In Search for Truth: Surveillance Rumors and Vernacular Panopticon in Belarus

In this article, I analyze rumors about surveillance—unverified expressions of belief and narratives, which, despite their global omnipresence, are contextualized by local peculiarities and modalities. I concentrate on the narratives recorded in Belarus, notoriously referred to as “the last dictatorship of Europe.” There, the rumors, largely inherited from the USSR, are reiterated due to the nontransparency of current legislation and other features of the Belarusian hegemonic regime, serving to create the sense of perpetual surveillance.