Shushkevich, Stanislav (1934- )

Belorussian politician, president 1991-94. He was elected to parliament as a nationalist ‘reform communist’ in 1990 and played a key role in the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) as the successor to the USSR. A supporter of free-market reforms, he opposed the alignment of Belarus's economic and foreign policy with that of neighbouring Russia.

Shushkevich, the son of a poet who died in the gulag, was educated at the University of Belarus in Minsk and gained a doctorate in technical education; he was deputy rector for science at the Lenin State University in Minsk. He entered politics as a result of his concern at the Soviet cover-up of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.