SUMMARY:

Siarhej Zelianko catalogs and classifies dozens of the placards and posters held by Belarusian protestors at weekly marches and other political rallies that arose in the wake of the rigged presidential election in August 2020. Zelianko interprets these placards as messages in the Bakhtinian, carnival-like communication process. Nominally addressing a ruling regime that refuses to negotiate with protestors, the placards are mediums of communication within the Belarusian society. Often citing recent memes and other forms of local knowledge, they clearly target the community of like-minded people, so their content is informative in demarcating the boundaries of this imagined community of the new Belarusian nation.