The first and only President of Belarus Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich is an example and great authority for every citizen of his country. Why is he so loved? Why do people trust the government of the same person for over 20 years? The biography of Alexander Lukashenko, the “last dictator of Europe,” which will be described in this article, will help find answers to these and many other questions.
The childhood of the future president
The birthday of Alexander Lukashenko was an ordinary summer day in 1954. It happened in the village of Kopys in the Orsha district of the Vitebsk region. Until recently, it was believed that Alexander Lukashenko was born on August 30. Date of birth was revised in 2010, as it became known that Alexander G. was born after midnight on the night of August 31. When it was registered, for some reason, the date was indicated - August 30. Despite the fact that now Lukashenko celebrates his birthday on August 31, the data in his passport remained the same.
Alexander's parents divorced even when he was very young, so the upbringing of his son completely fell on the shoulders of his mother - Ekaterina Trofimovna. During the war, she lived in the village of Alexandria, after her graduation she moved to the Orsha district and got a job in a flax mill. After the birth of her son, Ekaterina Trofimovna again returned to her native village in the Mogilev region. Biography of Alexander Lukashenko practically does not contain information about his father. It is only known that he was a Belarusian and worked in forestry. It is also known that Alexander Grigoryevich’s grandfather on the mother’s side came from the Sumy region of Ukraine.
Education and start of work
In 1971, after graduating from high school, Alexander G. Lukashenko entered the Faculty of History at the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute. In 1975, he received a diploma of higher education in the specialty "teacher of history and social studies." According to the distribution, the young specialist was sent to the city of Shklov, where he worked for several months in secondary school No. 1 as secretary of the Komsomol committee. Then he was drafted into the army - from 1975 to 1977 he served in the KGB border troops. Having given his debt to his homeland, Alexander G. continued his career as secretary of the Komsomol committee of the Mogilev city food department. Already in 1978, he was appointed executive secretary of the Shklov Society "Knowledge", and in 1979 joined the Communist Party.
In 1985, Alexander Grigorievich received another higher education - he graduated from the Belarusian Agricultural Academy with a degree in economics, organizer of agricultural production.
The "collective farm" period
In 1982, Alexander G. Lukashenko was appointed deputy chairman of the collective farm "Drummer", from 1983 to 1985 he worked as deputy director of the building materials factory in Shklov, and after receiving his education in agriculture he was assigned the job of secretary of the party committee of the collective farm named after V.I. Lenin. From 1987 to 1994, Lukashenko successfully led the state farm under the name "Gorodets" in the Shklovsky district and in a short time managed to turn it from a loss-making to an advanced one.
His merits were appreciated, Lukashenko was elected a member of the party’s district committee and invited to Moscow.
Deputy career
In March 1990, Alexander G. was elected People's Deputy of Belarus. The collapse of the Soviet Union was already underway, and in July 1990, the Republic of Belarus became a sovereign state. The future president, Alexander Lukashenko, managed in such a difficult time for the country to make a dizzying career as a politician. He created a reputation as a defender of the people, a fighter for justice, and started a war with corrupt authorities. On his initiative, in early 1991, Prime Minister Kebich was dismissed, and a few months later a faction of the "Communist Democrats of Belarus" was created.
At the end of 1991, deputy Lukashenko was the only one who voted against the approval of the Bialowieza Agreements.
In 1993, the criticism and opposition of Alexander Lukashenko to the government became especially pronounced. At this time, it was decided to create an interim commission of the Supreme Council to fight corruption and appoint it chairman Lukashenko. In April 1994, after the resignation of Stanislav Shushkevich, the commission was liquidated as having completed the task.
President of the Republic of Belarus
The activities of Alexander Lukashenko to expose corrupt power structures made him so popular that he decided to submit his candidacy to fill the highest position in the state. In July 1994, Alexander Grigorievich Lukashenko (whose photo is presented in the article), gaining more than eighty percent of the vote, became president of Belarus.
Conflicts in Parliament
Alexander Grigoryevich, after assuming the presidency, began a frank struggle with the Belarusian parliament. Several times he refused to sign the bills adopted by the Supreme Council, in particular the law “On the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus”. But the deputies achieved the entry into force of this law, arguing that in accordance with legal norms, the President of the Republic of Belarus may not put a signature on a document approved by the Supreme Council.
In February 1995, conflicts in parliament continued. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko proposed (along with the parliamentary elections) on May 14 to hold a referendum. And to find out the opinion of the people about the integration of the economies of Belarus and Russia, the replacement of state symbols. It was also proposed to officially make Russian the second state language, and provide the president with the opportunity to disband the armed forces. Interestingly, he invited the Supreme Council to dissolve itself in a week. The deputies supported only one proposal of the president - on integration with the Russian Federation, and on a protest to Lukashenko’s actions in the parliament’s meeting hall went on a hunger strike. Soon there was information that the building was mined, and riot police forces forced all deputies to leave the building. The President of the Republic of Belarus stated that riot police had been sent by him to ensure the safety of deputies of the Supreme Council. The latter claimed that the police did not protect them, but brutally beat them on the orders of the president.
As a result, the planned referendum still took place, all the proposals of Alexander Grigoryevich were supported by the people.
The course towards rapprochement with Russia
From the very beginning of his political activity, Alexander Lukashenko was guided by the rapprochement of fraternal states - Russia and Belarus. He confirmed his intentions by signing agreements on the creation of payment and customs unions with Russia in 1995, on friendship and cooperation of states in February of the same year, and on the creation of the Community of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus in 1996.
