Menschen zu sein...

Summary This essay focuses on the sociocultural and semiotic aspects of the discourse of protests sparked by the rigged presidential election in Belarus, in August 2020. The mass demonstrations, using symbolic items (such as posters, slogans, exclamation marks, performances, posts in the social networks on the Internet, etc.) have been analyzed as a type of social discourse. The focus is on the peculiarity and the most distinctive features of the protest movement in Belarus. In particular, the following socio-political and cultural characteristics of Belarusian protest discourses are considered: 1) rejecting stereotypes (especially the tolerance stereotype, blr. pamjarkoŭnas’c’); 2) Belarusian protest tradition; 3) historical and geopolitical factors of the Belarusian protest movement; 4) the discursive systems; 5) the carnival. The emphasis is on linguistic forms of creativity, especially the protest slogans. In addition, the extensive scientific literature addressing such discourses is discussed.