Belarus—Civil Resistance and State Repression in an Autocracy

This chapter examines the interplay between civil resistance and state repression in Belarus, one of the most repressive political regimes in contemporary Europe. Despite systematic violations of political rights and civil liberties under Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s rule, opposition political parties, civic organisations, labour unions, and youth movements deployed nonviolent methods of resistance to challenge the status quo. Focusing on several cases of mass mobilisation between 2006 and 2022, the chapter demonstrates how regime opponents wrestled with such issues as the quality of elections, historical memory, environmental protection, and anti-war activism. The level of civil resistance reached enormous proportions in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and excessive police violence against participants in peaceful post-election protests. Another escalation in state repression transpired during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This study identifies several political, socioeconomic, and cultural factors that shaped contentious politics in the country. The chapter makes an empirical contribution to contentious politics literature by tracing the contestation of dominant power relations in a repressive political regime.