Authors

Discussion

In post-communist Europe, the Church still retains its role of a support of the state’s project of national identity, or otherwise it contributes to the preservation of ethnic identity of minorities, but it rarely works as a locus of civil resistance. However, the religious factor unexpectedly became central to both the mobilizations and to government repressions in Belarus, where the initiatives of religious groups have fostered collective action in the state system that is punitive of any dissent. Moreover, the forms of protest that Church could suggest neatly fit into the non-democratic settings of Belarus, providing with a necessary opportunity structure for otherwise forbidden mobilizations. This presentation analyses the position of the Churches on the recent events in Belarus and discusses why their contract with the authoritarian regime was renegotiated. The paper is based on extensive fieldwork in Belarus. The main argument is that Churches are an ambivalent space: one where the state can exercise social control, but where potential resistance to the repressive state might also occur since they enjoy a greater degree of freedom than other organizations in authoritarian Belarus. This presentation argues that religion can be seen as a privileged arena of protest within existing legal frameworks of the “contract” between the state and the Church. The study has also shown that there is a noticeable correlation between the extent of civil engagement by believers and their specific denominational choice, their choice of a congregation or parish, and even their geographical area.