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Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship Hardcover – January 3, 2012

by Andrew Wilson (Author)
3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
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This book is the first in English to explore both Belarus’s complicated road to nationhood and to examine in detail its politics and economics since 1991, the nation’s first year of true independence. Andrew Wilson focuses particular attention on Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s surprising longevity as president, despite human rights abuses and involvement in yet another rigged election in December 2010.

Wilson looks at Belarusian history as a series of false starts in the medieval and pre-modern periods, and at the many rival versions of Belarusian identity, culminating with the Soviet Belarusian project and the establishment of Belarus’s current borders during World War II. He also addresses Belarus’s on-off relationship with Russia, its simultaneous attempts to play a game of balance in the no-man’s-land between Russia and the West, and how, paradoxically, Belarus is at last becoming a true nation under the rule of Europe’s “last dictator.”

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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  4. Publication date
    January 3, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6.46 x 1.26 x 9.44 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0300134355
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0300134353
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] skillfully crafted volume that combines both breadth of scholarship and depth of analysis."—L. Stan, Choice -- L. Stan ― Choice

About the Author

Andrew Wilson is reader in Ukrainian studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He is the author of The Ukrainians, Virtual Politics, and Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, all published by Yale University Press.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (January 3, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300134355
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300134353
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.56 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.46 x 1.26 x 9.44 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.7 3.7 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5 stars
10 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Olga Ivashchenko
4.0 out of 5 stars extremely important
Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2013
Verified Purchase
The author - Andrew Wilon is well-known expert on Ukraine, now also is doing his work well also on Belarus. This is vasluable work, ASA quite difficult to find proper data on such country as Belarus, especially after 2001-2003, when the foreign researchers suppoed to cloe the belarussian studies. Now after the publishing this book, Belarus is returning to the core within East-european studies. Most importance - sources and authors whom A.Wilson trusts and relies on. Very good work, original point of view, interesting conclusions.
11 people found this helpful
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Dimitri Shvorob
3.0 out of 5 stars Valuable, flawed
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2012
The title of Andrew Wilson's book may not distinguish it from competition - diversity weeps and scuttles away as "Belarus: the last European dictatorship" joins "The last dictatorship in Europe: Belarus under Lukashenko", "The last Soviet republic: Alexander Lukashenko's Belarus" and "Belarus: Europe's last authoritarian state" - but its approach does. While the others focus on the Lukashenka years, Wilson devotes the book's first half to the country's more distant history. This should appeal to Belarusian readers who have seen Lukashenka's reign up close but are not satisfied with their knowledge of their country's more distant past, and will appreciate a perspective from a respected Western scholar. Belarusians and non-Belarusians alike will enjoy a dynamic and entertaining narrative. Without a doubt, this is the first book to see if you wish to know more about Belarus.

After this endorsement, the necessary criticism. I would put it this way: this is a book by a Ukraine scholar "branching out" into new territory, and one written in a hurry. Wilson's references to Brutalist buildings dominating Minsk streets make me wonder just how much time he spent there, and his occasional mistransliterations of Belarusian names suggest that he does not know the language. On page 83, which talks about Frantsishak Bahushevich, one sees "dudka" translated as "fiddle", which is doubly odd, considering that "dudka" means "flute" all over Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, and that the same mistranslation is featured on the Web page that is the top Google hit for "bahushevich fiddle". (Blame the dead Belarusian poet, who penned both "Belarusian fiddle" and "Belarusian flute"). It gets worse. Page 116 introduces "Minsk City Industrial Group", a bureaucratic clan that came to dominate Soviet Belorussia in Brezhnev years, one "with strong links to Moscow and powerful enough to be given its own acronym, the 'MCIG'". I was embarrassed to have never heard of the mighty MCIG - until discovering that it was constructed and named in the monograph that is Wilson's main reference on 1960-1980s. You have to wonder what the author was thinking when typing that "powerful enough to be given its own acronym" line.

If one's own expertise in the subject is lacking, there are always other researchers' contributions. However, a "synthetic" story is only as reliable as its sources, and follows their choice of topics and emphases. The book's first half owes much to a book by Valer Bulhakaw and Vital Silitski, while the second half is guided by Aliaksandr Fiaduta's Lukashenka biography. The first two express what in my opinion is a tendentious, wanna-be-contrarian view of 19th century Belarus - Bulhakaw's take on Kastus' Kalinowski is a lowlight - while Fiaduta has journalist's style that's good for the page count and entertainment, but is not especially illuminating. But the sources cannot be blamed when important, much-written-about subjects - off the top of my head: the union with Poland, the Partitions, the 1863 rebellion, economic development of the late 19th century, the turn-of-20th-century cultural "Renaissance", history of Belarusian Jewry, Belarusian Vilnya, Belarusian emigration - get a superficial, and possibly misleading, treatment or are skipped over. A peer reviewer would have pointed out the suspect passages, but multiple minor factual and spelling errors suggest that the author dispensed with an even more basic check.

Overall, a welcome, ambitious book project, but one that needs serious additional investment to get right.

PS. Amazon editors have their own opinions regarding geography: "Books > History > *Asia* > Belarus".
36 people found this helpful
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Sharon
4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful overview
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2014
A good place to start for newcomers to the subject, Wilson has an easy, readable style and an impressive command of the subject. Taut chapter summaries will help the skim-reader too...
5 people found this helpful
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Urbalaari
1.0 out of 5 stars Biased, simply said
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2013
I bought this book a couple of months ago while making a linguistic project on East Slavic countries, as I wanted to deepen the understanding of language and cultural differences. I read some other literature on Belarus, and eventually visited the country, and I can say that the book is a waste of money. The part on the past of Belarus up to the beginning of the 20th Century is well written and mostly accurate, but the description of the near past (approximately last 40 years) offers a very subjective viewpoint that has almost nothing to do with reality. Biased and very subjective, a waste of money.
12 people found this helpful
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Bobby D.
1.0 out of 5 stars Andrew Wilson-The Stalker
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2013
Andrew Wilson has been stalking me because of my contradicary eyewitness knowledge of John F Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev that has proven Andrew Wilson to have only imaginative knowlege of anything about the real world that the other humans live-he is a liar and a fraud in normal description.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Matt Lerner
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid overview of the country
Reviewed in Canada on November 19, 2019
Verified Purchase
A history of Belarus that dates from the earliest settlements to the present day, Wilson's book gives a fairly good overview of a country not often written about. As the concept of a separate Belarusian identity is a rather recent phenomenon, the last third of the book is focused on the twentieth century and beyond, with a fairly large amount on the politics of the dominating president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka (Alexander Lukashenko in Russian). That said it is a good source as it does cover a significant gap in the region, and incorporates Belarusian-language sources (as well as Russian), which is not often found in English-language publications on Belarus. Despite the strong subtitle it is more an academic history than anything, and gives the subject a proper treatment.
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Dreamer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2017
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Perfect
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