"my youth is belarus" - interesting things about lukashenko before he became president
2024-09-03
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reference news reported on september 3on august 30, the website of the russian newspaper komsomolskaya pravda published an article titled "my youth is belarus" - interesting anecdotes of lukashenko before he became president, written by oleg adamovich. the full text is translated as follows:
august 30th is the 70th birthday of belarusian president alexander lukashenko. the komsomolskaya pravda website reviewed interesting events in his life.
lukashenko has led belarus for the past 30 years as the country's first and only president. people know more or less about the past 30 years of his life, as it is difficult for him to escape the media spotlight as president. but people know less about the first 40 years of lukashenko's life. he himself has given some information about this.
poor childhood
when talking about his mother, lukashenko always recalls her teachings: "my mother has been educating me since i was a child, and she is still educating me after i became president. she always said, don't touch other people's things. this has also become my principle of life: everything should be fair, don't touch other people's things."
lukashenko's biography states that he grew up in the village of kopesi, orsha district, vitebsk oblast. his mother, ekaterina trofimovna, was a milker on a collective farm.
lukashenko has repeatedly recalled his impoverished childhood. when he was in the first grade of primary school, his family was too poor to buy him a schoolbag. he said: "when i first started primary school, i carried my textbooks to school in a scarf instead of a schoolbag."
the belarusian president still has fond memories of his childhood in the countryside.
he recalled: "i raised horses and planted potatoes myself... it was terribly hot at 12 noon, with lots of horseflies and flies... or i herded cattle. this was free pasture and the grass was good then. we chopped firewood here. every piece of land was stepped on by my childhood feet."
multifaceted personality
as a teenager, lukashenko always raised his hand to answer questions in class. but according to his recollection, he was not a good student at that time.
"we were kids at school, we always flipped over benches... we would make noises during recess," he said. "if something happened, even if i wasn't at school, the teachers would always think it was me... it was very strict. they quickly sent me to a juvenile detention center to teach me a lesson. i mean, it was very strict."
when lukashenko grew up, he had a multifaceted personality and wrote poetry.
he recalled: "i wrote poetry, just like everyone else at that time. i think poetry is good and perfect. i am now looking for the poems i wrote back then. i think they are somewhere at home. i still have the homework books from that time... i don't write poetry now. my mind is full of other problems."
lukashenko has a very good relationship with his mother-in-law. to this day, he visits the graves of his mother and mother-in-law when he returns to his hometown.
he recalled: "if it weren't for my mother-in-law, i would never have become president. she was the vice-president of the school and encouraged me and tried every way to make me study hard. her daughter and i had a good relationship when we were in school. she did everything for me as if i were her son. she was my second mother."
join the troops
after graduating from mogilev teachers college, lukashenko decided to serve in the border guards, but the options were limited at the time.
he recalled: "at that time, the army only recruited three people to serve in the border guards of kushka, damansky island (zhenbao island in china) and brest... i said: 'i want to serve in damansky island.' i thought at the time that if i insisted, the kgb (soviet state security committee - note from this website) would send me there. at that time, the border guards there were under the kgb. i remember a major said to me: 'your son is about to be born, why are you going to damansky island? go to the brest border guards, which is closer.' i thought, okay, otherwise they won't accept me."
before retiring from the border guards, lukashenko served as an instructor in the political department of the western border district and was awarded the rank of sergeant.
it is well known that lukashenko is a veteran ice hockey fan. however, he did not play ice hockey in middle school and university, but played football.
he recalled: "i was a good soccer player. during one match, i ran to the right sideline and passed the ball to the opponent's goal as usual, and then i fell. because of my speed, i injured the meniscus in my left leg... because of this unfortunate incident, i switched to ice hockey. after my injury, it was difficult to jump on soft surfaces because the meniscus was removed. but i couldn't live without playing sports, so i started playing ice hockey."
farm manager
in 1989, lukashenko participated in his first election in his life. as the manager of the soviet state-owned "gorodetsky" farm, he competed with vyacheslav kebich, deputy chairman of the council of ministers of the belarusian ssr, for the position of the supreme soviet of the ussr, but was unsuccessful. in the end, he entered the supreme soviet of the belarusian ssr.
in an interview with soviet belarus magazine that year, lukashenko said: "(opponents) even filed criminal cases against me twice. of course, they did not dare to carry them out. the main reason is that i know that the people are awakening. they not only want to vent their pain, but also want to change and reshape everything. now, as a people's representative of the supreme soviet of the belarusian ssr, i meet with people more actively and issue instructions directly in the hall."
the soviet media liked lukashenko because the state farms he led had significantly increased production and never falsified figures. lukashenko recalled that he was invited to moscow to share his experience.
“i was the reason for the emergence of the first nine farmers in the soviet union, the first private farmers. i distributed land to them. mikhail gorbachev praised me for this, and i was a snotty-nosed kid at the time,” he recalled.
lukashenko was the head of the anti-corruption committee of the belarusian parliament. his highlight was in december 1993. at that time, he stood on the podium of the parliament and denounced officials for embezzling state assets on a live tv program. the materials of the procuratorate, the police and the kgb all confirmed his accusations. a scandal at that time was particularly impressive: stanislav shushkevich, the then head of state of belarus, took a box of public nails back to his villa without paying. after the fermentation of this incident, it eventually led to the resignation of shushkevich and other people in power and the first presidential election in belarus.
under the conditions of economic crisis, belarusians expect "strong hands" to control the country. lukashenko attracted voters with his criticism of officials and his reputation as a strong economic manager.
in the first round of the 1994 belarusian presidential election, lukashenko received 44.8% of the votes, prime minister kobic received 17.3% of the votes, and shushkevich received less than 10%. in the second round of voting, lukashenko received 80.3% of the votes.
lukashenko's campaign slogan was "not on the left or the right, but with the people." this emphasized his independence from the political camps and reflected the society's weariness with factional struggles. lukashenko relied not on intellectuals or officials, but on the people who were disappointed with the collapse of the soviet union.
by the way, lukashenko was the manager of the gorodetsky farm before he took office as president.
lukashenko (xinhua news agency)
