Stanislav Shushkevich was the first head of state of an independent Belarus after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
- Died: Wednesday, May 4, 2022. (Who else died on May 4?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 87 in Minsk.
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First leader of independent Belarus
Stanislav Shushkevich was a scientist who became a politician and who was the interim speaker of Belarus when they voted to secede from the Soviet Union. In December of 1991, he met with Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian president Leonid Kravchuk to sign an agreement that the Soviet Union was dissolved and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States. In the hard adjustment following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Belarus economy faltered and Shushkevich lost an election in 1994 to the current President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. He became a harsh critic of the authoritarian regime of Lukashenko, recently criticizing him for allowing Russia to stage troops in Belarus as a staging area to start their invasion of Ukraine. An interesting historical note is that Shushkevich taught Russian to Lee Harvey Oswald when they worked together in a radio factory in Minsk in the early 1960s.
Notable Quote
“A great empire, a nuclear superpower, split into independent countries that could cooperate with each other as closely as they wanted, and not a single drop of blood was shed. “ – He told AP in regard to the breakup of the Soviet Union
Tributes to Stanislav Shushkevich
Full Obituary: Washington Post
