The fabric of Belarus Ordinary, symbolic and political uses of flags in the 2020 protests

The citizens mobilised in the exceptional mass protest movement that Belarus experienced in 2020 made the white-red-white banner widely visible in the public space. The flag of the short-lived Belarusian People’s Republic in 1918 was the official flag of independent Belarus from 1991 to 1995. After the first election of Lukashenko, it was replaced by the red and green flag inspired by the Soviet past. Both flags embody alternative narratives of Belarusian history in the 20th century. The authors analyse the multiple uses of the white-red-white flag in the citizens’ uprising.