Belarus by David R. Marples

Author:David R. Marples [David R. Marples]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781134412044
Publisher: Routledge

The economic outlook for Belarus in 1993 appeared grim. Conservative forces believed that citizens were better off under the USSR than in the independent republic. Shushkevich and the democratic forces, on the other hand, had a different, albeit unfulfilled vision. The Speaker of the Supreme Soviet— noting that small European states such as Switzerland have managed to survive and flourish alongside major economic powers—envisaged a non-aligned Belarus as a factor in European politics in the future. From a different perspective, the BPF also foresaw Belarusian integration into Europe some 4-5 years after full privatization and a market economy had been implemented.48 All these visions were to prove utopian, at least in the short term, though it is fair to say that no political commentators in Belarus predicted the astonishing turn of events of 1994-1997, or that the new democracy would prove to be so short-lived. Nonetheless, the period 1989-1993 ended with Belarus floundering, without a clearly defined policy for economic change, with a static political leadership generally devoid of new ideas, and with an opposition too small to influence decisively the heavily Russified and Sovietized population.

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