| Abstract [eng] |
Since the 1990s, Belarusian identity has undergone several notable transformations. After the last and so far only democratic election of 1994, the government of Alyaksandr Lukashenka was not concerned with constructing a nationally oriented Belarusian identity. On the contrary, Lukashenka cut back the national revival movement, and facilitated de-Belarusification of the nation. One of the most recent transformations occurred as a result of the processes that took place between 2014 and early 2020, following the occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea and leading up to the 2020 protests. The rising tensions in the region increased the sense of ontological anxiety and facilitated the reconstruction of national identity. The official discourse on national identity elements, including the representation of the Belarusian language and the history of statehood, was revised. In this period of more than six years, concurrently with the changing discourse, a series of identity building social practices were instigated by non-governmental actors. These processes impacted on the previous models of identity and paved the way to further identity development. This dissertation, based on ontological security theory, has sought to research the questions, what were the models of Belarusian national identity constructed by the authorities and non-governmental actors in the period 2014–2019 in light of the ontological security challenges, and how were these models constructed? |
