Belarusian historians abroad joined forces and created the Belarusian Institute of Public History.
“The idea of creating an institute has been discussed for quite a long time. We had our first meetings about a year ago. I must say right away that this is not a building, it is a community. We are talking about an initiative that arose from such a need to represent oneself among the community of Belarusian historians. One can say not only historians, but also those who are close professionally. We are united by the love of the past. A year ago, we started discussing that a situation was developing, that the Belarusian state was beginning to use history very intensively for its political purposes, to legitimize the government and to discredit opponents,” said Aliaksey Lastouski, academic director of the Belarusian Institute of Public History.
One of the main goals of the institute is to resist falsification and rewriting of history, popularization of historical knowledge.