"The GDL was as Belarusian as the British Empire was Indian." Who and how erased "Pahonia" from English Wikipedia

Belarusian Wikipedians have to resist not only Russification.

As follows from the investigation by "Free Wikipedians", until 2021, the English-language text about "Pahonia" maintained balance, describing historical and visual differences between the standards of the two countries (for example, a six-pointed cross versus a Lorraine cross), and also contained dozens of coats of arms of cities and voivodeships from Vitebsk to Bialystok, created using "Pahonia". Several Lithuanian editors spent many years to erase information about the Belarusian "Pahonia".

The success of the manipulation was ensured by the cunning structure of the article about the coat of arms of Lithuania. It ignores the Soviet period, as for Lithuania this was a period of occupation, and history jumps directly from 1940 to 1990, creating the illusion of historical continuity in the use of the symbol.

The Belarusian situation, however, has a vulnerability: the modern state is the successor to the BSSR, so a general article about the coat of arms of Belarus is obliged to include both the Soviet and the modern modified variant.

Taking advantage of this, the initiators achieved the merger of "Pahonia" precisely with the article about the coat of arms of Lithuania, as essentially identical.

But with such a merger, the entire rich Belarusian historical context began to look incongruous. It was cut down to just a couple of paragraphs and moved to the bottom — this was precisely the idea behind the merger.

The Belarusian "Pahonia" is presented there exclusively as a foreign symbol that Belarusians appropriated in 1918. Interestingly, it is stated that this symbol was used by Belarusian collaborators during World War II. At the same time, mentions of its use by Lithuanian collaborators during the same period are absent.

The cunning formulations even affected the disambiguation page, where "Pahonia" is now described simply as a "Belarusian-language term for the coat of arms of Lithuania."

To prove to administrators the necessity of deletion, the initiators used double standards. On the one hand,

Pofka called Belarusian historical research "propaganda of a terrorist regime." On the other hand, to justify that Belarusians themselves abandoned the symbol, he used the results of Lukashenka's 1995 referendum.

Manipulating words taken out of context from ex-Constitutional Court judge Mikhail Pastukhov, the editor convinced Western administrators that the abandonment of the coat of arms was legitimate.

The motivation for such actions was based on the perception of Belarusians as a conquered mass. In discussions, Pofka directly stated:

"The GDL was as Belarusian as the British Empire was Indian. The majority of the population doesn't matter if it doesn't rule the state."

To lend weight to his theories, he selectively used the works of Western historians, in particular Stephen Rowell's book on "Pagan Empire," which Belarusian researchers criticize precisely for its complete disregard of the Belarusian component.

He also wrote that Belarusians who do not agree that the history of the GDL is exclusively the history of Lithuania should "look at Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia and be content with what they actually have."

Another editor, who consistently changed nicknames and identities, helped create an artificial consensus for the article's deletion.

Initially registering as "Ashkenazi Jew" Itzhak Rosenberg, he quickly began to pose as a Lithuanian, and later operated under the names Cukrakalnis, +JMJ+ (an abbreviation for Jesus, Maria, Joseph), and D&P.

A narrow focus on military history may indicate that he himself is a serviceman, and an analysis of his activity showed that his editing times do not coincide with editors from Lithuania but do coincide with evening activity on the East Coast of the USA.

Today, the article about "Pahonia" remains a redirect. However, systematic violations of ethics by the initiators did not go entirely without consequences.

Pofka received a permanent ban on Lithuanian Wikipedia for aggressive behavior, and on English Wikipedia was punished with a temporary topic ban and targeted sanctions, although he managed to plead for a "second chance," avoiding final expulsion.

Nevertheless, as we wrote earlier, the gigantic propaganda article he created about "Litvinism," where the Belarusian view of history is groundlessly equated with fascism, was completely deleted by independent editors at the end of 2025 and rewritten in a neutral tone.

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