Belarusian president Aleksander Lukashenko encouraged citizens to “get undressed and work until you sweat”, and the people obeyed.

“Innovations, IT-technologies, privatisation – it is all clear. We’ve conquered all of them. But everything is very simple, one should get undressed and work,” Lukashenko said in a speech.

Photo: julia_blackcat/Instagram

The odd command was most likely a slip of the tongue. What he was supposed to say was to encourage Belarusians to “develop themselves,” but the phrase sounds very similar to “get undressed” in Russian, making the odd command an obvious “Freudian slip.”

"Nothing special, just naked at work." Photo: keshakedysh/Instagram

That didn’t stop the Belarusians from following orders. The hashtag #getnakedandwork (#раздеватьсяиработать) immediately went viral with workers from various fields posting photos of themselves at work, naked.

The hashtag has gathered more than 1,500 pictures on Instagram.

"I took care of the strawberried today. What have you done to fulfill the government instruction?" Photo: akvinskaya/Instagram