«One can imagine how immoral the creator of this inhuman mechanism is»
The appointment of the most odious Andrei Shved as the head of the Supreme Court instinctively evokes feelings that this is it, now judicial matters will become completely bad. But then the thought comes – what else could be made worse? Historian Aliaksandr Pashkevich reflects on Facebook about the now retired long-time chairman of the Supreme Court, Valiantsin Sukala.
Valiantsin Sukala
In my opinion, the judicial system in Belarus has already reached the maximum possible level of cynicism and vileness; nothing can be fixed in this mechanism – any verdict by order from above was already issued without hesitation or regard for laws, and if necessary, even for procedures.
And in this regard, one can imagine how immoral a person the creator of this inhuman mechanism, the former head of the Supreme Court Valiantsin Sukala, is. He held this position, it's terrible to say, from the very beginning of 1997, meaning he was appointed to lead the Lukashenka's judicial system immediately after the constitutional coup of 1996.
Just imagine – for 29 years, this person was responsible for such a delicate area, creating and perfecting an absolutely inhumane system, and all this time Lukashenka was so satisfied with his work that he did not send him to retirement for almost a quarter of a century after reaching the appropriate age. In his system, this is a unique case.
By a strange coincidence, the Putin system also had exactly the same (and even longer) long-liver in the same position of Chairman of the Supreme Court – Vyacheslav Lebedev, one year younger than Sukala, who diligently worked from July 1989 until February 2024, until he was carried out of his office feet first. And also, since he lasted so long, Putin was clearly completely satisfied with how this pensioner transformed the judicial system into an obedient and infallible mechanism for political repression.
It is characteristic that neither Sukala nor Lebedev were lawyers whose careers were opened by perestroika and the collapse of the USSR. They systematically moved up the career ladder back in the pre-Gorbachev Soviet Union, occupying positions in the leadership of courts at the regional and city level corresponding to their age and experience at the time. Perestroika, with its course, among other things, on rejuvenating personnel, may have slightly accelerated their career growth (Sukala, for example, before the emergence of independent Belarus, managed to become Minister of Justice of the BSSR and even the first deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of the USSR), but in principle, this growth itself was set even before that.
Therefore, in principle, it's not surprising that it was precisely in this area and precisely these figures who managed to fit so well into the new dictatorial systems and become long-livers in them. The courts in these systems were and are assigned exactly the same function they had in Soviet times – to be an obedient appendage of power and, in matters important to power, especially those related to politics, simply to stamp pre-approved decisions. Therefore, there was nothing special to invent, in essence – it was simply necessary to firmly and consistently implement the principles learned once and for all from a young age.
Sukala's teachers in his youth were clearly those Soviet lawyers who practically worked during Stalin's time, so there was someone to learn cynicism and vileness from.
And then he himself had the opportunity to select the worst of the younger generation and pass on invaluable experience. He coped brilliantly, but the years... Time is relentless.
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