakers
Diana El focuses on protest documentary films by Belarusian directors. The text combines several narratives: the author captures the changes in the cultural landscape since the Belarusian protests in 2020, in …
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