Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Today is the birthday of Kastus Kalinowski. He sacrificed his life so that the Belarusians could have an independent state, determine their own fate, and decide their way of life. But Kalinowski was not the one who started this struggle – he continued what other outstanding Belarusians did before him.
And although Belarus gained its independence in 1991, this struggle, as we can see, is not over. Belarus is under threat – because Lukashenka, who has seized the power, views Belarus as his personal territory.
This is the struggle of Tadevush Kastsiushka and Kastusz Kalinowski, of 1918 Belarusian Democratic Republic figures and 1990s parlamentarians, of Ales Bialiatski and Maryia Kalesnikava. This struggle has been passed on from one generation to the next. I really wish we will succeed in our struggle before we pass it on to the next generation. I want our children to live in a free Belarus and know only from history books what occupation, repressions, torture in prisons, and political prisoners are. I want us to become the generation that defeated the dictatorship.
We have to bring Kastus Kalinowski’s cause to a conclusion”.
