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Product Description
Product Description
The first serious study of Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus. This book exposes the reality behind the myth of 'Europe's last Dictatorship'.
About the Author
Stewart Parker is a graduate in Philosophy, and in Peace and War studies. He is a qualified healthcare professional, is married and has a son.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good example of Lukashenka PR and Propaganda,
By
This review is from: The Last Soviet Republic: Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus (Paperback)
This basis of this book as a reality are scarse. From the first paragraph onwards this is a tough read (to find credibility) for anyone familar with Belarus, knows a Belarusian or has visited the country. For a country that is rated 188th in the press freedom index and 151st in the free speech index (not withholding 150th in the courruption index), the author seems to suggest that he had free and unfettered access to discuss with the "people" and publish this book.
13 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
fun to read, if not taken seriously,
By
This review is from: The Last Soviet Republic: Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus (Paperback)
I bought this book after reading some favourable reviews, describing the work as a balanced and fair picture of modern Belarussian politics, within a proper historical context.However, as my reading was progressing, I noticed that the text sounded noticeably more like a piece of soviet apologetics than something serious written by a historian interested in weighing all perspectives. This became quite obvious when the author treats the issues of collectivization, where appalling sentences like "collectivization was not actually compulsory, joining was up to the individual, but as the collective farms were established and prospered, the benefit was obvious", or "during the initial period of collectivization, significant numbers of peasants in the USSR had actually left collective farms, and it was propaganda and economics, not force that was used to entice them back" abound. Moreover, the treatment of the Kurapaty massacres is shocking, being no more than a carbon copy of the current Kremlin-promoted revisionism on the Katyn/Kharkov/Mednoye slaughters of Polish officers by the NKVD. Once you understand the real purpose of this book, it becomes more fun to read, since it reads like one of those old soviet books written in the fifties, full of elegies about the achievements of the soviet society. It's all there, including a quotation by the beloved President in italic at the beginning of each chapter, and in the end, a transcript of his speech to the UN General Assembly, about which the author is careful to stress, between parentheses, that it was received "to huge applause". Perhaps the key to the true aim of this book lies in discovering who its author really is. I couldn't. A quick search on Google returned nothing besides references to this book and the introduction and credits reveal absolutely nothing besides some meaningless names. The dull and monotonous style of writing, the poor construction of the sentences and the frequent errors of punctuation made me wonder whether this is anything more than a fake history book written in a language other than English by a fake author, with an ulterior motive. So in a nutshell, zero marks for historical relevance, full marks for revealing the conspiracy theorist in me :)
4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Marxist's View of Belarus,
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This review is from: The Last Soviet Republic: Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus (Paperback)
This is not a bad book, however I find it bizarre that people would call this 'objective'. The authors' claim that the collectivisation of farms in the Soviet Union was entirely voluntary is an absolute fallacy and he evidently subscribes to the myth that Lithuania is the sole successor state to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which is simply wrong. Belarus is, if not the sole successor to the Grand Duchy, the main successor and only much later historical events have allowed Vilnius to end up the capital of a Baltic state instead of a Slavic one.With regards to modern politics the book is ultimately an apology for Lukashenko's regime. It rightly points out many of the myths espoused by the West but fails to offer a balanced approach. It never questions Lukashenko's motives and often only uses quotes from Lukashenko as evidence - can a politicians speeches always be taken at face value? The author also fails to hold Lukashenko to account on his abuses of democracy - should a president be allowed to 'appoint' his own members of parliament, however few? The author's marxist views are self evident throughout the book and as an educated member of the British working class I have to say I found it thoroughly offensive that he claims that as a class in the UK we have been defeated instead of incorporated and that the upper and middle classes sneer at us, calling us all'Chavs'. It would be no more accurate to say that the middle classes label everyone in the working classes 'Skinheads'. I would say therefore that this book is useful in understanding how the Belarussians see themselves and have thus awarded it 3 stars, however if you know nothing of the regions history/politics and are looking for a reliable, objective history, look elsewhere.
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