Authors

Discussion

The 2020 mass protest movement, which erupted in response to the falsification of the presidential election results and brutal repression by the authorities, was the most important event in the history of independent Belarus. Although it did not lead to a change in the authoritarian regime, it is often, and not without reason, defined in terms of revolution, as it did indeed mean a radical transformation of society. I argue that the Belarusian revolution had a particular philosophical-practical effect (a kind of critical heuristic), namely that it radically questioned and transcended the principle of sovereign power (Hobbes, Schmitt) exemplified by Lukashenko's dictatorship. The paper aims to reveal a specific subversive force of the peaceful mass protests in Belarus and its universal implications (claims). These claims concern the following aspects: 1) structural alternatives to the principle of sovereign power at the state level, 2) democratic ethos and horizontal self-organising, 3) sovereign power and hegemonic masculinity, 4) sovereign power and domination over nature (e.g. sovereign and nuclear power). All these issues are interconnected. By resisting and transcending the principle of sovereign power, the protest community has developed (implicitly and explicitly) symbolic/conceptual and practical orientations for shaping a new future that may seem inspiring to many people and communities in our region and around the world. To conceptualise this 'new future' (new modus vivendi for democratic societies/communities), I will elaborate an ethical-political imperative embedded in the Belarusian revolution.