A number of pro-Russian activists and participants in today’s Immortal Regiment rally are calling on president Alyaksandr Lukashenka to place Belarus’ historical white-red-white flag on the same footing with the banned neo-Nazi symbols.
The corresponding letter published on the Russian Spring website was signed by Artsyom Ahafonau, the chairman of the organization Zgoda Media, Uladzimir Ryzhankou, the chairman of the organization Our History, Uladzimir Shein, a member of the Veterans’ Board of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, poet Kiryl Zabauski and others.
According to the authors of the letter, it was ‘Nazi collaborators’ who used the historical flag of Belarusians. However, they never proposed to impose a ban on waving the Russian tricolor which was displayed by the so-called Russian Liberation Army under the command of pro-Nazi General Andrey Vlasov.
Interestingly, Artsyom Ahafonau previously published photos of him next to a white-red-white flag.
The emblem Pahonya (Pursuit) and the white-red-white flag were symbols of the Belarusian National Republic. It came into existence at the end of the First World War, when Bolshevik forces left Minsk and the city was occupied by German troops. On March 25, 1918 the Provisional Government (Rada) proclaimed the independence of the BNR. After the Red Army re-entered Minsk, the Communist government replaced the Rada; its members had to emigrate.
On 19 September 1991, the historical white-red-white flag and the emblem Pahonya were officially recognized as the state symbols of Belarus. This decision was taken by the Supreme Council of the BSSR of the 12th convocation after the Soviet collapse. Parliamentarians then adopted a resolution to change the name of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic into the Republic of Belarus.
Historical Belarusian symbols were official until the 1995 referendum, when on the tip from Alyaksandr Lukashenka they were replaced by the Soviet ones, an emblem that bears a close resemblance to that of the BSSR and a red and green flag which was introduced in Stalin’s time.
