What's wrong with the new holiday in Belarus

National Unity Day is a new Belarusian holiday, which is celebrated on September 17. It was established by Lukashenko’s decree on June 7 and is celebrated for the first time this year. This holiday is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the events of 1939, when, as a result of the Red Army’s campaign, the western territories previously occupied by Poland under the terms of the Peace of Riga were annexed to the BSSR.

For Belarusians, the significance of this date is difficult to overestimate - they ceased to be a divided people, the BSSR acquired borders close to modern ones, and the policy of forced Polonization and Catholicization was stopped in relation to Western Belarusians.

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In many Belarusian cities, especially in the western part of the republic, there are streets on September 17, but the multi-vector Belarusian leadership has long shied away from making this day a public holiday. Apparently, he was afraid to offend Poland, which is still suffering from phantom pains from the “sprouting flowers.” After the events of 2020, the desire to stand on ceremony with the Poles sharply declined, but the need for new symbols capable of somehow consolidating Belarusians in support of Lukashenko increased no less sharply.

As a result, somewhere at the end of last year, someone from the Belarusian leader’s entourage proposed uniting a society more divided than ever with the ideologeme of “national unity.” 2021 was declared the Year of National Unity, the largest pro-government public association “Belaya Rus” almost became the Party of National Unity, and, of course, there was no more suitable date for the role of National Unity Day than September 17.

I myself was among those who sought to make September 17 an official public holiday. We, together with other politicians and social activists, even created an informal “Committee of 17”, which promoted this initiative. Recently meeting with other members of the Committee of 17, I saw that they had an ambiguous attitude towards the new holiday. On the one hand, the authorities made a decision that they had been seeking for several years. On the other hand, she put her own meanings into it, far from those that they put in.

That's what says about National Unity Day official website of the Belarusian President:

“The unity restored in 1939 allowed Belarus to survive the Great Patriotic War, take an honorable place in the international community, and become one of the co-founders of the United Nations. Today, the Belarusian people are united in choosing a strategic course for the development of a strong, sovereign and prosperous country. The establishment of National Unity Day on September 17 emphasizes the continuity of generations, the inviolability and self-sufficiency of the Belarusian nation and statehood.”

It is easy to notice that there is not a word here that no reunification could have happened without the Soviet Union and the Red Army, in which, as we know, soldiers of various nationalities served. And there was no talk of any inviolability and self-sufficiency of the Belarusian statehood at that time. There was a liberation of previously occupied territory and its reunification with Soviet Belarus.

By establishing a new holiday and filling it with its content, the Belarusian authorities forgot the main thing - without Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs and many other peoples of the Soviet Union, it would have been impossible to celebrate either September 17 or July 3 (the Day of the Liberation of Minsk from the Nazis, for some reason called in Belarus Independence Day), nor May 9 (thank God, they didn’t think of renaming Victory Day in Minsk). There is strength in unity - this is what the experience of Soviet military history teaches. Instead, they are trying to sell us some kind of Belarus-centric version of it, in which they are diligently trying not to focus attention on this unity.

As for national unity, to which the new holiday is dedicated, then, as you know, no matter how much you say “halva”, it will not become sweeter in your mouth. Society in Belarus continues to remain divided, and this can hardly be corrected only by holding official events.