19 September, 1991, the white-red-white flag was voted to become the official flag of Belarus. Just in few years, it would be scrapped by Alexander Lukashenka. Since 1995, Belarus has lived under the soviet-style symbols again.
There’s a myth circulated by some media outlets that back in 1991 Lukashenka was the one who carried the white-red-white banner into the house of the Belarusian parliament after the flag was voted to become an official symbol of the country. Well, he wasn’t the one who carried the flag, but, indeed, he partook in the procession by walking next to Uladzimir Kavalyonak, the one with the flag.
As RFE\RL reports, Lukashenka continued to wear a Belarusian Soviet Republic flag pin on his lapel even after the historical symbol change. And soon after Lukashenka had become president, he scrapped the white-red-white flag together with historical Pahonia emblem and returned our country under the soviet symbols. Since then the white-red-white banner has been tabooed from public use. It is mostly seen at opposition rallies, nonprofit organizations’ offices, etc. Even the most casual use, for instance, a white-red-white flag pin, may raise some eyebrows when spotted by the police.
Wearing a now-official red-green flag is also a political statement. Of course, there are many people who simply have to wear the current symbols on their military or police uniforms, athletes wear red-green T’s, so on. But apart from these groups of people, common folk hardly ever put a flag on unless they want to demonstrate their political standpoint (it’s not just in Belarus but in many countries). The red-green is usually pinned on by members of the Belarusian Republican Union of Youth (the union is pro-Lukashenka), but even many of these youngsters are not true believers in the symbolism of Lukashenka-styled Belarus, they just submit.
Lukashenka, similarly to many dictators, has used pots of money to nurture love for his symbols. Remember military parades, social billboards and placards, various patriotic events. I don’t know. Maybe this has yielded some fruit. But youth is not so inclined to show love for the red-green. The white-red-white is a statement of dissent and many young people are attracted to the flag endorsed by many a rock band and their counterparts. For them, the white-red-white flag is not just about Belarusian history, it’s about the European choice, it’s about the future they do not see possible under the soviet symbols.
