Stanislav Shushkevich

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Family name hatnote Template:Infobox officeholder Template:Socialism in BelarusStanislav Stanislavovich ShushkevichTemplate:Efn (15 December 1934 – 3 May 2022) was a Belarusian politician and scientist who served as the first head of state of independent Belarus after it seceded from the Soviet Union, serving as the first chairman of the Supreme Soviet (also called chairman of Parliament or president) from 1991 to 1994. He supported social democratic reforms and played a key role in the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He later became an opposition leader against Alexander Lukashenko.

As a scientist, he was a corresponding member of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, Doctor in Physics and Mathematics, recipient of various state awards, professor and the author and originator of textbooks and over 150 articles and 50 inventions.

Biography

Shushkevich was born on 15 December 1934, in Minsk. His parents were teachers who came from peasant families. His father, poet Stanislau Petrovich Shushkevich (born 19 February 1908 in Minsk) was arrested in the 1930s and was released from prison in 1956 (but completely exonerated only in 1975). His mother, writer<ref>Умер первый глава независимой Беларуси Станислав Шушкевич</ref> Helena Romanowska was ethnically Polish and her family had szlachta (noble) roots. During World War II Shushkevich lived with his mother and grandmother in Nazi-occupied Minsk, with a Jewish boy hiding in their house.<ref name="svaboda.org">Template:Cite web</ref>

After finishing school with a medal in 1951, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Belarusian State University and graduated in 1956. He subsequently studied at the graduate school of the Institute of Physics of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, conducting research in the field of radio electronics.<ref name="svaboda.org"/>

In the early 1960s, while working as an engineer in an electronics factory, he was in charge of teaching the Russian language to John F. Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, when Oswald lived in Minsk.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This is confirmed by a CIA document, RIF #104-10014-10053.

He was married to his wife Irina from 1976 onward. According to him, she forced him to start a healthy lifestyle. They had a son named Stanislav and daughter named Elena.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Shushkevich was admitted to hospital and placed in an intensive care unit in April 2022, due to complications from COVID-19.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On the night of May 3, Shushkevich died in Minsk.<ref>Умер первый глава независимой Белоруссии Станислав Шушкевич</ref><ref>Ex-Belarus leader Shushkevich, the man who sacked Gorbachev, dies at 87</ref>

Political activity

When Supreme Soviet chairman Nikolai Dementey was ousted for his support of the August 1991 coup attempt, Shushkevich became interim speaker,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and presided over Belarus voting to secede from the Soviet Union. He thus became the newly minted nation's first leader. On 18 September, Shushkevich was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Stanislav Shushkevich at the signing of the Belavezha Accords with Leonid Kravchuk and Boris Yeltsin in 1991

On 8 December 1991, in Belavezhskaya Pushcha and together with the leaders of Russia (Boris Yeltsin) and Ukraine (Leonid Kravchuk), he signed a declaration that the Soviet Union was dissolved and replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States; the declaration later became known as the "Belovezh Accords".

Shushkevich had the vestigial Soviet nuclear arsenal (both tactical and strategic) withdrawn from Belarus, without preconditions or compensation from Russia or the West. However, other reforms became stalled due to the opposition from a hostile parliament as well as from Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kebich.Template:Citation needed

In late 1993, Alexander Lukashenko, the then-chairman of the anti-corruption committee of the Belarusian parliament, accused 70 senior government officials, including Shushkevich, of corruption, including stealing state funds for personal purposes. Lukashenko's accusations forced a vote of confidence, which Shushkevich lost. Shushkevich was replaced by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov and later by Myechyslau Hryb.Template:Citation needed

At the 1994 Belarusian presidential election (the first one after the secession from the Soviet Union), six candidates stood, including Lukashenko, Shushkevich and Kebich, with the latter regarded as the clear favorite. In the first round Lukashenko won 45% of the vote against 17% for Kebich, 13% for Paznyak and 10% for Shushkevich.

In 2002 Shushkevich sued the Belarusian Ministry of Labor and Social Security: due to inflation, his retirement pension as a former head of state was the equivalent of US$1.80 monthly.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> To earn income, Shushkevich lectured extensively in foreign universities including in Poland, the United States and Asian countries.

In 2004 he attempted to participate in parliamentary elections, but was refused registration by the electoral commission.Template:Citation needed

Shushkevich in 2009

He continued to be active in politics,<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> heading the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly party from 1998 until 2018.

Awards and decorations

• 1982, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the BSSR
• 1997, Polish Prize of Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
• 6 July 2010, Lithuanian presidential Order of Vytautas the Great, "for active support of the independence of Lithuania in 1991"
• 2012, Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• 2018, Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal, "for contribution to the Belarusian democracy and independence"