“Rejected Returns”. The influence of Russian propaganda on the formation of historical narrative in modern Belarus and the national identity of Belarusian society

Abstract

Over the past decade, and especially after the events related to the annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbas, and the presidential elections in Belarus in August 2020, Russia has been trying to interfere in the development of Belarusian historical science, in particular, and the formation of the Belarusian view of national history in general. This is due to, among other things, the desire to control the process of forming the national identity of Belarusian society. In this article, we will consider only some examples of how modern Russian scientific publications, members of the political establishment, as well as online publications use various aspects of the historical past of Belarus in order to impose their Russian-imperial view of Belarusian history.