A discussion commemorating the events of Belarus’s “Black Thursday” (November 12, 2020) will take place in Prague on November 12. That day, the Lukashenka regime’s repression reached Belarusian universities and changed the lives of students and faculty members.
The event will include a presentation of “The Book in Exile”, which tells the story of Belarusian students’ resistance and their lives in exile.
The discussion will feature:
- Lizaveta Dauhulevich — Belarusian student and author of “The Book in Exile”;
- Daniil Vaurukh — Belarusian student;
- Pavel Kotau — Belarusian doctoral student;
- Petr Ťoupalík — founder of the “11 Plus 1” initiative (2021) and Head of the Student Affairs Office at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.
The discussion will be moderated by Ondřej Soukup, a journalist and participant in the 1989 student strikes in Czechoslovakia.
Participants will discuss the price of pursuing freedom and democratic education, the role of solidarity within the Czech academic community, and how Czech society can support young Belarusians. The conversation will also explore parallels between the events of 1989 in Czechoslovakia and the ongoing struggle of Belarusian students for academic and personal freedoms.
Date and time: November 12, 2026, 6:00–7:30 p.m.
Venue: First Presidential Library (formerly the Václav Havel Library), Ostrovní 129/13, Prague.
The event is organized by the Office of Belarus Democratic Forces in the Czech Republic, the Belarusian Students’ Association, and the First Presidential Library of the Czech Republic.
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1500322108913790/
