This thesis sets out to investigate three questions, first, how the Belarusian democratization process has progressed since the country’s independence in 1991 to the year of 2006. Second, how the relationship between Russia and Belarus has progressed during this time and third, if and how Russia has affected the democratization process. The study has been conducted through qualitative method, mainly using books and articles as sources of information. It has been found that the democratization process in Belarus has evolved in a negative direction ever since the presidential election of 1994. During the selected time-period, the Russian-Belarus relationship has come to include more and more areas of co-operation and a deeper integration within these areas. Russia has by its support of and to the Belarusian regime, through subsidised energy and economic investments, made it possible for the regime to continue with anti-democratic policies. Consequently Russia has indirectly affected the democratization process in a negative way.

Det vitryska språket är jämte ryskan ett av de två statsspråken i Republiken Vitryssland. Användning av det ryska språket dominerar dock i de flesta samhälleliga situationer och en minoritet av befolkningen anger att den dagligen talar vitryska. Antalet skolor med vitryska som undervisningsspråk har under många år minskat. Bokutgivning och vissa kulturevenemang på vitryska språket har statligt stöd och det finns även oberoende organisationer som arbetar för främjande av språket. Språkfrågan är dock mycket politiserad och det kan vara svårt att bilda sig en klar uppfattning om den. Denna uppsats syftar till att bringa klarhet kring språkliga förhållanden i dagens Vitryssland. Fokus är relationen mellan språkanvändning och nationell identitet. Särskilt syftar arbetet till att ge svar på huruvida den faktiska användningen av det vitryska språket är i överenstämmelse med uppgifter i officiell statistik om språkanvändning  samt till att förklara varför det vitryska språket som symbol för nationell identitet haft svårt att motivera till ökad användning av det. För att behandla frågeställningarna ovan görs i arbetet en historisk översikt, med särskild betoning på förändringar som påverkat språkpolitik och språkanvändning i Vitryssland. Vidare redovisas aktuella förhållanden, tendenser och debatt vad gäller språkanvändning. Arbetet omfattar även en enkätundersökning  om språkanvändning och nationell identitet i Vitryssland. Enkäten  genomfördes hösten 2013, vid European Humanities University (EHU) i Litauen (EHU är ett vitryskt universitet men sedan år 2005 verksamt i Vilnius). Som respondenter deltog 123 studerande och av inlämnade enkäter kunde 100 användas som underlag. Samtliga respondenter är uppvuxna i Vitryssland. Resultatet av undersökningen redovisas och diskuteras i förhållande till arbetets syfte.

Cette thèse analyse les formes et les conditions de l’action collective dans des contextes contraignants à partir des mobilisations de la jeunesse en faveur et contre l’ordre politique établi en Russie et en Biélorussie dans les années 2000. En confrontant mouvements contestataires et organisations loyales au pouvoir et en les analysant dans leurs rapports asymétriques à l’État, ce travail saisit l’émergence de ces structures à la faveur des « révolutions de couleurs » et des évolutions internes aux deux pays. Il distingue trois formes de militantisme : militantisme contestataire à conflit frontal avec le pouvoir, militantisme du pouvoir en Biélorussie vécu sur le mode consensuel du souci des autres (zabota) et, enfin, militantisme du pouvoir en Russie qui associe conflictualité et zabota dans le cadre du conflit « négocié ». Conflit et zabota déterminent ensuite le rapport des jeunes au politique et leurs projets de société, leur attitude à la rue, leurs formes d’action et leurs logiques d’engagement. Cette recherche met aussi en évidence l’action des organisations qui mobilisent la jeunesse, tout en entretenant des relations consensuelles avec le pouvoir et envisageant leur action dans la continuité de l’État, mais qui promeuvent la loyauté politique parmi les jeunes à travers la mobilisation politique dans la rue en Russie et l’encadrement social en Biélorussie. Ce travail appréhende enfin les effets des contextes contraignants tant sur les jeunes contestataires, qui sont obligés d’adapter leurs modes de structuration, leurs répertoires d’action ainsi qu’à se socialiser à la répression, que sur les militants du pouvoir, qui doivent s’adapter aux objectifs des autorités. / This research endeavors to analyze forms and conditions of the collective action in constraining contexts on the example of youth mobilization in favor or against the government in Russia and Belarus throughout 2000’s. By confronting protest movements and loyal organizations and by analyzing them in their asymmetric relations with the State, this dissertation shows how those structures emerge following the “color revolutions” and internal political events. It also makes a distinction between three forms of youth activism: protest activism that is based on a frontal conflict with authorities, “power” activism in Belarus that is experienced in a consensual way of caring about others (zabota) and, finally, “power” activism in Russia that associates conflict with zabota in the frame of what we called a “negotiated conflict”. Conflict and zabota determine then the youth’ relations to the politics, their societal projects, their forms of action and individual logics of engagement. This research highlights also the existence of organizations that mobilize the youth, while maintaining consensual relations with the government and conceiving their action in continuity with the State, but that promote political loyalty among the young through their mobilization in the streets in Russia and social supervision and support to them in Belarus. Finally, this research apprehends effects of constraining contexts both on young protestors, who have to adapt their structuration modes, their repertoires of action and to socialize their members to the repression, and on “power” activists who have to adjust to new objectives set by the government.

