What Lukashenko Is Trying To Hide About His Past In "Gorodets"

Reflections on the footsteps of one ruler's trip to a former workplace.

Lukashenko's recent trip to Shklou district could remain in history as another propaganda plot: "unexpected" visit to another half-lying kolkhoz, "discovered" under the fence, unaccustomed equipment, lack of discipline, mismanagement - we have seen all these cheap tricks many times already.

What makes it unremarkable is where exactly the ruler went and what he said there. And how the court press framed it all. Let's try to understand what the former state farm near Shklov, where his march to power began, means for the ruler, as well as for all of us, writes "Salidarnasts".

Twice "the worst farm"

BELTA writes that in Shklou district Lukashenko visited the enterprise "where he was once the head" and "managed to turn a lagging farm into a successful and stably operating one."

What he saw on the spot "unpleasantly surprised" the former director of the state farm: "It's sad, of course. This is the worst farm I have seen in the last two years." The publication concludes that the current managers and patrons of Gorodets have "actually ruined" it.

- When I came here, the farm was the worst in the Soviet Union. Nobody came here and laid a straw for us to make it comfortable. We worked our way out on our own," said Lukashenko.

The recognition of the "twice worst" farm is especially valuable. Especially against the background of what is going to be done with it in the near future.

After the inspection, "Gorodets" is promised a renaissance. The head of the enterprise, the local authorities and the management of the Department of Management of the Administration of Affairs, which it is a part of, have been given the task "to put the perfect order by spring".

The third "renaissance" of the state farm "Gorodets"

If the officials cope with this task, then we can safely talk about the third "renaissance" of the former state farm.

And what is noteworthy - contrary to Lukashenko's assertions about "pulling ourselves out", it will be done again at the expense of administrative resources and the state budget.

Yes, he himself, as well as his former subordinates, likes to recall how he "raised the state farm from its knees" by his own efforts. He built a school, a bathhouse, asphalted the roads. But in reality everything was somewhat different.

According to Vasily Leonov, ex-minister of agriculture, who contributed to Lukashenko's career in the late 80's, if Gorodets was one of the worst, it was only within Shklou district. And by no means the most unprofitable in the USSR.

In addition, the management of Mogilev regional agricultural industry took patronage over Gorodets and its young director. It was at his suggestion that specialized specialists from the region were sent here to help, as well as road and construction equipment.

The second "renaissance" of "Gorodets" happened when Lukashenko became president. In the early noughties, the farm was transferred under the guardianship (actually - on the balance sheet) of Belarusbank. Under the state program of rural revival from 2005 to 2011, almost Br70 billion was invested in "Gorodets".

The money was used to build a community center in the agro-town, which includes the House of Culture, House of Crafts, children's art school, library, offices of Belarusbank and Belpochta, as well as a cafeteria. At the same time, a new kindergarten and new communications were built here.

All this, however, did not save the "successful and stable working" farm. In 2017, local workers complained to journalists about low wages and did not hide their jealousy of Alexandria, where the budget flows flowed generously.

How you can become a benefactor at someone else's expense

It is from here, from Gorodets, that the myth of the "people's" leader, who built houses for ordinary workers, helped to collect children for school, and disciplined bad drinkers, begins to grow legs.

And when Lukashenko got power over the whole country and started to exchange brotherly kisses for Russian energy resources, that myth was transformed into the mantra "he gives us pensions on time" and "small but guaranteed" salaries.

It doesn't matter that his loyal supporters started earning their pensions when their "benefactor" wasn't even alive yet, and their salaries were honestly earned by their own labor.

What is behind the formula of success "don't count to three"

- Discipline is important. You have no discipline here today. The leader must be strong-willed and persistent," Lukashenko told his fellow countrymen the other day.

And shared his advice, which the propaganda, without knowing it, very successfully called "the formula of success for Gorodets (and not only)".

In words, it consists in the necessity "not to count to three while waiting for the fulfillment of tasks or assignments, to encourage those who work well and, on the contrary, to punish with a ruble for shortcomings".

But from the biography of the ruler we know that when he was the director of the state farm he punished not only with a ruble. In October 1989, he was prosecuted for beating tractor driver Vladimir Bandurkov.

The victim himself and his witnesses claimed that director Lukashenko hit him in the face with his fist and continued to kick him when he fell to the ground.

A couple of days later, the Shklou District Department of Internal Affairs received another statement from mechanic Ivan Bogunov, who asked to find a solution for the irascible boss. And there could be many more such statements, as the journalists found out on the hot tracks.

Lukashenko, who was already trying his hand at politics, trying to get into the deputies, showed wonders of cunning: he blamed the district committee top brass, which allegedly tried to get rid of an independent candidate in this way.

And in private conversations he pounced on "ungrateful people," for whom "he had done so much," and they were writing statements against him.

The habit of blaming Belarusians for "ingratitude" he will not forget even decades later, especially after the events of 2020.

By the way, wasn't it the same principle of "not counting to three" that guided the ex-director of Zavidovsky Tatiana Belyan, who fed her subordinates with silage?

It is possible to take the director of the state farm to the capital...

Both the aforementioned Vasily Leonov and Lukashenko's biographers spoke with one voice about his obsessive desire to head the collective farm. He himself said that all his life he had dreamed of working in agriculture and "helping people."

In fact, the further one goes, the more obvious his desire to have power over people looks. "Gorodets" gave him invaluable experience of "doing good" to people at someone else's expense, giving him the laurels of a "people's" advocate.

And also an example that personal cruelty and intemperance can be gotten away with if you are not only talented enough at brainwashing, but also endowed with immunity.

It is hard to dispute that Lukashenko has the talent of an unscrupulous politician, allowing him to hold power over the country at any cost for more than thirty years. But his managerial talents are much sadder.

This is the case when you can take the director of a state farm to the capital, but it is impossible to take the director of a state farm out of this man.

Lukashenko has never hidden that it is easiest for him to run the country like a big state farm. His endless meetings resemble morning meetings in the board of a collective farm - with the invariable poking of subordinates and rudeness.

In the same piggy bank - annual discussions of the rules of haying with the participation of the government, law enforcers and the head of the National Bank, compulsory orders to harvest corn even during visits to temples and school lines for September 1.

The story in "Gorodets" showed in all its glory that you can not indefinitely keep in the regime of Potemkin village neither a separate farm nor, especially, the whole country. Even if you manage to parasitize for years on dubious ties with the neighboring state.

It seems that Lukashenko himself realizes it. So in Shklou district he started his charming song in front of the officials: "Give me the economy, and I'll do the rest myself".

But whether his subordinates will be able to organize a "renaissance" on the scale of the whole country is a big question.

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