Stanislav Shushkevich

Shushkevich was born on December 15, 1934 in Minsk. His parents were teachers who came from peasant families. His father, Stanislav Petrovich Shushkevich (born February 19, 1908 in Minsk) was arrested in the 1930s and was released from prison in 1956. His mother Helena Romanowska was ethnically Polish and her family had szlachta (noble) roots.

In the early 1960s, while working as an engineer in an electronics factory, he was in charge of teaching Lee Harvey Oswald Russian when Oswald lived in Minsk.[1][2]

Shushkevich has been married to his wife Irina since 1976. According to him, she forced him to start a healthy lifestyle. He has a son named Stanislav and daughter named Elena.[3][4]

When Supreme Soviet chairman Mikalay Dzyemyantsyey was ousted for his support of the 25 August coup attempt, Shushkevich was voted as his successor, and presided over Byelorussia voting to secede from the Soviet Union. He thus became the newly minted nation's first leader. When the republic changed its name to Belarus on 25 September, Shushkevich was voted as Supreme Soviet chairman on a permanent basis.

On December 8, 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 "Belavezha Accords".

Shushkevich withdrew from Belarus the vestigial Soviet nuclear arsenal (both tactical and strategic), 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.

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 (taking two boxes of nails for his Dacha) forced a vote of confidence, which Shushkevich lost. Shushkevich was replaced by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov and later by Myechyslau Hryb.

The accusations against Shushkevich turned out to be without merit.[5]

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

In July, 1994 the first direct presidential elections were held in Belarus. 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 the world learned about a highly unusual court case. 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.[6][7] To earn income, Shushkevich lectures 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.

He continues to be active in politics,[1][8] heading the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly party.

In October 2020, Shushkevich reported that unknown men attempted to enter his son's apartment, an incident that he described as an attempt to intimidate him for supporting the opposition movement.[9]

• 1982, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the BSSR
• 1997, Polish Prize of Jan Nowak-Jeziorański
• July 6, 2010, Lithuanian presidential Order of Vytautas the Great, "for active support of the independence of Lithuania in 1991"
• 2012, Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom[10]
• 2018, Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal, "for contribution to the Belarusian democracy and independence"