Most horrible facts you didn't know about Lukashenko, the president of Belarus
Lukashenko has already sat out Brezhnev, the longest-serving of the Soviet general secretaries, at the leading post.
The Belarusian president has already said more than once that he is "full of power”.
President Lukashenko likes to emphasize that he is called Europe's last dictator.
In one of the many - and very frank at times - interviews, he himself called himself Old Man.
Batka in Belarusian means father.
And parents, as you know, are not chosen…
1. Political scientist Valery Karbalevich, author of the book "Alexander Lukashenko. A Political Portrait", states: "Lukashenko's greatest achievement is that he managed to create a special social model - a Belarusian social model, an alternative to those transformation projects that were demonstrated by the post-Soviet countries" .
2. Despite pessimistic forecasts and statements by critics about the incapacity of such a management system in the center of modern Europe, this model has been operating for 28 years and is still working very fruitfully, Karbala Vich notes, specifying: if we evaluate not economic, but sociological indicators, the level of support for the president.
3. “However, Lukashenka’s main weakness is precisely in the model he created. It helps Lukashenka to retain power, but does not allow the Belarusian society to develop. This is a dead-end model of conservation, Belarusians have yet to pay for the fact that we have been existing outside of development for so many years,” he says.
4. The union with Russia and participation in the integration formations initiated by the Kremlin are called by experts a beneficial project for Lukashenka. Aggregate support for the Belarusian business model has cost Moscow about $100 billion over 20 years, analysts say. Meanwhile, Lukashenko did not allow Russian business to privatize large Belarusian enterprises and periodically demonstrated intractability - as when signing an agreement on the creation of the EAEU, declaring the protection of national interests.
5. The 1996 referendum, which officially approved Lukashenka's proposed changes to the country's Constitution, allows the president to be elected an unlimited number of times. The referendum, which ex-speaker of parliament Mieczysław Hryb called a constitutional coup, expanded the rights of the president and limited the powers of parliament.
6. Agro-towns are a large-scale residential construction in the countryside, which started with the adoption of the "State Program for the Revival and Development of the Village for 2005-2010". By the end of the deadlines indicated by the state program, almost 1,500 agro-towns were erected and landscaped in Belarus, and about 8,000 residential buildings were built.
7. Critics note the high cost of the project (the state program approved 69.7 trillion Belarusian rubles for this purpose in mid-2000s prices, but, according to officials, more was spent) with the low quality of construction work, the virtual impossibility for new settlers to privatize the housing they received, and the lack of new settlers themselves - youth from
8. Belarusian villages massively rushed to the cities 15-20 years before the start of the project. Despite the rows of brand new streets pleasing to the eye of a visiting traveler, agro-towns have not brought Belarusian agriculture closer to self-sufficiency and profitability; the industry is still subsidized by the state.
9. In 2004, four high-ranking Belarusian security officials suspected of organizing the disappearances of Lukashenka's political opponents were denied entry to the EU, the US and Canada. In 2006, President Lukashenko was also included in the sanctions list.
10. The sudden death in 1999 of the opposition politician Gennady Karpenko, who, according to studies of that time, was able to compete with Lukashenka in the struggle for the presidency, is also called by a number of researchers a "removal operation." Karpenko suddenly felt ill after drinking a cup of coffee during a business conversation.
11. President Lukashenko swore only once to avenge a "political" death - when in October 1997, a friend and ally of the president, Yevgeny Mikolutsky, head of the state control committee in the Mogilev region, was killed by an explosion in the entrance of the house. The deceased was awarded the title of Hero of Belarus.
12. The press and analysts connected the arrests of Vasily Starovoitov, the famous collective farm chairman from Soviet times, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, and the Minister of Agriculture, Vasily Leonov, with the progress of the investigation. But officially, the customers, perpetrators and motives for the murder have not yet been named.
13. Lukashenka's personal losses include the death of Health Minister Lyudmila Postoyalka - she is considered the unofficial mother-in-law of the Belarusian president, Kolya Lukashenko's grandmother. Alexander Lukashenko patronized the minister, but sent only a wreath to the funeral at the Palace of the Republic, and the responsible officials, appreciating the sign given by the president, tried to leave the mourning ceremony as soon as possible.
14. The execution of Dmitry Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalev, accused of blowing up the Minsk metro, is still considered hasty by many in Belarus, and the circumstances of the tragedy are unclear. The explosion thundered at the Oktyabrskaya station at rush hour on April 11, 2011, claimed the lives of 15 people, hundreds of people were recognized as victims. Even before the court verdict was passed, Alexander Lukashenko presented investigators with state awards who, a day after the terrorist attack, reported on the disclosure of the crime.
15. The list of political protesters against the Lukashenka regime who went through prisons is in the hundreds. Several dozen high-ranking officials ended up in cells in the course of the fight against corruption - a problem at the forefront of the relevance of which, in fact, the once little-known director of one of the Belarusian state farms was promoted to the presidency.
16. "In order to maintain the status quo and stability, the authoritarian regime needs fear dispelled in different sectors of society. Hence the regular replenishment of cells - both for corruption and "for politics." In foreign policy terms, these arrests cut Belarus off from the European community: Europe is sensitive to the presence of political prisoners , every time such arrests turn on the red light, slow down the development of relations with official Minsk," human rights activist Lyudmila Gryaznova notes.
