Мы выйшлі на вуліцу знянацку так…
“We stepped outside so suddenly…”

Music as a tool for building Belarusian resistance identity

Author(s): Joanna Getka
Subject(s): Cultural history, Security and defense, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Belarus 2020 protests; Alaksandr Lukashenka; music; resistance society
Summary/Abstract: Mass protests after the August 2020 presidential elections in Belarus laid bare all the weaknesses of the official propaganda machine and exposed not only the deficit of truth in relations between the authorities and society: they disavowed and ridiculed both the organizational efforts undertaken by the government and the narrative threads that set the long-term strategy of official propaganda – and in doing so, destroyed its foundations. The music of the protests played a significant role in this process. The article analyzes the texts as well as the visual aspect of the music videos, which, from a social perspective, contributed to the change of the political situation in Belarus. Alaksandr Lukashenka’s policy and himself as a guarantor of social peace and stability are discredited, and the image of a society rebellious against the pretence of values, perpetuated by the system of power built by Lukashenka, is the major theme. The music of the protests shapes the community and modern cultural identity of Belarusians around separate Belarusian cultural codes concerning language, traditions, history and heroes. Songs of resistance, most often written in response to current events, in their verbal layer carry authentic messages, alternative to the official “ideology of truth”. In this way, musical works become a tool for social controversy and fight against the system, i.e. an important part of the process of change and building a new national identity.

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