This book examines and analyses the Union between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Sweden signed in 1655 at Kėdainiai and the political crisis that followed. The union was a result of strong separatist dreams among the Lithuanian-Ruthenian Protestant elite led by the Radziwiłł family, and if implemented it would radically change the balance of power in the Baltic Sea region. The main legal point of the Union was the breach of Lithuanian federation with Poland and the establishment of a federation with Sweden. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania aspired to return to international relations as a self-governing subject. The Union meant a new Scandinavian alternative to Polish and Russian domination. The author places the events in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the general crisis that occurred in Europe in the middle of the 17th century characterized by a great number of wars, rebellions and civil wars from Portugal to Ukraine, and which builds the background to the crisis for Lithuania and Sweden. The research proved the importance of lesser powers in changing the geopolitical balance between the Great Powers. The conflict over Lithuania and Belarus was the main reason for the Swedish-Russian, Polish-Russian and Ukrainian-Russian wars. The failure of the Union with Sweden was caused by both internal and external factors. Internally, various ethnic, confessional and political groups within the nobility of Lithuania were split in favour of different foreign powers – from Muscovy to Transylvania. The external cause for the failure of the Union project was the failure of Swedish strategy. Sweden concentrated its activity to Poland, not to Lithuania. After the Union, Swedish authorities treated the Grand Duchy as an invaded country, not an equal. The Swedish administration introduced heavy taxation and was unable to control the brutality of the army. As a result Sweden was defeated in both Lithuania and Poland. Among the different economic, political and religious explanations of the general crisis, the case of Lithuania shows the importance of the political conflicts. For the separatists of Lithuania the main motive to turn against Poland and to promote alliance with Sweden, Russia or the Cossacks was the inability of Poland to shield the Grand Duchy from a Russian invasion.The Lithuanian case was a provincial rebellion led by the native nobility against their monarch, based on tradition of the previous independence and statehood period. It was not nationalism in its modern meaning, but instead a crisis of identity in the form of a conflict between Patria and Central Power. However, the cost of being a part of Sweden or Muscovy was greater than the benefit of political protection. Therefore, the pro-Polish orientation prevailed when Poland after 1658 recovered its military ability the local nobility regrouped around Warsaw. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania managed to remain on the political map of Europe, but at the price of general religious Catholization and cultural Polonization. After the crisis, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania gradually changed into a deep province of the Polish state.

It has been proven that the burgeoning power of the EU is not negligible. However, it is still debatable whether the EU acts as a smart power in its external human rights policy. Through Joseph Nye's theory of hard, soft, and smart power, this thesis will offer a critical understanding of a wide range of factors which merits the EU's role as a smart power. The contemporary history of Belarus also illustrates that the political, economic, and cultural endeavours of the EU reveal the institution's role as a smart power. Within the theoretical framework predicated on Nye's theory on the aforementioned powers, the EU-Belarus relations will be be analysed in order to lay bare the power of the EU and to shed light on the significance of human rights in the EU policies.

