Belarusians failed to defend their independence in 1918.

It was not possible to consolidate a full-fledged success - the achievement of independence - in 1991.

It was almost impossible to preserve one's own language - and so on.

We need to get rid of it, and the current situation, oddly enough, creates favorable conditions for this.

We live in a time when Belarusians can look down on at least the Russians, whom many in Belarus are accustomed to consider as "elder brothers" and a metropolis.

And Russians have something to envy Belarusians.

See.

Belarus has a structured, strong democratic movement.

There is a somewhat legitimate President-elect

with political structures around her.

There is a high-quality opposition to Tikhonovskaya led by

.

Rally in Minsk, 2020

Belarus has a clear national-state ideology.

There is a clear constructive national vision of its past and its future.

There is the Council of the BNR as the embodiment of historical continuity.

In Belarus, there is a well-known and ideologically relevant preparation for the appearance of a national army - the Kalinovsky regiment and other volunteer units in Ukraine.

The Russians have none of this.

Rally in Moscow, 2011

Instead of the leader of the opposition, for whom hundreds of thousands or even millions of people voted, there are several public figures (

, anyone else?), who, with all due respect, were not chosen by anyone and who represent only themselves.

Instead of a protest movement, there are groups of people who try to avoid each other: stormtroopers, stragglers, and mostly just lonely individuals.

The idea of ​​the existence of Russian legionnaires in the Ukrainian army (like those who allegedly raided Branshchyna on March 2) is carefully dispelled by the Russian opposition society, calling them only provocateurs.

SEE ALSO: The Anti-War Committee of Russia called the organizers of the aggression against Ukraine war criminals

And even as far as the speakers are concerned, there is a certain historical continuity and identity: the Romanov dynasty approves the annexation of Crimea, the descendants of white emigrants have joined right-wing radicalism and cooperate with the Chekists.

Even the Soviet dissident movement never grew into something bigger than the research and educational society "Memorial" - indeed the only organization in Russia worthy of the Nobel Prize, but which is nowhere near a political movement or an ideological inspiration for such a movement.

Russians don't even have national symbols.

The tricolor, which was the flag of the democratic revolution of 1991, is now tarnished as a symbol of Putin's regime.

There is no anthem.

There is no coat of arms.

Against this background, Belarusians have a universally recognized white-red-white flag, a universally recognized and beloved coat of arms, and two or more excellent songs claim the role of the national anthem.

The flag of the anti-Putin opposition.

Vilnius 2022

The search for a new Russian identity: there is no one and no place

Russians will have to reinvent themselves, look for some new historical figures and images as a support.

Neither the Russian Empire, nor the USSR, nor the post-Soviet Russian Federation can be such a support.

And the Russians haven't even come close to that yet.

Moreover, it is not even visible who could do it.

SEE ALSO: "Russia will be defeated."

Kasparov, Khodorkovsky and Nemtsova spoke about the future of Russia at a conference in Munich

After all, the Russian opposition resembles an onion, from which you can separate the layers one by one.

First come the fascists, for whom Putin's minus is his insufficient radicalism.

Then there are hypocrites who, under various excuses, did not want to return the annexed Crimea to Ukraine until February 2022, even recognizing the illegality of the annexation itself.

Then there are those who do not want to pay reparations to Ukraine and refuse responsibility for the war.

Then there are those who, at the mention of the possibility of decolonization of Russia,

grimace appears on their faces and who write scathing reports from the congresses of various Tatar, Chechen, and Ural independents.

And only at the very end are the figures with whom an adequate dialogue is possible in the surrounding world: a very thin layer of people, like

, who sometimes no longer identify themselves with Russia and some of whom even the majority of the anti-Putin public thinks about in the vocabulary of

Russians have interesting journalists, publicists, media projects - with better financing and more professional than in Belarus and Ukraine.

But Russians have those who speak beautifully, and they don't have those who are able to do things.

In Belarus, despite all the obvious weaknesses and vices, the opposite is true.

SEE ALSO: "It turned out similar to the Belarusian flag and this is a positive feature."

They spoke with the author of the Russian anti-war flag

In 2020, Belarusians copied Russian protest symbols, which looked shameful: both

song and "I/We", and white ribbons, which Tsikhanovskaya's headquarters initially wanted to use in order not to use the white-red-white flag.

In 2023, the Russians already copy the Belarusian protest symbols, starting with the white-blue-white flag, which looks like a plagiarism of the Belarusian white-red-white one.

It also looks unpleasant, but for a completely different reason.

The opinions expressed in the blogs represent the views of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the position of the editors.

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• Ales Chaychyts

  Born in 1984 in Moscow.

  Since the beginning of the 2000s, he has been an activist of the Belarusian diaspora in Russia, later in Great Britain.

  Since 2013, a member of the Council of the Belarusian People's Republic.

  In 2017–2021

  a member of the Great Council of the World Belarusians "Batskaushchyna".

  Published in "Nasha Niva", "Belarusian Partisan" and others.

  Lives in Germany.

  Awarded the medal for the centenary of the BNR.

  ales@cajcyc.org

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