17. Tamara Vinnikova, the head of the National Bank and a showy woman whom Lukashenka called "our orchid," was arrested in mid-January 1997, immediately after a meeting with the president. Until November, she was kept in the KGB pre-trial detention center on suspicion of committing an official crime and causing damage to the state on an especially large scale. Due to health problems, she was transferred under house arrest (although there was no such measure of restraint in Belarusian criminal law at that time), then - on April 7, 1999 - she suddenly disappeared. In December, Vinnikova showed up in London, where she stated that she was in the UK in the status of a political refugee. How she managed to escape from around the clock strict security is still not clear. In one of her interviews, Tamara Vinnikova said that she took advantage of the opportunity when she was "transferred from the security group to the group of physical destruction." Until the summer of 2011, the Interpol website posted information about the international search for Tamara Vinnikova, then this information disappeared.
18. Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, one of the leading experts in the field of medical radiology, was accused of accepting bribes for the post of rector of the Gomel Medical Institute and arrested in July 1999. Human rights activists note that the accusations and arrest followed after Bandazhevsky's research on the detrimental effects of small doses of radiation on the human body became known in the West, and then in Belarus: the scientist's conclusions contradicted Lukashenka's setting for a shock revival of the lands affected by the Chernobyl accident. In June 2001, Professor Bandazhevsky was sentenced by the military board of the Supreme Court to eight years in prison. He was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by the international human rights community. Released on August 5, 2005, emigrated from Belarus.
19. Politician Nikolai Statkevich, former candidate for the presidency of Belarus in the 2010 elections, is still in prison. Arrested on the evening after the elections, on December 19, after a forceful dispersal of a protest rally against fraud. Accused of organizing mass riots, in May 2011 sentenced to six years in a penal colony. Five more opposition politicians who fought with Alexander Lukashenko for the presidency also went through the KGB pre-trial detention center, prisons, house arrest, but to this day they are at large (ex-presidential candidates Andrei Sannikov and Ales Mikhalevich were forced to leave Belarus). According to political analysts, President Lukashenko cannot forgive Mikalai Statkevich for his disobedience and harsh speeches in the media during the election campaign. Statkevich appealed to Lukashenka: "Give back the elections to the people!", accusing the authorities of falsifying election campaigns.
20. Human rights activist Ales Bialiatskiwas released in 2014, after 1,050 days of imprisonment. He was accused of non-payment of taxes on funds accumulated in foreign accounts. He pleaded not guilty, saying that the accounts in Lithuania and Poland were used for the needs of human rights activities. Even before the verdict was passed, the damage that the state demanded compensation was repaid by voluntary donations from citizens. Over the past three years, Ales Belyatsky, head of the Viasna human rights center deregistered by the Belarusian authorities and vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
21. Student Anton Suryapin became known to the world after his arrest for a photo: Surya Pin posted on the Internet a photo of teddy bears dropped with calls to respect human rights by a Swedish light aircraft illegally entering Belarusian airspace. In August 2012, Surya Pin and realtor Basharimov, who somehow helped the Swedes rent housing in Belarus, were accused of illegally crossing the border, although initially they were only suspected of complicity in such actions. After a short stay in the KGB pre-trial detention center, student Suryapin was released and returned to his studies. The "plush landing" of the Swedish bears cost several high-ranking military posts and turned into a diplomatic conflict: the Belarusian authorities forced the Swedish ambassador Stefan Erickson to leave Minsk.
22. The American lawyer Emanuel Zeltser and his assistant Vladlena Funk in the Minsk KGB pre-trial detention center, popularly referred to as the "American", turned out to be almost according to the plot of a Hollywood detective. Zeltser and Funk, who spent more than a year in Belarusian places of detention, said after their release that they woke up at the Minsk airport after meeting Boris Berezovsky in London. In Minsk, they were accused of using forged documents and commercial espionage. The Belarusian press claimed that the arrest of Zeltser and his assistant was connected with the case of a dispute over the inheritance of businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, who died in London, and Boris Berezovsky, who was put on the wanted list by allied Russia, repeatedly flew to the Minsk “American”, demanding that the arrested lawyer issue “Belarusian assets” "Patarkatsishvili. Later, Zeltser and Funk confirmed this information, also reporting that Berezovsky was present in Minsk at a closed court session. Emmanuil Zeltser, sentenced in Belarus to three years in prison, was pardoned by President Lukashenko in early July 2009. Vladlena Funk served a one-year term in a women's colony appointed by the court.
23. At the end of August 2013, the Investigative Committee of Belarus announced the arrest and detention of the general director of the Russian company Uralkali, Vladislav Baumgertner. Later, President Lukashenko confirmed that the Russian top manager was arrested after a meeting initiated by Belarusian Prime Minister Myasnikovich. "He (Baumgertner - ed.) arrived, a jerk, he was invited by the prime minister. He sat down cross-legged and said: this will not happen, this will not happen. He went out, spat on the Government House and laughed at the airport," Lukashenka said about the circumstances of the arrest. Minsk also threatened a number of other Russian managers and the Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov with bringing to justice for causing significant harm to the state and public interests of Belarus. A month before Baumgertner's arrest in Minsk, Uralkali announced the termination of sales through the Belarusian Potash Company, a structure created in December 2005 on a parity basis with the Belarusian side (before the break in relations, the company provided 43% of world potassium chloride exports). The participating parties of the BPC accused each other of failing to fulfill contractual obligations to use the common commodity distribution network. The fate of Baumgertner arrested in Minsk, judging by press reports, was dealt with by the top leadership of Russia. Baumgertner was extradited to Russia on November 21, 2013, in Russia a criminal case was initiated against him, including on the basis of materials collected and handed over to the Russian side by Belarusian investigators.
24. Belarusian businessman Nikolai Autukhovich, who was recently released from prison after his second term, spent a total of more than seven and a half years behind bars and was recognized by human rights activists as a political prisoner as a victim for criticizing the authorities and active citizenship. The once successful business of Autukhovich (he created a network of private taxis and cafes in the city of Volkovysk) is ruined, the health of the released Afghan veteran is undermined.
