How authoritarianism is learning to use violence against women: case of Belarus

The state-initiated violence and repressions deployed by the authoritarian regime of Belarus against its citizens, who engage into various forms of dissent are in the focus of this paper. Employing the notion of "authoritarian learning" we trace developments of the instruments and means of the state violence. Three periods are distinguished: 1) from the middle of 1990s when the authoritarian regime started its consolidation till summer 2020 when massive protest happens in Belarus after falsified presidential election; 2) from summer 2020 till summer 2021 when democratic protests were severely suppressed by the government and mass repression started in the country; and 3) ongoing period that began in summer 2021 and continues now. We concentrate on accumulated knowledge and experiences of the repressive apparatus of autocrat Lukashenka (who runs Belarus since 1994). As to the first period, we (based on the systematic review of existing academic and expert literature) describe how practices of preemptive repressions have been taking roots in Belarus since early 2000. Then, regarding the second (climax) period, we show how the regime in 2020 - 2021, when the falsified presidential elections provoked massive street protests (involving numerous politically activated women) in an unprecedented brutal manner reacted to these street protests and proceeded with mass repression against activists and organized civil society. We show how, dwelling on previous coercive experiences, harsh adaptations have been produced among primary and secondary experientially informed learners. The developments of state-violence during the second period are analyzed using our original series of semi-structured interviews with Belarusian women, who because of their staggering acts of "disobedience and extremism" have been incarcerated in 2020-2021; and also media publications and reports of the human rights organizations. We demonstrate how the regime in the mode of coercive isomorphism has expanded the repressive practices, specifically tailored at women. Finally, we delve into the third period (starting in the middle of 2021). Regarding this period, our insights are generated from the official statements of Lukashenka and other Belarusian authorities; the reports and databases of the international human rights agencies as well as from the information gathered from the Belarusian democratic media outlets (practically, all of them function from abroad) and personal exchange with politically persecuted Belarusian people, their family members and close friends. Throughout the paper, in parallel, we reflect on how civil society reacts to escalating state repression, and how social learning entrenches itself among civil activists and their practices of resistance. We underscore that Lukashenka’s regime operates mostly in the mode of negative learning, while Belarusian civil society engages in positive learning and efforts to replicate its own and international good practices of resistance to the state-violence. Summing up, we take a holistic and relational approach to political violence, and – while focusing on the repressive character of the Belarusian regime – we analyze the interplay between different state and non-state actors in the complex socio-political (and, since the outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2022, also geopolitical) context.