© Columbia University Press
The Last Dictatorship in Europe: Belarus Under Lukashenko
January, 2012
Cloth, 256 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-70280-5
$35.00
An isolated country dominated by a single, ruthless leader, Belarus is Europe’s last modern dictatorship. Despite the country’s fascinating history, rich culture, and gorgeous landscape, few nonresidents travel to Belarus and take advantage of its resources, and even though the nation’s people are friendly and hospitable, they nevertheless live under the constant threat of arrest.
Belarus exists outside of modern European norms, frozen in time by a tyrannical regime that fooled its citizens into thinking a new leader would grant their freedom. Instead, Alexander Lukashenko has pursued a pattern of rule as oppressive as all of those who came before him. Brian Bennett follows the history of Belarus from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the 2006 ascendance of Lukashenko. He revisits the excitement felt by many Belarussians after their first presidential election in 1994 and the cold realization that the country had returned to business as usual, as evidenced by the implementation of undemocratic referendums, fixed elections, suspicious disappearances, and the violent suppression of public opposition. Bennett concludes with a close consideration of the enigmatic Lukashenko and how his regime might one day end.