Фото: Reform.news
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the proclamation of Belarus’ independence. On Aug. 25, 1991, the Supreme Council voted to give constitutional law status to the Declaration of State Sovereignty, adopted on July 27, 1990. A total of 253 deputies voted in favor of the decision. Amendments were made to the 1978 Constitution, and resolutions were adopted to ensure political and economic independence and suspend the activities of the Communist Party.
As a result, Aug. 25, 1991, became the date when the country effectively declared independence. Later that September, the BSSR was renamed the Republic of Belarus, while the Pahonia coat of arms and the white-red-white flag were adopted as state symbols.
Aug. 25 has never been officially observed as a holiday in Belarus. In the early 1990s, Independence Day was declared July 27, the date the declaration “On the State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic” was adopted. The holiday was later moved to July 3.
In 2022, in a statement marking the 31st anniversary of Belarus’ declaration of independence, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said that Aug. 25 should become a public holiday.