25. Ex-president of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev is often called a “Belarusian prisoner” in Minsk, although the leader who fled from his country was received personally by President Lukashenko and Bakiyev, who arrived in Belarus in 2010, long ago received Belarusian citizenship. In Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev was sentenced to 25 years in prison, his brother Zhanybek, who was once discovered by Minsk photographers on the streets of the Belarusian capital, was sentenced to life imprisonment. Bishkek periodically demands the extradition of the Bakiyevs. The ex-president and his relatives have cut off communication with the press, the place of residence of the Bakiyevs is kept secret, although the non-state press in Belarus periodically reports on mansions allegedly built by the family in prestigious cottage settlements.
26. "Prisoner of the West" is Zianon Paznyak, one of the founders of the Belarusian Popular Front, the head of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front. He was the first to tell the world about Kurapaty - a tract near Minsk, where hundreds of thousands of inhabitants were shot during the years of Stalinist repressions. The organizer of protest mass actions and a sharp critic of Lukashenka, Paznyak, was forced to flee the country in 1996, according to a number of researchers in the modern history of Belarus, due to the threat of physical destruction. In the same year he received political asylum in the United States. In exile, he continues to be actively involved in politics, regularly and sharply criticizes the "imperial aspirations of Russia" and the Belarusian leadership.
Most popular sayings of President Lukashenko
"If you don't have money for a restaurant, talk to a girl in a student dormitory. Buy kefir and a bun"
"He took the eggs - the milk was gone!" - President Lukashenko once talked about attempts to overcome the food shortage. He promised: "Our people will live badly, but not for long."
“Belarusians are the same Russians, only with a quality mark,” he once said as a compliment.
Such phrases of President Lukashenko have long become proverbial jokes, but in almost every public speech the Belarusian leader adds a couple of figurative expressions to the popular dictionary of phraseological units.
Vladimir Podgol, Ph.D. in Philosophy, author of a number of books, including "Fundamentals of Political Psychology", explains: Lukashenka is moving away from diplomatic language, because his mentality is a scientific phenomenon. "A person has the genetic ability to awaken the archetype with further mental inflation," Vladimir Podgol tries to explain.
Archetype is a term introduced by Carl Jung and used in his theory to denote the deepest foundation of personality, which is a set of basic ideas inherited by a person from his ancestors and defining his modern psychology and behavior. Inflation is not only an economic word, but also a term of social psychology. This is the expansion of the human psyche to the awakened archetype. At certain stressful moments, these processes are activated in the personality, and the person reveals himself to others not even by himself, but by the carrier of the "base" of ancestors. “This is such a psychotype, it was also characteristic of Hitler, to a certain extent, Stalin,” says Vladimir Podgol.
The Belarusian philosopher paid for the parallels between Lukashenka and Hitler 18 years ago. A fragment of Vladimir Podgol's doctoral dissertation was a comparative analysis of the mentality of the Germans in the 30s of the last century and Belarusians who suddenly gained sovereignty. The scientist also analyzed the mentality of the leaders of these states, and Lukashenka used quotes as material for research.
“I collected quotes that contained archetypes. My dissertation was taken to the presidential administration, then to the KGB, and from that moment I stopped being a doctoral student and I can’t get a job anywhere in our state,” says Vladimir Podgol.
Vladimir Podgol continues his collection of statements by the Belarusian President - however, anyone can record what was impressive in the speeches and interviews of Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian president tried to disown this quote, spread by the German newspaper Handelsblatt, by telling the NTV program that the statement was "a fake, fabricated in Poland by the CIA." But German journalists insist that at the dawn of his presidency, in 1995, in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper, Lukashenka stated the following: “The history of Germany is, to some extent, a mold of the history of Belarus at certain stages. At one time, Germany was raised from the ruins, thanks to the very tough power known by Adolf Hitler... Not everything that was bad in Germany was associated with Adolf Hitler.The German order was formed over the centuries, under Hitler this formation reached its highest point.This is what corresponds to our understanding of the presidential republic and the role of the president in it ...".
However, it is much more interesting to listen to how the father teaches the Belarusians order.
"Every Belarusian will have a cup and crackling on the table!" (1994).
"They bought sugar, they got to the point where they started buying up vinegar. They turned everything into warehouses ... Now drink vinegar and eat sugar!" (2011).
"Why do you eat potatoes with meat at night? How will you sleep? Do not eat with meat - eat with herring!" (year 2014).
“It is necessary that there is hot water in the agricultural town, so that every milkmaid and pig-herd goes to bed with a peasant in the evening.” (2011).
"If you don't have money for a restaurant, talk to a girl in a student dormitory. Buy kefir and a bun." (2004).
"They reached the point of absurdity: what to do if a married woman loves someone on the side. We are not going to hang chastity belts on the corresponding parts of the body for anyone. You dispose of yourself as you see fit." (2005 year).
“Two boys? That’s good. And where is the girl? If you get pregnant, God forbid, and want to give birth, come to Belarus, we will arrange everything for you. From a Belarusian, from a Jew, from a Pole, we have Ukrainians, good Russians. Choose." (year 2013).
"I had a meeting in a women's team, at work. I tell them: the first child is yours, the second is also yours. The third child is mine and a little bit yours. One hundred percent the fifth and next is mine ... They are silent. Well , here, give birth. I can't do it for you." (2011).
"They showed me the outfit, to which I replied that I would not wear it. They brought green pants. How will the president of the country walk in green pants? It's good that they are not blue, honestly." (year 2014).
"If you want to say that your president should walk or ride a bike, that's fine too. I won't get rusty - I can sit on a bike and ride. It'll just be embarrassing for you." (year 2013).
