A French translation of Valery Karbalevich’s book exploring Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s rise to power and rule as a notorious strongman was launched in Paris on November 28.
Titled The Belarusian Despot. Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Europe’s Last Dictator, the 384-page book has a print run of 5,000 copies. It has been published by France’s Francois Bourin Editeur.
Mr. Karbalevich, a prominent Belarusian political analyst, uses the book to explain why Mr. Lukashenka has managed to cling to power for such a long time. “Rudeness, cynicism, megalomania, ruse, contempt for laws, crudity, populism - these are the ingredients of the dictatorship that Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Europe’s last dictator, established in Minsk in 1994,” says an annotation posted on the publisher’s website. “How could peaceful Belarus backslide into a dictatorship three years after the fall of the Communism? How could a kolkhoz head rise to the height of power without any support from a party or a public organization? Valery Karbalevich offers an answer to the riddle.”
“This book, the only French-language biography of the dictator from Belarus, is a journey into absurdity. But it is also a warning against the dangers that await peoples that let their fear and nostalgia control them,” the annotation says.
