Latushka: Lukashenka personally ordered me to halve the list of monuments, because they "hinder investors"
The former Minister of Culture told Nasha Niva that the centralized campaign to destroy historical heritage did not start today. As early as 15 years ago, Lukashenka explicitly demanded the exclusion of thousands of objects from the List of Values so that they would not interfere with developers.
The current government campaign to clear the State List of Monuments is not a spontaneous decision, but a continuation of a long-standing state policy. As former Minister of Culture (2009—2012) and current head of the People's Anti-Crisis Management Pavel Latushka told Nasha Niva, he personally received a direct order from Alexander Lukashenka to reduce the number of protected objects.
According to Latushka, this happened during the opening of Mikhail Savitsky's art gallery in Minsk, in the restored historical building of the Pshezdzetsky urban manor on Svobody Square.
"Lukashenka stood, looked at this building and, addressing the then mayor of Minsk, Ladutska, said: "We have too many monuments in the country, investors complain to me, we need to reduce them." At that time, we had a little over 5,000 monuments. To which I replied: "Lithuania has 15,000." Lukashenka stated that this interferes with investment projects: "Solve this problem, you need to halve them."
Latushka recalls that he immediately told the then Vice Prime Minister Anatoly Tozik, who was standing nearby: "I will never sign this." According to the politician, he would have resigned if he had been forced to do so.
The former minister also recalls that his position on heritage protection often led to direct conflicts with the country's leadership.
"The first Minsk power station, where the Kempinski hotel was later built. This is a separate story of my conflicting conversations with Lukashenka and Prime Minister Sidorsky. This is what still pains me, and where I believe I made a mistake. I did not approve the decision to demolish the power station and would never have done so, but bureaucracy outplayed me," says Latushka.
What is happening today with the historical and cultural heritage, the former official calls "anti-state and anti-national policy."
According to his recollections, pressure on officials who tried to block the demolition of monuments sometimes escalated into open threats. The head of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture of Belarus informed him about threats of reprisal during his tenure as minister.
"He told me a story about how he blocked the demolition of a historical and cultural heritage monument. And in response, he received a threat that his daughter would be killed.
I was shocked. This is Belarus, 2011. To which I told him: "Let's agree on this for the future. If ever anyone threatens you in connection with blocking the demolition of monuments, say that it is a personal decision of Minister of Culture Latushka. I want to see who dares to kill the Minister of Culture of Belarus," Latushka shared.
«Nasha Niva» — the bastion of Belarus
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По крайней мере до мелких пакостей не опускался и не опускается. Да, бывал заносчив.