Alexander Grigorievich Lukashenko is the first and only president of the Republic of Belarus, whom the people have trusted for more than two decades. In the world community, the Belarusian leader is called the last dictator of Europe with a hint of his undemocratic rule.
He is also well known for the funny, rather sarcastic phrases he says. His phrases are immediately about the dictatorship, the system and the people of the country. Bemorepanda collected the 50 funniest quotes of the Belarusian president.
1.
It's better to be a dictator than gay.
2.
There are dictators a bit worse than me, no? I'm the lesser evil already.
3.
If someone is a lesbian, it's man's fault
4.
I ask myself what is a dictator? I don't understand. It is some kind of terrible person, a bad person. But I am not frightening. I am not a bad person at all.
5.
Belarus is not a superpower, but we pay a lot of attention to sports.
6.
Look outside the window. Do you see the fence outside the palace? Do you see any guards? This is a country where everyone is safe.
7.
I really like to play football, hockey, but more often I play alone.
8.
Belarus stood on the edge of an abyss, and I helped her take a step forward.
9.
We solved this problem in a narrow circle of limited people.
10.
Milosevic was an outstanding politician who gave his all to serving his fatherland.
11.
I promise that by the New Year every Belarusian will have normal human eggs on the table.
12.
We will widen this bottleneck and increase the birth rate.
13.
You will live badly, but not for long!
14.
In my view this is not democracy, but a zoo.... It was exactly what we expected, but not on that scale nor in that form. In a word, it was nothing but a zoo, you can't put it better
15.
If you don't have money for a restaurant, talk to a girl in your student residence. Buy kefir and a bun.
16.
Who drinks - better not vote for me, I will not be friends with such.
17.
Whoever drinks will not have normal children. We will fight this evil as the most terrible evil. And it turns out - he got drunk, accidentally gave birth, and you, Lukashenko, grow this child. And there are 35 thousand such children in our country.
18.
The Belarusian people took a chance and elected me President. This is extremely rare in history and may not be more.
19.
A thug only understands you when you speak his language
20.
As a child, I grew up among animals and plants.
21.
I will not lead my state after the civilized world.
22.
I worked in the village and lived with the men.
23.
The Internet is such a trash, in which everything is there and even useful.
24.
A philosophical thought has fallen upon me, so to speak! I just have to be in the center now!
25.
The uniqueness of the situation in Belarus lies in the fact that I owe nothing to anyone.
26.
For the sake of maintaining peace in the country, I am ready to sacrifice my own mind!
27.
Lukashenka cannot steal. Understand you - there is nowhere to hide.
28.
We will provide them with humanitarian aid ... with weapons.
29.
I went in - aerobics. They showed me there because I had never seen aerobics. I immediately said: “These beauties would be on skis!"
30.
I really love sports - this is my best quality.
31.
Why should a pensioner travel for free ... everything is nearby, both the pharmacy and the store ... was it in vain that they built?
32.
Our family has one, one and a half, two children maximum!
33.
You asked for rain - I gave you rain!
34.
We do not need such a democracy with hubbub. We need democracy when a person works, receives at least some salary in order to buy bread, milk, sour cream, cottage cheese, sometimes a piece of meat to feed a child, and so on. Well, let's not eat a lot with meat in the summer.
35.
Losing a teacher - the end, we will go drunk and bad.
36.
For the first time in the last ten years, on the night of 31st to 1st, absolutely all Minsk residents - 2 million people took to the streets. I didn't expect 2 million to be on the streets. I would also come to see this miracle from my forest.
37.
What I have not seen there in Europe! Everything is dirty! People rub against each other ...
38.
I felt the warheads with my own hands and I know that no one will take them off.
39.
I don’t want to talk about any Barroso (President of the European Commission), other goats, bulls and others ... Goats - they are goats ...
40.
Humanitarian aid is free, it is for the people, including scientists and officials.
41.
There should be at least warm water in the evening so that a young milkmaid can come home after work, to wash with her husband in bed.
42.
Well, a dictator, so a dictator. This also has a certain payoff. This is the last! Can you imagine? Last! If you didn’t come here, where would you meet and talk to him in your life.
43.
Determine where people should gather for rallies, especially oppositionists and other rabble!
44.
I am an ardent opponent of benefits. In all elections I usually say: “Down with benefits!”, And the people happily support me: “Hurray! Down with benefits! "
45.
Belarus is like a crystal vessel, a weak crystal vessel, which I have been carrying in my hands for two decades and I'm afraid to drop it.
46.
There are figures who go to jail themselves. They say that Lukashenka was imprisoned. I'm not planting anyone! I protect so that I don't go to jail. And he stretches out his hands: cling to his handcuffs.
47.
This is very Belarusian: first to do something very carefully, and then to refine it.
48.
Respect the Belarusian people, be patient with Lukashenka.
49.
I have heard that I am criticized for kissing the Koran. Erdogan was presented with the Koran, he kissed him. They gave me the same one, but what should I have done? Someone already thinks that they baptized me.
50.
We support them, we give money so that there is something to drink and eat.
The President of Belarus says he sees zero benefits from imposing quarantine in the country
Quarantine measures introduced in Russia and other countries due to the spread of coronavirus pandemix will not give any positive result. Such an opinion was expressed by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on Sunday, April 26.
“They tried to isolate the virus in Russia. Did it worked? No. And we are the same as in Russia. You cannot isolate us, ”Lukashenka said during a live broadcast at the Belarus 1 television channel.
According to Lukashenko, under quarantine, "someone in isolation is sick, they are pulled out of there, treated while everyone is sitting in these apartments."
“Now they have opened the gate - people have come out. And the people infected by this virus is going up again. And the second wave of incidence will turn out. The first one didn’t go away, and the second wave will cover them wither, ”the Belarusian leader believes.
