Lukashenko regime deems “Long live Belarus!” to be Nazi slogan

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus has added the slogan "Long live Belarus!" and the response to it, "Long live!", to its list of Nazi symbols and attributes.

Source: Belarusian Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Details: The relevant resolution, No. 271, has been published on the National Legal Internet Portal of the Republic of Belarus.

According to the resolution, the slogan is to be deemed a Nazi slogan because it was allegedly adopted by "the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian, also known as 1st Belarusian), which consisted mainly of former fighters of the Belarusian Home Defence units, and was used in anti-partisan operations".

Thus, Belarusians are forbidden to shout "Long live Belarus!" or to respond "Long live!" while raising the right hand with an outstretched palm.

Radio Liberty notes that it is not clear whether the slogan is a "Nazi" one if the right hand is not raised, or if the response is not "Long live!" but "Long live forever!", which is used much more often.

Lukashenko's regime continues its fight against national symbols. After many years of a de facto ban on the use of the white-red-white flag, and the recent arrest of a man for having a sticker with the Pahonia emblem on his car, the authorities have moved on to combat a patriotic slogan. [Pahonia is the historical Belarusian name for the coat of arms of Lithuania, which is widely used by the opposition in Belarus.]

Hundreds of thousands of people chanted patriotic slogans at the 2020 protests, and they have long become a traditional greeting in Belarusian patriotic circles.

Why this is important: For many years, the current government of Belarus has been trying, with the help of propaganda, to present the national symbols of Belarus, which appeared long before the Second World War, as a symbol of the Nazis. Meanwhile, the fact that the USSR and Nazi Germany enjoyed close military and political cooperation prior to the war is suppressed.

Reference: 

In its modern form, the slogan "Long live Belarus!" first appeared in a poem by Janka Kupała, the most famous Belarusian writer, written in 1905-1907, "It is a cry that Belarus lives": 

"And how not to love this field, and pine forest,

And the green garden, and the screeching goose!

And sometimes a whirlwind howls terribly here -

It's a groan, it’s a cry that Belarus lives!"

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