Stanislav Shushkevich, first leader of Belarus after its independence following the break-up of the USSR, has died aged 87. He had recently been hospitalised with Covid-19.
He was born in Minsk in December 1934. Under the Stalin regime, his father was twice arrested and sent to work camps in Siberia. During the Second World War, the city was occupied by Nazis. His family and their neighbours protected a Jewish family by pretending they were Armenian. After the war, and school, Shushkevich went on to study at Belarusian State University, then the Institute of Physics at the Belarusian Academy of Sciences. While working at a radio factory, he was put in charge of teaching Russian to Lee Harvey Oswald, who had defected to the Soviet Union, and who was later to be accused of assassinating JF Kennedy before his own murder.
Shushkevich became a leading physicist, and after the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, he was greatly concerned of the damage that would befall Belarus, criticising the Soviet government for not doing enough. He tore up a picture of Mikhail Gorbachev which he'd had hanging in his office, having previously respected him.
After the
1991 coup attempt, he, Boris Yeltsin, and Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine, signed the declaration that
dissolved the USSR. As the new leader of an independent Belarus, he committed to getting rid of the nation's nuclear weapons. Shushkevich's leadership ended in late 1994 following disputed allegations of corruption by Alexander Lukashenko.
In July 1994, Lukashenko was elected as new leader, a position he still holds following a series of elections widely held to be unfair. Shushkevich was critical of Lukashenko, and remained so for the rest of his life. In
an interview in September 2019, he said, "Our leaders are mostly uneducated. For example, Lukashenko. He is poorly educated. He knows that he should make every effort, take all measures to keep power. He doesn’t have other goals. He is not concerned about doing better for Belarus."
Last December, he stated, "This man will do anything to retain power... Lukashenka has been in power for over 10 thousand days. However, the achievements of his rule are miserable- Belarus ranked last in all positive indicators in Europe... He has arrested more than a thousand people in the country. This is a criminal entrenched in the position of the President fraudulently. It is not economists or political scientists who run us now, it is the law enforcers who take care of themselves."
"Putin may want to devour Belarus now. There is no place for Lukashenka to go. He will do all Putin's orders. They are rejecting national symbols, Belarusian history, imposing bans on anything and everything. Many people are in prison. This is called state terrorism."
He was given a monthly pension of only $1.80, but supplemented this measly income by giving lectures in universities in many different countries. Despite his condemnation of Lukashenko and Putin, Shushkevich was optimistic for the young people of Belarus.
Radio Free Europe have run an obituary:
Stanislau Shushkevich, First Leader Of Independent Belarus, Dead At 87
(Edited to fix link.)