Therefore, according to him, he “decided to go his own way,” reports TASS.
The number of people infected with coronavirus in Belarus over the past 24 hours has increased by 873 people and reached 10,463; 72 patients died in the country. Due to coronavirus, no quarantine has been introduced in Belarus; preparations are underway for the Victory Day parade. From April 20, the schools have been opened
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended quarantine and curfews. However, President Alexander Lukashenko refused to close state borders, calling this measure utter stupidity, and also condemned some other preventive measures, including the closure of churches.
After the fourth night of protests, shocking images from Belarus continue to appear. A video has been published on the internet from which you can see how an elderly man is knocked to the ground, beaten and taken on a bus by masked men.
This was after one of the law enforcement officers broke the windshield of the car with the elderly man behind the wheel. Later, he stopped the car, got out and demanded an account from the police. Initially, law enforcement ignored him, but the driver was insistent.
Soon, two masked men attacked the elderly man. They knocked him to the ground and hit him twice with sticks. After that, they were joined by two other masked men who took him by the hands and feet and took him to a bus, which was parked on the right side of the road.
From the same image, made by a witness, it can be seen that later the old man's car was seized, and the bus, in which he was taken, moved from the spot.
Belarus's Interior Ministry announced on Thursday that it had detained another 700 people on the fourth day of violently repressed post-election demonstrations, with at least 6,700 arrests.
Biography of Boris Johnson - career, family, photos, achievements, and facts from his personal life
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Boris Johnson, which we will discuss in this article.
On July 23, 2019, Boris Johnson won the election as the leader of the Conservative Party and became the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, taking over from his predecessor, Theresa May. A master of ambiguous statements and deeds, an eccentric, a hooligan, a eurosceptic, a brilliant politician - with what associations the media did not honor him! We offer you to get to know Mr. Johnson better and reveal some interesting facts about his biography.
The stereotypical British politician has taught us to behave as politely as possible, does not make harsh public statements, and does not shock those around him. And if he shocks, then partly unconsciously, like Teresa May with a crazy robot dance. However, born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel-Johnson does not fit into these stereotypes in any way.
Origin of Boris Johnson
The origin of the current Prime Minister of Great Britain is a topic for a separate interesting conversation. On the paternal side, he is rooted in the Ottoman Empire: his great-grandfather, Ali Kemal, was in charge of internal affairs in the government of the last Grand Vizier of the empire, Ahmed Okday. His wife was an ethnic Circassian refugee Hanifa Fered from the Caucasus, she fell into slavery in the Ottoman Empire, but was ransomed by Ali Kemal, her future husband. Boris Johnson loves this story very much and has retold it many times with or without reason.
Johnson is no stranger to British monarchs. He himself spoke about this in a program about genealogy “What do you think about yourself?” on the BBC. It turned out that his grandmother Yvonne Eilynn Williams is a direct descendant of Duke Paul of Württemberg, who was a descendant of George II. Thus, Johnson is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of George II. Turkish and Circassian blood also flows in his veins. Boris's great-grandfather, a wealthy Turkish nobleman, married a Circassian slave in the 19th century, whom he bought at a bazaar in Istanbul.
On the mother's side, in the family of the future politician, there were not only Americans in the 9nth generation but also Jews. For example, the famous paleographer Elias Avery Levy was born on the territory of modern Lithuania and was Boris' great-grandfather.
Boris Johnson's early years
Boris Johnson was born on June 19, 1964, in Manhattan, New York. His full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. His family name was simply Al. His mother is a talented artist, his father worked at the World Bank and was a member of the Conservative Party of the European Parliament. Parents divorced when the boy was 11 years old.
As a child, Boris suffered from deafness. He has undergone several surgeries to restore his hearing.
At birth, Boris received two citizenships at once - British and American. But in 2016, having become a member of the British government, he refused the latter.
Boris is not the only child in the family, his sister Rachel has built a successful career in journalism, regularly appears on discussion panels, including TV projects Question Time and The News. Boris's brother Joe has been Minister of State for Higher Education in the UK since 2016.
He was educated at Eton. To the alma mater of future kings and presidents. It was there that they began to call him Boris, not Alex (the full name of the British Prime Minister sounds like Alexander Boris de Pfeffel-Johnson). After Johnson studied at Oxford, where his closest friend was, oddly enough, former Prime Minister David Cameron. Both were considered promising daredevils at the university: Johnson and Cameron were members of the so-called Bullingdon Club, which, was a society of alcoholics and brawlers. The buddies' favorite pastime was dressing up, getting drunk at a bar, smashing a restaurant, and then honestly writing a check for the damage done.
Boris Johnson's personal life
Johnson is married for the third time. With his first wife, a model, and the daughter of a millionaire landowner, Allegra Mostyn-Owen, he started acting weird at the wedding. Appeared at the altar in trousers belonging to Conservative MP John Biffen. And an hour after the ceremony, he managed to lose the wedding ring he had just put on his finger. The bad omen worked—the marriage barely lasted six years.
Just twelve days after the divorce, the eccentric blond married lawyer Marina Wheeler, with whom he studied at the European School in Brussels. Their union seemed quite prosperous until adultery was discovered - it turned out that Johnson had secretly met with journalist Petronella White for four years, who managed to have two abortions during this time. Upon learning of this, Wheeler refused to let her husband even on the threshold of their house. But later it suddenly cooled down, and the couple reunited. But in the fall of 2018, they nevertheless announced the final break in relations.
Alone, Boris was not bored for long and soon began a relationship with the daughter of The Independent co-founder Matthew Symonds Carrie. The couple is known for emotionally sorting things out - Symonds' neighbors once even called the police after hearing screams and noise. After becoming prime minister, Boris Johnson moved to Downing Street with his lover (but not his legal wife, which is a precedent for the UK). At the end of May 2021, Boris and Carrie played a secret wedding in Westminster Cathedral. Now they are raising a common son, born in April 2020.
