Journal on Baltic Security

Since the 1990s, the Belarusian identity has undergone several notable transformations. One of the most recent transformative periods took place from 2014 to 2020, when Belarus’ state authorities revisited official discourse on national identity elements, particularly the Belarusian language following the rise of new hybrid challenges. By changing their discursive practices, state officials, civil society, and private business simultaneously undertook a series of practical processes targeting Belarusian language and statehood narratives. The mass protests of 2020, followed by unprecedented repression, not only altered the preceding processes, but also signalled the start of a new stage in Belarusian identity development, with the shifting tempo and transformation of identity narratives and practices. From the perspective of ontological security, this article has identified and assessed the contemporary identity-building processes in the domains of language and history, arguing that past and current identity-building practices allowed by the authorities have been primarily driven by ontological anxiety.

Belarus is often considered as ‘the last authoritarian state in Europe’ or the ‘last Soviet Republic’.