Daria Cusitcaia is Project Coordinator at the Institute of Political Studies “Political Sphere”. She holds a MA in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe at the University of Bologna. Recently, she conducted research on the K. Kalinowski Scholarship Program at the Centre for East European Studies (SEW) of the University of Warsaw and worked in the Organising Committee of the 9th International Congress of Belarusian Studies in Kaunas. In addition to memory studies, she has a passion for anthropology of post-Socialism.
Ilaria Zaggia recently completed a MA in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe at the University of Bologna, graduating with a thesis on Belarusian identity and language. Previously, she obtained a BA cum laude in Languages and Translation at the University of Trieste. In 2020 she worked as an intern for the Italian Embassy in Minsk. Her main research interests span from Sociolinguistics to Identity and Post-Soviet Studies.
The article aims to explore post-Soviet transition in Belarus with a focus on issues of identity, language, and collective memory, providing original insights to interpret the events of 2020. The reconstruction of the debate on identity models in Belarus constitutes the basis of the article, briefly covering the period from the early 1990s up to recent times. It is argued that, after 2014, the so-called Soft-Belarusisation highlighted some changes taking place in Belarusian society, manifested through civic initiatives and the shift in the government’s narrative. These will also be visible in the case study of the contested hero Kastus’ Kalinoŭski whose symbolic meaning has been reshaped in the memories of Belarusians after the 2020 protests. It is concluded that Soft-Belarusisation can be considered as a process of transition from an identity that still features many Soviet elements towards an identity under redefinition, which also incorporates elements from alternative models of national identity.