The likeness of General Aleksandr Suvorov, the Tsarist-era military commander lionized in both the USSR and post-Soviet Russia, disappeared yesterday from the Belarusan city of Vitsyabsk [Vitebsk]. An unidentified group left a note at the empty site, recalling that Suvorov “drenched in blood the Belarusan people’s struggle for independence from Russian invaders. He is a hero to Russians, but is an occupier to Belarusans.” (Russian agencies, September 3) In 1794, Suvorov’s army crushed the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusan revolt led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko against Russian domination. Russia then annexed the lion’s share of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including most of present-day Belarus.
FRENCH PRESIDENT IN KYIV.