Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making him the current longest-tenured European president.
Lukashenko was born in Kopys, and before embarking on his political career, he worked as the director of a state farm (sovkhoz) and served in both the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army. In 1990, Lukashenko was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he assumed the position of head of the interim anti-corruption committee of the Supreme Council of Belarus. In 1994, he won the presidency in the country's inaugural presidential election after the adoption of a new constitution. Lukashenko opposed economic shock therapy during the 1990s post-Soviet transition, maintaining state ownership of key industries in Belarus. His supporters claim this spared Belarus from recessions as devastating as those in other post-Soviet states, whose political structures devolved into oligarchic crony capitalism. Lukashenko's maintenance of the socialist economic model is consistent with the retention of Soviet-era symbolism, including the Russian language, coat of arms, and national flag. These symbols were adopted after a controversial 1995 referendum.
Following the same referendum, Lukashenko acquired increased power, including the authority to dismiss the Supreme Council. Another referendum in 1996 further facilitated his consolidation of power. Lukashenko has since presided over an authoritarian government and has commonly been labelled as "Europe's last dictator". International monitors have not considered Belarusian elections as free and fair, except for his initial win. Additionally, the government harshly suppresses opponents and limits media freedom. Eventually, this has led multiple Western governments to impose sanctions on Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials.COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2020/1648 of 6 November 2020 implementing Article 8a(1) of Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 concerning restrictive measures in respect of Belarus Lukashenko's contested victory in the 2020 presidential election preceded allegations of vote-rigging, amplifying anti-government protests, the largest seen during his rule. Consequently, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States ceased to recognise Lukashenko as the legitimate president of Belarus following the disputed election.Dave Lawler, U.S. no longer recognises Lukashenko as legitimate president of Belarus , Axios (24 September 2020). Lukashenko remained in power, which eventually led to a resumption of partial diplomatic relations. His re-election in the 2025 presidential election was described as a sham by the opposition and the European parliament.
Such isolation from parts of the West has, especially in the Putin era, increased his dependence on Russia, with whom Lukashenko had already maintained close ties despite past tensions, such as the so-called Milk War in 2009, allegedly stemming from Belarus' refusal to recognise the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in exchange for a $500 million loan, in the aftermath of the Russo-Georgian War. Lukashenko played a crucial role in creating the Union State, enabling Belarusians and Russians to travel, work, and study unhindered between the two countries. He also reportedly played a crucial role in brokering a deal to end the Russian Wagner Group rebellion in 2023, allowing some Wagner soldiers to cross the country's border unhindered and settle in Belarus.
Early life, family, and education Lukashenko was born on 30 August 1954Скандал! Лукашенко изменил биографию (видео и фото) » UDF.BY | Новости Беларуси | Объединённые демократические силы . UDF.BY. Retrieved 13 April 2011.Официальный интернет-портал Президента Республики Беларусь/Биография . President.gov.by (11 May 1998). Retrieved 13 April 2011. in the settlement of Kopys in the Vitebsk Region of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Starting with an interview given in 2009, Lukashenko has said that his actual birthday is 31 August, the same as his son Nikolai's.ТАК ГОВОРИТ ЛУКАШЕНКО . Zavtra. Retrieved 13 April 2011. This caused some confusion as all official sources had said 30 August 1954 up until then. An explanation was later given that his mother had entered the hospital on the 30th in labour, but did not give birth until after midnight.
His maternal grandfather, Trokhym Ivanovich Lukashenko, was born near Shostka in the then-Russian Empire, now in the Ukrainian village known today as Sobycheve. Lukashenko grew up without a father in his childhood, leading him to be taunted by his schoolmates for having an unmarried mother. Due to this, the origin of his patronymic Grigorevich is unknown, and there are varying rumours about the identity of Lukashenko's father. The most common suggestion is that the man was a Roma passing through the region. His mother, Ekaterina Trofimovna Lukashenko (1924–2015), had given birth to another son, older than Alexander, who later died on an unknown date. Ekaterina worked unskilled jobs on a railway, at a construction site, at a flax factory in Orsha, and finally as a milkmaid in Alexandria, a small village in the east of Belarus, close to the Russian border.
Lukashenko went to Alexandria secondary school. He graduated from the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute (now Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University) in Mogilev in 1975 after four years of study. He also completed studies at the Belarusian Agricultural Academy in Horki in 1985.
Military and early political career
He served in the Soviet Border Troops from 1975 to 1977, where he was an instructor of the political department of military unit No. 2187 of the Western Frontier District in Brest, and in the Soviet Army from 1980 to 1982. In addition, he led an All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (Komsomol) chapter in Mogilev from 1977 to 1978. While in the Soviet Army, Lukashenko served as a deputy political officer at the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which was based in Minsk.