On April 29, Boris Johnson became a father for the sixth time - the son of the politician's fiancee Carrie Symonds was named Wilfred Laurie Nicholas. As Symonds, herself explained: "Wilfred is after Boris's grandfather, Laurie is after my grandfather, and Nicholas is after Nick Price and Nick Hart, the two doctors who saved Boris's life last month."
It is also important to mention that Johnson has two unexpected hobbies at once. He enthusiastically watches Bollywood movies and enthusiastically studies ancient Greek and Latin. However, it never hurts to diversify your leisure time, so Boris took part in The Spectator competition for the most offensive rhyme against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And he won, receiving a prize of a thousand pounds for his work.
Boris Johnson as Journalist
During the reign of Margaret Thatcher, Johnson was still far from big politics. In 1987, he began to earn all-around fame as a front-line reporter for the Daily Telegraph. Boris did not excite the audience in the same way that Alexander Nevzorov did in parallel in the perestroika USSR, but he nevertheless stood out against the background of the conservative journalistic workshop. His father's connections allowed the young journalist to get the prestigious position of special correspondent for the publication in Brussels, and upon his return, in 1994, the most popular political observer had the opportunity to take the chair of the deputy editor-in-chief.
Boris Johnson as Politician
With such a big name, it was possible to try yourself in a new incarnation. In 2001, Johnson had his first success in the general election - he was elected to the House of Commons from Oxfordshire. However, it was not enough for the fiery conservative to have a symbolic presence in Parliament, and it was still difficult to aim for more on the scale of the United Kingdom.
A few years later, Boris came up with a wonderful idea to become the mayor of London, because the overloaded capital lacked fresh, topical undertakings.
Boris Johnson as Mayor of London
Almost a decade of mayoral work was remembered first of all by the most successful holding of the 2012 Olympics. There were no infrastructural problems that were typical earlier for Beijing and later for Rio de Janeiro, the city treasury was replenished by a record amount due to the influx of tourists. Yes, and the transition to renewable energy at full capacity spun just under the leadership of an ardent opponent of environmental pollution and a fan of bicycles. The multi-million population remained quite satisfied.
Boris Johnson as Minister
And Boris would be the ruler and guide of grateful Londoners to this day, if not for new parliamentary elections. In July 2016, he was appointed foreign minister in Theresa May's cabinet and immediately took up the implementation of the "most important thing of a lifetime", that is, the UK's exit from the European Union. For the sake of Brexit, Johnson at some point was ready to risk even his political prospects and abandoned the portfolio two years after his appointment due to disagreement with the accepted procedure for renouncing EU membership.
Boris Johnson as Prime Minister
However, no steep dive happened. On the contrary, the British, even after some disappointment in the idea of separation from the European community of conservatives, still supported it. And it was Johnson, with the verbal support of Donald Trump, who replaced the resigned May as prime minister, at the same time gaining the powers of the head of the Conservative Party. As the head of the Cabinet, Johnson carried out Brexit - the UK almost completely left the EU.
Boris was nicknamed the "British Trump". But unpredictability and outrageousness did not immediately become the hallmark of the politician: as a child, he suffered from deafness, underwent four operations to restore the functions of the middle ear, so he was a very quiet child. Which, however, did not prevent him from dreaming of becoming the "king of the world" when he grows up.
Boris Johnson and Coronavirus
In 2020, the UK faced much more serious problems - the country was covered by a new type of coronavirus pandemic. They infected Prince Charles, Johnson himself, as well as thousands of Britons.
The Prime Minister announced his illness on March 27, 2020. The symptoms did not go away for 10 days and on April 5, Boris Johnson was hospitalized - after several days in intensive care, the politician recovered and was discharged.
The Prime Minister has already chosen a song for his funeral. Even though the politician is still quite young, he has already managed to think about such things. Johnson's choice fell on the song You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones, which he talks about quite openly.
A border country located at the confluence of the EU and Russia, a former Soviet republic with a population of 46 million, independent since 1991, known abroad by stereotypes such as the "granary of the former USSR", the "Chernobyl catastrophe", "Gas crisis" or "orange revolution", Ukraine is trying to build an identity.
The difficulty in finding this identity stems from the fact that Ukraine has long been fragmented between the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, the current borders being drawn by Joseph Stalin. It is true that nationalist ideas took their place here in the nineteenth century, but it was only after the disintegration of the USSR that Ukraine became independent, except for a short period between 1917 and 1920.
You can read more interesting facts below.
1. If Russia, which is not entirely in Europe, is not taken into account, Ukraine is the state with the largest area on the "Old Continent". Ukraine has an area of 603,628 square kilometers;
2. Ukrainians celebrate National Day on August 24;
3. Arsenal in Kyiv is the deepest subway station in the world. It is located at a depth of 105 meters and was built in 1960 for military purposes. The reason? Threatening powerful states with nuclear bombs
4. Traditional Ukrainian food includes chicken, pork, beef, eggs, fish and mushrooms. Ukrainians also tend to eat a lot of fresh, pickled potatoes, cereals and vegetables.
5. The most famous Ukrainian dish is borscht. While many Russians claim to be from their homeland, many Ukrainians are passionate about believing that they are the founders of this dish.
6. Ukraine was at the center of one of the greatest catastrophes of the 20th century. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded in April 1986. The blast was considered the worst accident in the history of nuclear power.
7. Unlike many civilized states in Ukraine, wedding rings are worn on the ring finger of the right hand.
8. The "Love Tunnel" also exists in Ukraine. Near the town of Klevan in Ukraine there is a railway line that is covered with vaults formed by the branches of the nearby trees. It has become a favorite destination for thousands of lovers.
