The society of Belarus was under the influence of the Soviet regime for 70 years, the consequences of which can be seen to this date – in political and social culture, in how institutions and social structures are organized, and in the way governance is exercised and power is enforced. Without awareness of this heritage it is impossible to understand how local communities function or how citizens participate in the decision-making process.
The Soviet regime was dismantling local communities as a subject of social and political life, seeking to replace them with party organization units and production collectives. This goal was pursued by subduing local soviets to party administration, by top-down nomination of local managers, and by organizing all spheres of community life (housing, education, leisure and work).
As a result, local representatives of central administration or workers' organizations and trade unions came to cater for all needs and interests of the people. No locally-organized society associations had any legal or social mechanisms at their disposal to manage their community life. (A detailed account of the mechanisms whereby communities were being destroyed in Belarus can be found in W. Mackiewicz, T. Vodolazhskaya in, “Powstanie i rozwój wspólnot”,  2007).
The present political system in Belarus has been deliberately and consistently reproducing the structure and main principles of organization of social relations, characteristic of the Soviet era.

The whole analysis in English available in pdf format.

Tatiana Vodolazhskaya was born in 1973. She holds a PhD in Sociology and is an active sociologist. She heads the project entitled „Civil education in Belarus: a continuation or a beginning?”. She lectures political science and European studies at the European Humanities University and is an expert at the Center for European Transformation.   

Andrey Yegorov was born in 1979. He is a political scientist and deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine “Political Sphere”. He is an expert in the Center for European Transformation, and as of 2010 he serves as the Center’s director.