Why do relatives of political emigrants call them back to Belarus?
The working commission with those who want to return to Belarus, created by Alexander Lukashenko, has been working for more than a month. In early March there received 23 requests and, according to Deputy Attorney General Alexei Stuk, the majority “does not meet the criteria specified in the decree.” In support of repatriation, Belarusian state TV aired a public service announcement asking you to return “where you are needed”. But even this was not enough for the Belarusian authorities, reports began to appear in the independent media that the security forces turned to the relatives of the departed and asked to persuade them to return to Belarus. However, the relatives of some political emigrants already sincerely believe that their loved ones can safely return home, and urge them to do this as soon as possible.
“A relative wrote that there were never “traitors” in our family.
“When they showed me on TV (in a propaganda report on state TV. – Red.) a relative wrote to me that there were never “traitors” in our family, and I should return, and she, apparently, would somehow speak well of me in law enforcement agencies, maybe she would go there with a photograph of my late grandfather, lieutenant -colonel of Soviet air defense, because his name sounded like an argument that should bring me to reason and put me on the path of return,” said Sasha Romanova, director of KYKY.org and The Village in Minsk.
The journalist recalls that in 2020 she tried to tell an elderly woman what was going on in the country, she sent her a video of the beating of unarmed people by the security forces and in response she sent “pancake and salad recipes”. Romanova suggests that a relative watch the propaganda on state TV, although she probably can’t “tell exactly what kind of government she supports”.
“She just doesn’t want anything to change and all her relatives return to their homeland. Masherov, Lukashenko, Brezhnev – I’m sure she doesn’t care who is in power in Belarus. An indicator of a decent life, in her opinion , is the presence of fresh cucumbers in the store “There were no cucumbers there in the 90s, but under Lukashenka they exist. From the case of cucumbers, I conclude that she still watches advertising on TV, because the intimidation of elderly viewers by the dashing 90s takes place on this state platform”, notes the interlocutor from DW. Sasha Romanova admits that she no longer talks about politics with her relative: “Time passes, a person does not get younger, and it is hardly possible to convince him of something – while fresh cucumbers can still be bought in the store.”
“Mom is sure that not everyone will be arrested”
“Recently, one way or another, my relatives and friends have been trying to ‘persuade’ me that nothing terrible is happening in Belarus, everything calmed down, and in some ways it even became easier, for example, some products appeared again, rental prices decreased As a rule, these conversations take place in the format of devaluation, they say: “let’s go, we also left and nothing”. in the yard” or “participate in some chats” nothing will, and that “they will not put everyone in jail,” says another DW interlocutor, Sergey (name changed at the request of the interlocutor. – Red.). The man has lived in Poland for about a year and a half and considers himself a political immigrant.
He notes that his relatives cannot be called people who unconditionally believe in Alexander Lukashenko. According to him, these are all the same Belarusians who were outraged by lawlessness and violence in 2020, but “now they have returned to their usual state of rest”. “Succumbing to propaganda in the absence of an alternative point of view, the older generation believes that the thaw has arrived. Furthermore, because of the war in Ukraine, they have again recalled the well-known narrative “if only there had been no war”, says Serguei did not find the strength or opportunity to emigrate, over time they believed that since they have not yet come for them, they will not come, and they begin to convince you, but in fact themselves, that everything is fine … she cannot live in fear o all the time, there must be a way out, even an imaginary one.
DW’s interlocutor admits that under the current circumstances he would not risk going to Belarus, but does not exclude that such “voices of the motherland” could lead some people, tired of the hardships of emigration, to return to Belarus.
“Advertising speculates about understandable human feelings”
“Returning to their homeland is one of the main desires of many forced emigrants and their loved ones in Belarus. I represent elderly parents, grandparents, who, perhaps, are afraid of never seeing their children and grandchildren again. Advertising speculates about this very understandable human feelings,” says independent specialist, Doctor of Philology Irina Sidorskaya.
The interlocutor also draws attention to the fact that both the relatives of the Belarusian emigrants and themselves know that they have not committed any crime, being their inalienable right to return to the country. Moreover, most of those who left for sure do not know whether something threatens them in the Republic of Belarus.
“For most people, nothing is clear, officially they are not under investigation, they are in an intermediate gray zone. When there is no complete reliable information for a balanced decision, we believe in the best version,” says Sidorskaya. “Once again, the parents think that not everyone is going to arrest me – look at the huge number of people who participated in the protests walk the streets and everything is relatively normal with them. So everything will be fine with my children, because they are in the the truth is not a bandit at all, in fact it is easy to go back, there is a way out, because there is housing in the homeland, some connections, it is clear where the post is, but in exile everything is very difficult.
“Believing in propaganda is more profitable for survival”
In turn, psychologist and instructor of non-formal education Vasily Pron draws attention to the fact that independent media are almost completely “clean” in Belarus, and people who subscribe to so-called “extremist” resources face fines and prisons. “The information space is quite aggressively filled with Belarusian and partly Russian state propaganda. I myself met people who said that everything is fine in Belarus, they say, we live in peace, but what does not suit you? Come back, even Lukashenka said that everything is fine “, – says the interlocutor.
According to him, “believing in propaganda is more beneficial for survival”: this is a convenient picture of the world, this faith takes away responsibility from a person, gives him the opportunity not to take risks and so that people have no concept of ashamed of what is happening, he offers a set of excuses, as a rule, illogical and contradictory.
The psychologist believes that it is very difficult to convince people who believe in the possibility of a safe return to Belarus. “It is convenient for a person to be in this system of values, if you want to deprive him of this, you will become an enemy. Moreover, whoever left, in the eyes of those who stayed, lost, and his own strategy of “don’t shine” allegedly won. The opinion of the losers doesn’t really matter: if we had won, we shouldn’t have left,” says Pron. The psychologist believes that communication with such people should be minimized on controversial topics, appeal to common values in conversations and not be pushed directly. In addition, the expert does not rule out that her opinion could change if “they receive confirmation of the risks” not by words, but by their own experience.
Source: DW
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