Editing Alexander Lukashenko (section)

==Early life, family and education==
Lukashenko was born on 30 August 1954<ref name="udf.by">[http://udf.by/sobytie/33180-skandal-lukashenko-izmenil-biografiyu.html Скандал! Лукашенко изменил биографию (видео и фото) » UDF.BY | Новости Беларуси | Объединённые демократические силы] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150724115400/http://udf.by/sobytie/33180-skandal-lukashenko-izmenil-biografiyu.html|date=24 July 2015}}. UDF.BY. Retrieved 13 April 2011.</ref><ref name="president.gov.by">[http://president.gov.by/press10003.html Официальный интернет-портал Президента Республики Беларусь/Биография] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207094012/http://president.gov.by/press10003.html |date=7 December 2013 }}. President.gov.by (11 May 1998). Retrieved 13 April 2011.</ref> in the settlement of [[Kopys]] in [[Vitebsk Region]] of the [[Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic]]. Starting with an interview given in 2009, Lukashenko has said that his actual birthday is 31 August, the same as his son's [[Nikolai Lukashenko|Nikolai's]].<ref>[https://zavtra.ru/cgi/veil/data/zavtra/09/812/11.html ТАК ГОВОРИТ ЛУКАШЕНКО] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100328193551/https://zavtra.ru/cgi/veil/data/zavtra/09/812/11.html|date=28 March 2010}}. Zavtra. Retrieved 13 April 2011.</ref> This caused some confusion as all official sources had said 30 August 1954 up until then. An explanation was later given that his mother had entered the hospital on the 30th in labour but not given birth until after midnight.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 September 2010 |title=БелаПАН выяснил, почему изменилась дата рождения Александра Лукашенко |url=http://belapan.com/archive/2010/09/01/407760/ |work=[[BelaPAN]] |access-date=5 February 2021 |archive-date=12 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612003234/http://belapan.com/archive/2010/09/01/407760/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

His maternal grandfather, Trokhym Ivanovich Lukashenko, was born near [[Shostka]] in the then-[[Russian Empire]], now in the [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] village known today as [[Sobycheve]].<ref name="famorigin">{{Cite news |last1=Малишевский |first1=Виктор |last2=Ульяна Бобоед |date=15 August 2003 |script-title=ru:В Минск из Канады летит троюродный племянник Лукашенко |language=ru |work=Комсомольской Правды в Белоруссии |url=http://www.charter97.org/rus/news/2003/08/15/rodstvennik |url-status=dead |access-date=28 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080731100026/http://www.charter97.org/rus/news/2003/08/15/rodstvennik |archive-date=31 July 2008}}</ref> Lukashenko grew up without a father in his childhood, leading him to be taunted by his schoolmates for having an unmarried mother.<ref name="Telegraph 2008" /> Due to this, the origin of his patronymic ''Grigorevich'' is unknown and there are varying rumours about the identity of Lukashenko's father. The most common suggestion is that the man was a [[Romani people|Roma]] passing through the region.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Astapova |first1=Anastasiya |date=2016 |title=Political Biography: Incoherence, Contestation, and Elements of the Hero Pattern in the Belarusian Case |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfolkrese.53.2.02 |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |language=en |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=31–62 |doi=10.2979/jfolkrese.53.2.02 |jstor=10.2979/jfolkrese.53.2.02 |s2cid=148428135 |access-date=6 February 2021 |archive-date=17 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217144222/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfolkrese.53.2.02 |url-status=live  |issn = 0737-7037|url-access=subscription }}</ref> His mother, Ekaterina Trofimovna Lukashenko (1924–2015), had given birth to another son, older than Alexander, who later died on an unknown date. Ekaterina worked unskilled jobs on a railway, at a construction site, at a [[flax]] factory in [[Orsha]] and finally as a milkmaid in [[Alexandria]], a small village in the east of Belarus, close to the Russian border.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 May 2015 |title="Рослая, сильная, с характером". В Александрии похоронили мать Лукашенко |url=https://news.tut.by/society/449462.html |publisher=[[Tut.By]] |access-date=13 September 2019 |archive-date=22 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022082221/https://news.tut.by/society/449462.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Lukashenko went to Alexandria secondary school. He graduated from the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute (now [[Mogilev State A. Kuleshov University]]) in [[Mogilev]] in 1975 after 4 years of studies. He also completed studies at the Belarusian Agricultural Academy in [[Horki]] in 1985.