Social media are often referred to as democracy drivers in autocratic states, whereas in some countries, they appear as tools of the regimes that employ a wide range of mechanisms to restrict freedom of expression online. In authoritarian countries, political bloggers stand out as new political leaders or anti-regime actors, serve as alternative information sources, advocate for political action, or mobilize financial support for different initiatives. Political conditions in countries with established governments’ control practices complicate publishing routines for political bloggers and may increase incentives to self-censor. Employing the theory of the spiral of silence, this study analyzes self-censorship in social media among political bloggers in two neighboring post-Soviet autocratic countries - Belarus and Russia. The research is based on a comparison of media legislation in Belarus and Russia, textual analysis of political blogs, and survey among political bloggers in the two countries. The survey demonstrates that political bloggers face obstacles in forms of administrative or criminal sentences, forceful blocking of their pages, online threats, or experience pressure/ attention from secret services. Despite these challenges, political bloggers in Belarus and Russia demonstrate readiness to speak out and criticize political elites. According to the model suggested in this thesis, the majority of political bloggers practice self-censorship at the pre-publishing stages in forms of selecting topics and wording, avoiding particular names. The author argues that in autocratic countries, the spiral of silence, that engages more people to silence their opinion due to political obstacles, can be and is currently challenged by political bloggers, as decentralized political opinion leaders, who aim to break down the spiral of silence. The research contributes to media studies of social media and freedom of expression in autocratic countries. Political bloggers as neither ordinary social media users nor media in the non-democratic world require more attention among media and political scholars.

While there are numerous examples of research investigating who would protest and why, the research fields of social movements and political participation have not done enough to understand the motivations of women in protest. Nor are there enough studies of the mobilisation of women in anti-regime protest in a post-communist context. This thesis investigates what motivates women in non-democratic settings to participate in protest, despite the elevated costs and risks given the context. It examines Belarus, a protest movement where women have taken on a prevalent role in the protest movement of 2020. The research design is a within-case study using the method of in-depth interviews. I conduct interviews with ten Belarusian female protesters who are found primarily via a snowball sampling technique. The transcribed interviews are analysed using a framework of collective and selective incentives. The study finds that discontent with the government and belief in the movement’s success are significant motivations, while there is not belief that their own participation will enhance the likelihood of success. Results also show that respondents were motivated by the violence used against protesters, a newfound sense of community between Belarusians, solidarity with protesters, the peaceful repertoires in the movement and group belongingness with other women. Taken together, these results deepen our understanding of protests as motivations in themselves and of motivation as a resource, but foremost of why women protest. The results might incentivise more research to be made on women’s role in protest and motivations to join social movements.

The diploma thesis deals with the national identity of the post-Soviet generation of Belarusians. It is a group of people that is specific in that they were born after the fall of the Soviet Union and lived almost their entire life under the rule of Alexander Lukashenko. In the presented work I will focus on the comparison of the national identity of two groups of representatives of this generation. The first is a group of Belarusians living in Belarus and the second is a group of Belarusians living in the Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis will be to find out whether the representatives of the post-Soviet generation of Belarusians living in Belarus and the representatives of Belarusians living in the Czech Republic share a uniform definition of national identity. In order to answer this research question, a qualitative research was conducted with respondents from the ranks of Belarusians living in Belarus and Belarusians living in the Czech Republic. The research is focused on the categories that are traditionally considered to be pillars of national identity. These categories include, for example, the national language, historical identity, relationship to surrounding nations or relationship to national identity presented by President Lukashenko.

MACHAŇ, Jaroslav. Internet censorship in Belarus and other selected post-communist countries postkomunistických zemích. Thesis. Thesis adviser: Ing. Martin Souček, Ph.D. Abstrakt This thesis aims to familiarize the reader with the issue of Internet censorship in several Eastern European countries, where the level of censorship is especially poignant. It is intended primarily for people who want to study this theme matter more. For them this thesis is a gateway to this phenomenon. It has to show what technologies and methods in today's world are used to censor the Internet and how individual states censor access. The thesis also deals with the procedures for measuring the level of censorship in the restrained deployed States. It discusses the technical aspects of these processes and their functioning so that you, the reader, which is not purely technically based, took the most understood the information and communication. Number of countries that restrict access to the content of the World Wide Web is currently a constantly increasing and final number of these states is growing. Based on the arguments that are often considered to be a compelling and powerful as "preserving cultural norms and religious values" and "protecting children from pornography and abuse" implements many states have extensive filtering...

The goal of this thesis is to assess the usefulness of study visits organised by Czech civil society organisations as a form of international cooperation in the period 2006 - 2010 and to map out the possibilities for making study visits for Belarusian participants in the Czech Republic more effective. An additional goal of this study is to identify potential opportunities for increasing the impact of study visits and long-term cooperation with the Belarusian non- governmental sector. This thesis also describes the phenomena of democracy assistance the whole and its positive and negative aspects in Belarus. Besides that, this paper focuses on the notion of democracy assistance in the context of the Czech Republic. Key words: democracy assistance, transition promotion, civil society, Belarus, study visits