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Twenty-four years since adoption of state sovereignty declaration

Many people in Belarus celebrated on Sunday the 24th anniversary of the adoption of Belarus’ Declaration on State Sovereignty.

Photo inbelhist.org

Adopted some two weeks after Russia declared its own sovereignty, the Declaration started the process to Belarus’ eventual independence in August 1991. The 27th of July was celebrated as Independence Day in Belarus between 1991 and 1996.

On August 25, 1991, the Declaration was given the status of a constitutional law, which was used as the basis for amendments to the 1978 constitution of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

On September 19, 1991, the Supreme Soviet adopted a law that changed the name of the country to the Republic of Belarus and introduced new state symbols – the white-red-white flag and the Pahonya emblem.

As a result of a May 1995 national referendum, initiated by Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who was elected president in the summer of 1994, the new state symbols were replaced with Soviet-style ones and Russian was given the status of state language.

As a result of another Lukashenka-initiated referendum in 1996, Independence Day was brought forward from July 27 to July 3, the day when the Soviet army liberated Minsk from German troops in 1944. // BelaPAN