Belarus, which lies at the periphery of the former Soviet empire, offers the possibility of exploring the applicability to the post-Soviet context of general theories of postcolonial consciousness.
The recent growth of ties between the neo-totalitarian Belarusian State and the Orthodox Church, which goes hand in hand with the state’s undermining of the status of other religious confessions, has generated tensions in the Belarusian postcolonial subject who must now negotiate a path between multiple national identity projects. The state’s attempts to influence directly (by closing non-Orthodox places of worship) and indirectly (through mass media propaganda) the population’s religious stance via the imposition of a pro-Russian model have exacerbated the differences between Orthodoxy and other religions. The official policy has not only fostered stronger ties between non-Orthodox believers, but has also facilitated the exploration by Belarusian subjects of correlations between their religious, ethnic affiliations and geopolitical components to their post-Soviet identities. In many cases this has led to the revitalisation of a hitherto dormant pro-Belarusian identity project.
Drawing on both media text and ethnographic fieldwork, the paper considers how this policy impacts upon ‘alternative’ religious identities and the challenge they pose to official mythologies. Crucially, it is expected that the analysis will shed light on similar processes at work within a colonial centre (Russia) whose increasingly authoritarian path under Putin has recently been described ironically as one of ‘Belarusization’. Finally, it will highlight contradictions within postcolonial Belarus’ official culture, which must differentiate itself from Russia precisely by strengthening its lost, Orthodox-Slavic essence.