9. The geographical center of Europe is located in Ukraine. In 1886, the geographers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, using the technology of the time, established the geographical center of Europe in the village of Dilove.
10. The city of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region is one of the few places in the world where fossilized trees are kept. The trees are almost 250 million years old and create an entire fossilized forest that covers an area of 1 hectare.
11. The first gas lamp in history was invented in the Ukrainian city of Lviv.
12. The Ukrainians, namely the Antonov Design Bureau, have developed an aircraft with the highest payload capacity in the world - the An-225 Mechta. At first it was designed to transport spacecraft. Now "Dream" carries out commercial cargo transportation.
13. The author of one of the first constitutions in the world is Ukrainian political and public figure Pylyp Orlyk. On April 5, 1710, he was elected hetman of the Zaporizhian army. On the same day, Pylyp Orlyk announced the "Constitution of the rights and freedoms of the Zaporizhian army." In the United States, the Constitution was adopted in 1787, in France and the Commonwealth - only in 1791. An interesting fact is that Pylyp Orlik was born on the territory of Belarus - in the village of Kosuta, Oshmyany Povet.
14. In recent years, Ukraine has confidently retained its place in the top three world leaders in honey production. Being several times ahead of European countries in terms of honey production, Ukraine is at the same time the first state in the world in honey production per capita (1.5 kg).
15. Ukraine has the world's largest reserves of manganese ore - 2.3 billion tons, or about 11% of the world's total reserves.
16. Only six monasteries in the world have the status of Lavra. Three of them are in Ukraine. These are the Holy Assumption Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in Kyiv, which received this status back in 1598, the Holy Assumption Lavra in the city of Pochaev and the Svyatogorsk Holy Assumption Lavra in the Donetsk region.
17. Ostroh Academy is the first higher educational institution in Eastern Europe, the oldest Ukrainian scientific and educational institution. In 1576, Prince Konstantin-Vasily of Ostrog founded the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Ostrog.
18. The first kerosene lamp was invented in Lvov by Ignaty Lukasiewicz and Jan Zekh in 1853, under the Golden Star pharmacy workers.In the same year, the first surgical operation was performed in the Lviv hospital under the illumination of a kerosene lamp. Subsequently, the kerosene lamp was presented at the international exhibition in Munich, the invention was awarded a special diploma there.
19. Monuments to the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko have been erected in 1200 cities around the world.
20. The Ukrainian wind instrument trembita is the longest wind musical instrument in the world.
21. The shortest main street of all the capitals of the world, but at the same time one of the widest and most beautiful - Khreshchatyk in Kyiv. Its length is only 1225 m.
22. The oldest map known to scientists, as well as the oldest settlement of Homo Sapiens, were found in Ukraine: in the village. Mesopotamia of the Rivne region. They are about 14.5-15 thousand years old. The map is engraved on a mammoth bone.
23. The longest cave in Ukraine is called "Optimistic" and is located in Podolia. This is a gypsum cave at a depth of 20 m with a length of 216 km. The longest gypsum cave in the world and the second longest in general, it is second only to Mammoth Cave in the United States.
24. The geographical center of Europe (well, yes, we also have it :)). In Ukraine, near the town of Rakhiv, surrounded by the picturesque Carpathians, is the geographical center of Europe.
25. The oldest tree in Ukraine is considered to be a 1300-year-old oak in the Yuzefin tract, Rivne region.
26. The third most visited McDonald's in the world is located in Kyiv near the railway station. This establishment consistently ranks among the top five busiest McDonald's in the world.
27. One of the largest historical transport routes ran through the territory of Ukraine (as well as through the territory of Belarus) - “the path from the Varangians to the Greeks” - a system of river routes and portages between them 3 thousand km long, connecting the northern lands of Ancient Russia with the southern Russian lands and the Baltic sea with Black. Throughout ancient history, Ukraine has acted as a bridge between the worlds of Eastern Europe and the Ancient East, Antique, Byzantine and Latin Europe.
28. Ukraine ranks fourth in the world in terms of the number of citizens with higher education. The population of Ukraine is among the most educated, and the number of people with higher education per capita is higher than the average European level.
29. Ukraine, on its own initiative, abandoned the world's third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. At the time of declaration of independence, more than a thousand nuclear warheads and missiles were located on the territory of Ukraine, the third largest nuclear potential after Russia and America. The warheads and missiles were handed over to Russia, the bunkers were destroyed. In response, Ukraine received money for disarmament, as well as security guarantees from nuclear powers (as we can see, these guarantees are not respected today).
30. The international Ukrainian anthem consists of only six lines (four in verse and two in the chorus). The remaining lines of the anthem are considered politically incorrect. (for example, "Stand, brother, in a crooked way from Xiang to Don" implies Ukraine's claims to the territory of Russia and Poland). The anthem was born in 1863, and adopted as a state anthem in 2003.
31.At the language beauty contest in Paris in 1934, the Ukrainian language took third place after French and Persian in terms of phonetics, vocabulary, phraseology, and sentence structure. And in terms of melodiousness, the Ukrainian language took second place after Italian.
32. Until the almost complete destruction in 1240 by the Mongol-Tatars, Kyiv was one of the largest cities in Europe, fifty times larger than London, ten times larger than Paris. It reached its peak under Yaroslav the Wise (1010 - 1054), who became related to the royal families of France, Norway, Romania and Poland. The population of today's capital of Ukraine was about 50,000 inhabitants. It took about 600 years to reach such demographic indicators again. Quite possibly, if it were not for the destruction of that time, Kyiv could have been the most developed largest city in Europe for many years.
