Belarusian Identity in the Post-colonial Labyrinths

The paper focuses on an understudied aspect of the Belarusian identity. The special attention is paid to the key role of patterns in a collective consciousness, which determine the direction of human behavior and further development. Some typical mental stereotypes of modern Belarusians are analyzed in the context of Post-Soviet worldview. The paper emphasizes that the Belarusian society needs to define a clear basis of national idea, language, symbols, values, and traditions. This sphere becomes the place of power struggle today. The current colonial expansion by more powerful states is going now on more refined scheme than the previous primitive armed intervention, namely through cultural expansion and economic dependence of neighboring weaker countries. Interrelations between Russia and Belarus today are a vivid example. It is necessary to understand that the “Russian World”, that Kremlin’s propaganda offers to modern neighboring nations, will hold only a dictatorship, militarism, repression, and suppression of freedom. Today this is the main challenge not only for Belarusian identity but for its independence as well.