Editing Alexander Lukashenko (section)

==Military and early politics career==

He served in the [[Soviet Border Troops]] from 1975 to 1977, where he was an instructor of the political department of military unit No. 2187 of the Western Frontier District in [[Brest, Belarus|Brest]] and in the [[Soviet Army]] from 1980 to 1982. In addition, he led an [[Komsomol|All-Union Leninist Young Communist League]] ([[Komsomol]]) chapter in Mogilev from 1977 to 1978. While in the Soviet Army, Lukashenko was a deputy political officer of the [[120th Guards Mechanised Brigade|120th Guards Motor Rifle Division]], which was based in Minsk.<ref name="bio">{{Cite web |date=20 September 2007 |title=President Visits New Swimming Complex in Minsk |url=http://www.president.gov.by/en/press35803.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121130162456/http://www.president.gov.by/en/press35803.html |archive-date=30 November 2012 |access-date=13 October 2007 |publisher=President of the Republic of Belarus }}</ref>

In 1979, he joined the ranks of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and the [[Communist Party of Byelorussia]]. After leaving the military, he became the deputy chairman of a [[kolkhoz|collective farm]] in 1982 and in 1985{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}. In 1987, he was appointed as the director of the [[Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Gorodets]] state farm in [[Shklow district]] and in early 1988, was one of the first in [[Mogilev Region]] to introduce a leasing contract to a state farm.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 August 2017 |title=Александр Лукашенко, биография, новости, фото – узнай вce! |url=https://uznayvse.ru/znamenitosti/biografiya-aleksandr-lukashenko.html |publisher=Unayvse |language=ru |access-date=20 September 2017 |archive-date=21 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921045807/https://uznayvse.ru/znamenitosti/biografiya-aleksandr-lukashenko.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1990, Lukashenko was elected Deputy to the [[Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic|Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR]]. Having acquired a reputation as an eloquent opponent of corruption, Lukashenko was elected in April 1993 to be interim chairman of the anti-corruption committee of the Belarusian parliament.<ref name="nytimes">{{Cite news |last=Spector |first=Michael |date=25 June 1994 |title=Belarus Voters Back Populist in Protest at the Quality of Life |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/25/world/belarus-voters-back-populist-in-protest-at-the-quality-of-life.html |access-date=17 October 2007 |archive-date=1 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180901115703/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/25/world/belarus-voters-back-populist-in-protest-at-the-quality-of-life.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In late 1993 he accused 70 senior government officials, including the Supreme Soviet chairman [[Stanislav Shushkevich]] and prime minister [[Vyacheslav Kebich]], of corruption including stealing state funds for personal purposes. While the charges ultimately proved to be without merit, Shushkevich resigned his chairmanship due to the embarrassment of this series of events and losing a vote of no-confidence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Savchenko |first=Andrew |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmld75blKCwC&pg=PA179 |title=Belarus: A Perpetual Borderland |date=15 May 2009 |publisher=Brill Academic Pub |isbn=978-9004174481 |page=179 |chapter=Borderland Forever: Modern Belarus |access-date=11 October 2015 |archive-date=21 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160521132703/https://books.google.com/books?id=lmld75blKCwC&pg=PA179 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Jeffries04">{{Cite book |last=Jeffries |first=Ian |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYy46_X2WS8C&pg=PA266 |title=The Countries of the Former Soviet Union at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century: The Baltic and European States in Transition |date=4 March 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0415252300 |page=266 |chapter=Belarus |access-date=11 October 2015 |archive-date=19 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519201548/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZYy46_X2WS8C&pg=PA266 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was in that position until July 1994.