33. Pablo Picasso was delighted with the works of the Ukrainian artist Kateryna Bilokur (1900-1961). When in 1954 he saw her works at an exhibition, he said that they were brilliant and compared Catherine with the world-famous artist Serafin Louis.
35. One of the most famous Christmas songs in the world is Shchedryk, a folk song recorded by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. The world knows her as Carol of the Bells or Ring Christmas Bells. On Youtube, various performances of "Shchedryk" are gaining millions of views.
36. During the Anglo-Boer War (South Africa) in 1899 - 1902. the commander of one of the detachments of the Boers, Ukrainian Yuriy Budyak, saved a young English journalist from execution. Subsequently, the latter helped Budyak enter Oxford University. In 1917, Yuriy worked in the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1943 Yuri Budyak died in a Soviet concentration camp. The English journalist's name was Winston Churchill…
37. At the time of independence, there were 19.4 million pigs in Ukraine. Today, there are half as many of them - 8.3 million. Despite the reputation of a salo-eater, the average Ukrainian eats only 18 kg of pork per year. This is three times less than an ordinary German.
38. In Ukraine, near Nikopol, on a spit near the river. Lapinki, on one of the branches of the Dnieper, you can see, or rather hear a phenomenon that is rare in the world - singing sands. The "singing" of these, perhaps, the strangest sands appears after rain, when the top layer sticks together and forms a fragile crust. Walking along it, you can hear sounds similar to the whistling of air released from a car chamber.
39. In the town of Berdychiv (Zhytomyr region) in the church of St. Barbara on March 14, 1850, the local beauty Evelina Ganskaya was married to Honore de Balzac. Frederic Chopin lived in the same town for a long time, who, in addition to writing music, also supervised the restoration of the local organ.
40. It would be possible to collect a dictionary of Ukrainian surnames, distorted in the course of Russification by Russian officials. So, the Ukrainian clan Chekhov in the 19th century became Chekhov for some reason. Chekhov's grandfather was still a Czech. Anton Pavlovich himself wrote that his grandfather was a Ukrainian. Quite funny, the Deineks turned into Denikins. Cossacks Rozuma became Razumovsky, Chaikas become Tchaikovsky. The grandfather of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the great composer - Pyotr Chaika - graduated from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and as a physician, the Russian government sent him as a head physician to Vyatka.
41. Probably, the Ukrainian atmosphere in the Tchaikovsky family was preserved much better than that of the Chekhovs, because from the age of 24, the future composer lived in Ukraine almost every year for several months, where he wrote more than 30 works, including the opera Blacksmith Vakula (Cherevichki ”), “Mazepa”, song-romance “Cherry Garden of Haiti”, duet “On the Novgorod near the Ford” to the words of T. Shevchenko. In the cruel times of the empire's offensive against the Ukrainian language, he sought the production of "Taras Bulba" by N. Lysenko (the famous Ukrainian composer), used many Ukrainian folk songs in his works.
42. The great writer Fyodor Dostoevsky was Ukrainian by origin, because the Dostoevsky family came from the village of Dostoev near Pinsk (Ukrainian-Belarusian border), so Belarusians can also consider him their fellow countryman. One of the Dostoevskys becomes a hieromonk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and in 1647 takes part in the election of the next metropolitan. It is interesting that among the Dostoevskys who lived in Podolia, most of all were representatives of the clergy. Andrei Dostoevsky was a priest of the Ukrainian Uniate Church.
43. He was the grandfather of the writer F. Dostoevsky. Andrei's son quarreled with his father and brother and went to Moscow. His name was Mikhail, and as a memory of his family and Ukraine, he took with him, preserved and passed on to his sons his own Ukrainian poems. The daughter of Fyodor Mikhailovich recalls: "... poetic abilities were already in the Ukrainian family of my father, and were not given only through my Muscovite mother, as Dostoevsky's literary friends suggest." It is a pity that F. Dostoevsky did not join the defense of Ukraine.
44. This, in principle, cannot be said about V. Mayakovsky. The poet sharply criticized the “Muscovites”: “Comrade Muscovite, don’t joke about Ukraine.” He also reminded that Russians from the history of Ukraine know only Shevchenko, Taras Bulba, borscht and lard (“Russians have a shallow thickness of knowledge”).
45. By the way, he wrote about himself: "I am a Cossack from my grandfather, on the other - a Sich." Researchers point out that the Ukrainian clans of Mayakovsky went, probably, from those Cossacks who stood guard over the barrows, at the lighthouses that were set on fire during the Tatar attacks.
46. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians of Ripa turned into Repins. Although Ilya Repin, who was born in the Kharkiv region, still retained his sense of belonging to the Ukrainians and painted himself as a Cossack leaning on a cannon. “It's time to think about the Ukrainian style in art,” the artist noted. But he not only spoke, but also created many works on Ukrainian themes, for example, “The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan” - he wrote two versions of this picture.
47. In 1931, there were more Ukrainians in the USSR than Russians. In six years, 55 million disappeared ... This figure is indicated in the book "At the Great Construction Site", published in 1931 in Leningrad. The same data are presented in the first Soviet encyclopedia of 1926. Neither this encyclopedia nor the book is available in any library in Ukraine. We managed to find "At the Great Construction Site" in Moscow.
48. The figures of 81 million are clearly visible in these copies. It should be noted that the population of Ukrainian Galicia, which was part of Poland, was not taken into account here. Already the next census of 1937 indicates that only 26 million Ukrainians remained in the USSR. Where did all the rest go? Knowing such figures, the repressions of the 1930s seem even more terrible.
49. Freedom Square in Kharkov is the largest square in Europe.
50. The longest embankment in Europe is located in Dnepropetrovsk. Its length is 30 km.
