Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Education and Science, Tatiana Shchyttsova, comments on the Cyberpartisans’ report about the extensive ‘purges’ at Belarusian State University, which has fired or expelled hundreds of teachers and students.
“Not so long ago, Belarusian State University was rightly called the ‘flagship of Belarusian science’. However, as the investigation revealed, after the 2020 election, the university ‘evolved’ and became a pioneer of the repressive regime.
Under the rector’s leadership and with the assistance of internal university collaborators, the university quickly mastered and then implemented various practices of persecution and pressure on students and teachers—from denunciations and ‘warnings’ to politically motivated expulsions and dismissals. After BSU became the first university where a forced confession video with a student was recorded, the university set an example of a new ‘educational norm’.
But what is so important about the investigation? It clearly shows that in today’s Belarus, universities are an integral part of the repressive system.
They hire KGB officers as vice-rectors for security and personnel, systematically gather information about students and staff, threaten them, encourage denunciations, and regularly report to the security forces on ‘measures taken’ and the statistics of political ‘purges’. All these are elements of a neo-totalitarian repressive machine. Belarusian universities faced serious problems with academic autonomy even before 2020. However, what is happening today not only undermines the values of academic freedom but also violates basic human rights. This is simply incompatible with the principle of objectivity in teaching and research.
The investigation clearly highlights that the Lukashenka regime relies not only on security forces and a ‘controlled’ judicial system but to a certain extent on the academic community as well. The repressive system established at BSU operates thanks to the initiative and diligence of specific individuals. The ‘rector who denounces his students’ is now the calling card of the country’s leading university”.
