'Crush the fascist vermin': Belarus opposition summons wartime spirit
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/08/crush-the-fascist-vermin-belarus-opposition-summons-wartime-spirit
(note: exact headline in subject line. Vermin, to me, is a very unfortunate word but it's the headline)
In Minsk, what people here call the Great Patriotic War is never far away. Monuments, street names and museums venerate the memory of the awful years from 1941 to 1945, when the Soviet Union was at war with Nazi Germany.
Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, has used the years of partisan resistance against the Nazi occupation of the country, and the eventual victory by the Red Army, as the basis for a neo-Soviet, Belarusian identity.
But in recent months, something strange has happened, as Lukashenko faces angry and sustained protests to his continued rule and has launched a vicious crackdown. The war narrative that his regime has done so much to promote still resonates among the population, but with a twist: now, his authorities have become the Nazis.
It has become normal for people to speak about the authorities as fascists and occupiers who remain in power only due to their military and police might.