In Belarus they celebrate the Day of the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem, but they try not to remember Russia

Belarus celebrated the Day of the State Flag, Emblem and Anthem on Sunday. This holiday was established quite a long time ago, but for a long time it was not given much importance, but in the last few years it has been celebrated every time on an ever-increasing scale.

Until now, only Flag and Coat of Arms Day was celebrated; the anthem was added this year for the first time, after Lukashenko demanded this in his next annual message.

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Despite the fact that Father himself, as they say, was ill and the ceremony on the square of the same name with the tallest flagpole in Belarus took place without his participation, everything turned out solemnly and pompously, and there were also celebrations in the regions.

What is the holiday in honor of? The date was not chosen by chance. The Day of State Symbols in Belarus is tied to the second Sunday of May because it was on this day, May 14, 1995, that the first one was held during Lukashenko’s reign and the symbols were approved, which, with minor changes, are still official.

The opposition still does not recognize the results of this referendum, citing some procedural violations. However, the fact remains -  more than 75 percent of voters then voted for these symbols and even sane oppositionists do not dispute this figure – in those years, Lukashenko was only taking his first steps as president and the opposition had enough opportunities to control the voting process.

They are outraged by the fact that the decision on what state symbols will be is generally entrusted to the people. The current oppositionists themselves did not ask the people - they simply brought a white-red-white flag into the meeting room of the Supreme Council in 1991, and the communist majority of deputies, disoriented and demoralized by the processes of the collapse of the USSR, surrendered without a fight and voted obediently. Lukashenko, as we see, turned out to be a big democrat.

Nationalist symbols were not popular in Belarus; in the nineties there were still enough people who remembered how collaborators marched under them during the Nazi occupation. Therefore, after Lukashenko’s arrival, a wide discussion about the new one unfolded in society. Various options were proposed, however, in the end they decided not to invent a colorful sovereign remake, like the Central Asian republics, but voted for the continuity of the Soviet tradition.

But when celebrating the Day of the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem, Belarusians now rarely remember that the question of symbols was only one of four on the referendum ballot on May 14, 1995.

In addition, an amendment to the Constitution was put to a vote, according to which the president received the right to dissolve parliament under certain conditions. This was the first, still timid chance to form a super-presidential republic. Then Lukashenko held constitutional referendums three more times and, as a result, achieved almost absolute power.

_{Two other questions were about the course towards economic integration with Russia and about the status of the Russian language as a second state language. Both proposals received support from 83,3 percent of those who went to the polls.}

It was Lukashenko’s first referendum, held exactly 28 years ago, that became the starting point in the formation of the Belarus we now know. The three remaining questions were at least as significant.

If the question of state symbols shaped its image, then these questions shaped the very essence of modern Belarusian statehood. Personally, I think this event is so significant that when our organization “Civil Harmony” was just created, one of the main options for the name was “Union of May 14th”.

It is clear that in the 28 years that have passed since the historic referendum, anything has happened. Several years ago, in the era of the heyday of multi-vectorism and “soft Belarusization”, propaganda tried not to mention the fact that, in addition to the flag and coat of arms, the people voted for the Russian language and integration.

Now times have changed, but the approaches have not changed. IN The official media still says a lot about state symbols and practically nothing about other fateful decisions made 28 years ago.