In March 1996, an agreement was also signed on integration in the humanitarian and economic sectors of the countries of the former USSR - Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
1996 referendum
Alexander Lukashenko sought to concentrate all power in his hands. To this end, in August 1996, he spoke to the people with a proposal to hold a second referendum on November 7 and consider the adoption of a new draft constitution. According to the changes that Lukashenko made to the main document of the country, Belarus turned into a presidential republic, and broad powers were granted to the head of state.
Parliament postponed the referendum on November 24 and proposed its draft constitution for consideration. At the same time, the leaders of several parties came together to collect signatures for the impeachment of Lukashenko, and the Constitutional Court banned the holding of a referendum on the amendment of the country's main law. Alexander Grigorievich on the way to his goal moved to drastic measures - he dismissed the chairman of the Central Election Commission Gonchar, contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Chigir and dissolved the parliament.
The referendum was held as scheduled, the draft constitution was approved. This allowed Lukashenko to concentrate all power in his hands.
Relationship with the world
The world community refused to recognize the results of the 1996 Belarusian referendum. Lukashenko became an enemy of almost all world states; he was accused of a dictatorial manner of governance. The scandal in the Minsk complex called “Drozdy” added fuel to the fire when, not without the participation of the Belarusian president, diplomats from 22 countries of the world were evicted from their residences. Lukashenko accused ambassadors of conspiracy against himself, to which the world responded by banning the entry of the President of Belarus into a number of world states.
Lukashenko’s relations with the West have not been strengthened by the disappearance of opposition politicians in Belarus who have blamed the president himself.
As for the relations of the Republic of Belarus with the Russian Federation, both states continued to make mutual promises and create the appearance of rapprochement, but in fact, it didn’t reach the real results of creating a single state. In 1999, Lukashenko and Yeltsin signed an agreement on the creation of the Union State.
In 2000, the President of Belarus visited the United States, despite all the bans, and spoke at the Millennium Summit. Lukashenko began to criticize NATO countries and military operations in Yugoslavia, accused the authorities of some countries of illegal and inhumane actions.
Second and third presidential terms
In September 2001, Lukashenko’s second presidential term began. At this time, relations between Belarus and Russia are becoming increasingly tense. The leaders of the two allied countries could not find compromise decisions on governance issues. Putin took Lukashenka’s proposal to lead the Union State in turn as a joke and in return put forward the idea of ​​integration along the lines of the European Union, which the Belarusian president did not like. Controversial issues regarding the introduction of a single currency also did not find a solution.
The situation was aggravated by "gas" scandals. The reduction in Moscow’s gas supply to Belarus and the subsequent cessation of supplies caused outrage from Lukashenko. He said that if Russia does not correct the situation, Belarus will break all previous agreements with it.
There have been many conflict situations in the history of relations between these two states. In addition to the gas scandal, in 2009 there was the so-called “milk conflict”, when Moscow banned the import of Belarusian dairy products into Russia. There is speculation that this was a gesture of dissatisfaction with the fact that Lukashenko did not want to sell twelve dairy plants in Belarus to Russia. The response of President Lukashenko was a boycott of the summit of the leaders of the CSTO governments and the issuance of orders to immediately introduce customs and border controls on the border with the Russian Federation. The control was introduced on June 17, but was canceled on the same day, as during the negotiations between Moscow and Minsk it was decided to resume the supply of Belarusian dairy products to Russia.
In 2004, the Belarusian president initiated another referendum, which resulted in the cancellation of the provision that the same person can be elected for president no more than two terms in a row. The results of this referendum did not suit the liking of the United States and Western Europe, and they introduced a number of economic sanctions against Lukashenko and Belarus.
To the statement of Candolizza Wright that the dictatorship in Belarus must certainly be replaced by democracy, Alexander Lukashenko replied that he would not allow any “color” revolutions paid by Western bandits on the territory of his state.
In March 2006, the next presidential election was held in the Republic of Belarus . The victory, backed up by 83% of the vote, was again won by Lukashenko. Opposition structures and some countries did not recognize the election results. Perhaps because for the Belarusian president the interests of his state are always above all. For him, the support of citizens is what matters, here is the highest award and recognition. In December 2010, Alexander Lukashenko was elected for the fourth time, gaining 79.7 percent of the vote.
Merit to the people
Over the twenty years of the presidency of Alexander Grigorievich Lukashenko, Belarus has been able to achieve one of the highest rates of economic growth. The Belarusian president, despite all the US and EU sanctions, managed to establish good relations with many countries of the world, to preserve and develop domestic industries, to raise agriculture, engineering and the oil refining sector of the country's economy from ruins.
The family of Alexander Lukashenko
Since 1975, the President of Belarus has been officially married to Zholnerovich Galina Rodionovna. But the press became aware that the couple had long been living separately. The president has three sons. The children of Lukashenko, Alexander Grigoryevich, followed in his father's footsteps: the eldest son, Viktor, serves as the President’s national security adviser, the middle son, Dmitry, is the chairman of the central council of the Presidential Sports Club.
The youngest son, Nikolai, is an illegitimate child. According to one version, the boy’s mother is Irina Abelskaya, a former personal doctor of the Lukashenko family. The media notes the fact that the president at all official events and even military parades appears about his youngest son. The press reports that Lukashenko is preparing Nikolai for the presidency, but Alexander Grigoryevich himself calls these rumors "stupid." According to him, the children of Alexander Lukashenko are free to choose their own life path.
The President of Belarus has seven grandchildren: four - Victoria, Alexander, Valeria and Yaroslav - the children of Viktor's eldest son, three - Anastasia, Daria and Alexander - the daughter of Dmitry’s second son. Paying as much attention to grandchildren as possible is what Alexander Lukashenko considers to be a priority in the allocation of free time.
The president’s wife and all relatives far from politics, at the insistence of Alexander Grigoryevich, almost never communicate with the press.