Belarusian Popular Front "Revival" Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне" | |
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| Abbreviation | БНФ, BPF, BNF |
| Leader | Zianon Pazniak |
| Founded | 25 June 1989 (1989-06-25) |
| Succeeded by | BPF Party Conservative Christian Party – BPF Young Front |
| Headquarters | Minsk |
| Ideology | Liberal democracy Belarusian nationalism Anti-communism Litvinism (factions) |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| Colours | white,red,white (Flag of the Belarusian Democratic Republic) |
| Party flag | |
 From 1993 on, the flag of the BPF was a variation on the flag of theBelarusian People's Republic with aCross of Saint Euphrosyne[1] | |
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TheBelarusian Popular Front "Revival" (BPF,Belarusian:Беларускі Народны Фронт "Адраджэньне", БНФ;Biełaruski Narodny Front "Adradžeńnie",BNF) was a social and political movement inBelarus in the late 1980s and 1990s whose goals were the national revival of Belarus, its democratization and independence from theSoviet Union. Its leader wasZianon Pazniak. It was similar to the Popular Fronts ofLatvia andEstonia, and theSąjūdis movement inLithuania.
The predecessor of the BPF was the civic organization "Martyrology of Belarus [be]", whose goal was to commemorate the victims ofSoviet political repressions in Belarus. Among the significant achievements of the organization was the 1988 uncovering by Pazniak of the burial site ofKurapaty nearMinsk, a majorNKVD mass extermination site of Soviet political prisoners in the 1930s.[3]
The Belarusian Popular Front was established in 1989, following the examples of the Popular Fronts in the Baltic states. Its founding conference had to be organized inVilnius because of pressure from the authorities of theByelorussian SSR.[3]
Initially, the Popular Front united numerous minor organizations promoting theBelarusian language and history. However, soon the movement began voicing political demands,[3] supporting thePerestroika and democratization in theSoviet Union which would enable a Belarusian national revival. The Popular Front was the first political organization in Belarus to openly oppose theCommunist Party of Byelorussia.
The prominent Belarusian writerVasil Bykaŭ became an active member of the Belarusian Popular Front. WriterAleś Adamovič was an active supporter of the Popular Front.[4]
The Front had about 10 thousand activists in different regions of Belarus[5] as well as inMoscow,Vilnius andRiga. It published a newspaper, Навіны БНФ "Адраджэньне" (News of the Belarusian Popular Front "Revival").
The Belarusian Popular Front actively protested against Soviet policies following theChernobyl accident, after which a large territory of Belarus was contaminated by nuclear fallout.[6]
In May 1990, 37 members of the Belarusian Popular Front were elected into the12th Belarusian Supreme Council and formed a dynamic opposition group in the parliament of the then Soviet-controlledByelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In July 1990, the Belarusian Popular Front initiated the passing of theDeclaration of State Sovereignty of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. In August 1991, following the1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt and supported by tens of thousands of protesters outside the parliament building, the Belarusian Popular Front managed to convince the Supreme Soviet to declare full independence of Belarus from the USSR.[7] The historical Belarusian national symbols: thewhite-red-white flag and thePahoniacoat of arms were restored as state symbols of Belarus.
In 1994,Alexander Lukashenko was elected president of Belarus. From the very beginning, the Belarusian Popular Front became one of the main political forces opposing president Lukashenko.[8] In 1994 the BPF formed ashadow cabinet consisting of 100 BPF intellectuals.
In 1995, members of parliament from the Belarusian Popular Front went on ahunger strike as a protest against Lukashenko's controversialreferendum to replace state symbols with slightly amended Soviet ones and to makeRussian language official in Belarus. The hunger strike was violently interrupted by police forces who beat up the members of parliament.[9]
In 1996, the Belarusian Popular Front was one of the main powers behind mass protests against Lukashenko's policies ofRussification and integration withRussia, as well as against his second controversialreferendum amending theconstitution in a way to concentrate power in the president's hands. The protests were violently dispersed by the police. Two leaders of the Belarusian Popular Front,Zianon Pazniak andSiarhiej Navumčyk, fled the country and received political asylum in theUnited States.
In 1999, the Belarusian Popular Front split into two rival organizations. Its conservative wing under the exiled leaderZianon Pazniak formed theConservative Christian Party – BPF (Kanservatyŭna-Chryścijanskaja Partyja BNF), while the moderate majority formed theBPF Party (Partyja BNF, Партыя БНФ) led byVincuk Viačorka.
Both parties claim to be the only legitimate successor of the Belarusian Popular Front established in 1989.[3][5] TheMalady Front, formerly the Popular Front's youth wing, has also become an autonomous organization.
In 2011, following an internal conflict, more than 90 further members left theBPF Party, including several veterans of the original Belarusian Popular Front, includingLavon Barščevski,Jury Chadyka,Vincuk Viačorka. This was described by some as a "second split" of the Belarusian Popular Front.[10][11]
Formally, the Belarusian Popular Front continued to exist as an NGO affiliated with theBPF Party.[12] In 2023 the BPF Party as well as the Conservative Christian Party – BPF were both liquidated by the Supreme Court of Belarus.[13]
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