A characteristic of the recent Belarus protests is the use by the demonstrators of the white-red flag. Shortly after the announcement of the elections’ result on August 9th, the streets of Minsk flooded with opposition-backed protestors waving white-red flags.
But what is the actual meaning of the Belarusian white-red flag and what’s the history behind it?
It was used for the first time by the short-lived anti-Bolshevik Belarusian National Republic (BNR) between March 1918 and February 1919. During the interwar period, it was occasionally used by political and non-political organizations, including the conservative Belarusian Christian Democracy (1927).
