Great Wars, Great Changes, Great Trauma: The Example of Belarus

• In Event: Belarus I: Elusive Identities — Then and Now

Abstract

From the outbreak of the First World War (1914) to Stalin's death (1953), i.e. for only about forty years, the territory of present-day Belarus was the scene of large-scale armed conflicts (First World War, Bolshevik Revolution, Polish-Bolshevik War, Soviet invasion of Poland, World War II, Stalinist terror. They were accompanied by death, torture, rape and violence. Countries, laws, political and economic systems, money and basic principles changed radically every few years. People living in such conditions (having survived all this) suffered great trauma. The trauma does not only affect the generation that was a participant. Traumatic experiences are passed on from generation to generation (so-called transgenerational trauma). The aim of the article is to present and organise historical events that shape the ‘Belarusian psyche’ and to examine their level of psychological tension. Our research indicates that contemporary Belarusian society carries the traumas of previous generations and shows a high level of it. Neither communism nor the current regime has helped to heal the trauma. Communism turned the ‘Great Patriotic War’ into a religion and threatened people with nuclear annihilation, while the current regime continues the cult of war and threatens with a Western invasion. The paper is based on a historical analysis and mainly on a sociological survey of the mentality of Belarusians carried out in 2023 as part of a project by the National Centre for Research and Development (Poland).

Author

• Andrzej Pieczewski, U of Łódź (Poland)