In 1979, he joined the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Byelorussia. After leaving the military, he became the deputy chairman of a collective farm in 1982 and in 1985. In 1987, he was appointed as the director of the Gorodets state farm in Shklow district, and in early 1988, he was one of the first in the Mogilev Region to introduce a leasing contract to a state farm.
In 1990, Lukashenko was elected a Deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. Having acquired a reputation as an eloquent opponent of corruption, Lukashenko was elected in April 1993 to be interim chairman of the anti-corruption committee of the Belarusian parliament. In late 1993, he accused 70 senior government officials, including Supreme Soviet chairman Stanislav Shushkevich and prime minister Vyacheslav Kebich, of corruption, including embezzlement of state funds for personal purposes. While the charges ultimately proved to be without merit, Shushkevich resigned his chairmanship due to the embarrassment of this series of events and losing a vote of no-confidence. He was in that position until July 1994.
Presidency (1994–present) First term (1994–2001)
A new Belarusian constitution enacted in early 1994 paved the way for the first democratic presidential election on 23 June and 10 July. Six candidates stood in the first round, including Lukashenko, who campaigned as an independent on a populist platform. In an interview with The New York Times, he declared, "I am neither with the leftists nor the rightists. But with the people against those who rob and deceive them." Stanislav Shushkevich and Vyacheslav Kebich also ran, with the latter regarded as the clear favourite. Lukashenko won 45.1% of the vote while Kebich received 17.4%, Zianon Pazniak received 12.9% and Shushkevich, along with two other candidates, received less than 10% of the cast votes.
Lukashenko won the second round of the election on 10 July with 80.1% of the vote.Country Studies Belarus – Prelude to Independence . Library of Congress. Retrieved 21 March 2007. The presidential inauguration was held in the halls of the Government House on 20 July 1994, exactly ten days after the election, during a special meeting of the parliament, the Supreme Council. Shortly after his inauguration, he addressed the State Duma of the Russian Federation in Moscow, proposing a new Union of Slavic states, which would culminate in the creation of the Union of Russia and Belarus in 1999.Alyaksandr Lukashenka in: Encyclopædia Britannica Online, 2009.
In February 1995, Lukashenko announced his intention to hold a referendum. For the young democratic republic, this raised the controversial issue of the Russification of Belarus. Lukashenko said he would press ahead with the referendum regardless of opposition in the Supreme Council and threatened to suspend its activities if it did not agree to hold the referendum. On 11 April 1995, a vote was held in parliament on calling a referendum on four issues proposed by Lukashenko: 1) granting Russian the status of a state language, 2) changing state symbols, 3) on economic integration with Russia, and 4) on giving the president the right to dissolve parliament. The deputies rejected all the issues, except for that which regarded economic integration with Russia.Навумчык С. Дзевяноста пяты. (Бібліятэка Свабоды. ХХІ стагодзьдзе.) — Радыё Свабодная Эўропа / Радыё Свабода, 2015. — 320 с.: іл. . p. 132–5Сапраўдныя беларускія сімвалы: вось што трэба ведаць пра Пагоню і БЧБ , Наша Ніва, 22 лістапада 2020 г. It is unclear whether the president had legal power to call referendums independently, and if so, whether they would be binding. Lukashenko stated that the referendum would be held despite the rejection by the deputies.
In protest, 19 out of a total of 238 deputies of the Belarusian Popular Front led by Zianon Pazniak and the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly led by Oleg Trusov (b. Алег Анатолевіч Трусаў) began a hunger strike in the parliamentary meeting room and stayed there overnight on the night of 11–12 April. At night, under the pretext of a bomb threat, unidentified law enforcement personnel attacked and forcibly expelled the deputies. Lukashenko stated that he personally ordered the evacuation for security purposes. The Supreme Council agreed to hold the referendum on 13 April, and in May 1995, Belarusian authorities held a referendum on the four issues. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe found neither the referendum nor the 1995 Belarusian parliamentary election, which took place in the same month, to have met the minimal requirements for free and fair elections.
Results of the disputed 1995 referendumQuestionForAgainstTurnoutResultDo you agree with assigning the Russian language the status equal to that of the Belarusian language?86.8%13.2%64.8%Do you support the actions of the President aimed at economic integration with Russia?87.0%13.0%Do you support the suggestion about the introduction of the new State flag and State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Belarus?78.6%21.4%Do you agree with the necessity of the introduction of changes into the acting Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, which provide for early termination of the plenary powers of the Supreme Council by President of the Republic of Belarus in the case of systematical or gross violations of the Constitution?81.4%18.6%Source: Nohlen & StöverDieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p252