“Dear friends,
Dear students,
Dear fellow Belarusians,
Dear professor Luciana Alexandra Ghica,
I'm glad to see you today. I’m honored that so many students have come, and even a little nervous.
When I speak to students, I always try to choose my words with much more care. In contrast to politicians, who are usually predictable, you never know what questions to expect from students.
Today I would like to talk to you a little bit about evil.
I know it sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale for little kids. Some of you might have already seen the manifestations of human cruelty. And yet I would like to tell you something from personal experience, from the experience of our Belarusian revolution.
For some of you, it may be an example of how easily evil takes root. For many, it can be an illustration of how you can join it and let it grow. Our experience can tell you how a small weakness, a small compromise with one's own conscience can lead to a big disaster.
I know you can find such examples in the history of your own country.
Ceausescu, like Lukashenka, has created two parallel realities. On the one hand: luxurious things, crowds of guards, unlimited power. Where everything is in the hands of one person. On the other hand: millions of human lives spent in poverty, fear and injustice. Hundreds of deaths of honest people who wanted a freer and safer future.
You know, Lukashenka is often compared to Ceausescu. Many even jokingly call him Lukashescu. And he also sees his resemblance to Ceausescu. He knows how other dictators ended up and it makes him very afraid of suffering the same fate.
Thousands of people, including my husband, or my friend Maria, will never forgive him tortures and intimidation.
It was the people who died during the revolution in Romania that made it possible for this country’s dream to come true. They obtained freedom and the possibility of a decent life for future generations. They won. And looking at you, I know that such a time will come to Belarus as well.
At the moment we are still resisting our Ceausescu. One and a half thousand Belarusians are in prison for speaking the truth. Every day, 10-15 new names appear on the lists of detainees. The repressive machine in Belarus sometimes hits deliberately, sometimes randomly, but always with revenge and always outside of the law.
Today, professors and teachers, doctors and businessmen, dozens of students like you – are held in Belarusian prisons. They are being harassed. They are kept either in overcrowded airless cells or in isolation cells. They are not allowed to receive letters or food parcels from relatives. They are not provided with necessary medicines and basic hygiene products. Even bedding and a mattress is beyond reach for people who dared to have their own independent opinion.
I'm sure all of you have seen the photos from the Belarusian protests of 2020. I know that Romanians wholeheartedly supported the protest and I am deeply grateful for your solidarity. We stopped being afraid and believed that change is possible if we all act together.
That summer the whole country became one family. We helped each other. Volunteers kept staying under the walls of prisons. Factory workers prepared strikes to protest the violence. And the students gathered at their campuses to stand together for the democratic future of Belarus.
We thought that our democratic future was close to hand. That we need to hold out for another day, a week, maximum – a month, and Lukashenka’s throne would finally crumble. But more than two years have passed. And during these two years, the repressive machine in Belarus has not stopped for a single day.
We were mistaken when we thought that evil could be defeated quickly. Over 28 years, it grew deep roots. And it's our responsibility too, that we let it take root. We allowed Lukashenka to taste unlimited power, to feel total impunity. In a sense, our fear and unwillingness to get involved in the political life of the country, gave rise to this monster.
I think you already understand what I'm getting at. History rhymes. You can find many rhymes in the history of Romania and Belarus. And in these parallels, you can find many lessons.
These are the lessons that we have learned over this long struggle. That I would like to share with you.
Lesson one. Do not underestimate the appetites of tyrants. During the 28 years of dictatorship, many people in Belarus thought: this does not concern me, I will be safe if I stay quiet and don’t do anything wrong.
But in 2020, it became clear: No one is safe. The more we allow a tyrant to feel impunity, the more their appetite for repression grows. There is no group of people in Belarus who has not been affected by this repression. Activists who’ve been fighting Lukashenka all these years. Random people who preferred to sit on the sidelines. And finally, members of this repressive elite who did not show sufficient loyalty.
Feeling impunity, torturing peaceful citizens of Belarus, Lukashenka went further. He staged a massive migration crisis on the border with Europe. Hijacked an international Ryanair flight just to detain a dissident blogger.
And on February 24, he teamed up with his tyrant friend from Russia, and dragged our country into a criminal war against our good neighbors. Lukashenka let the invaders into our houses without asking the permission of the people. He knew he would never get it. 86% Belarusians are against Belarus participation in the war.
After dictators started this criminal war, Belarusians understood that now we have to endure two crises at once. To resist both the dictatorial regime of Lukashenka and the aggressive expansion of the Kremlin. The war has become another lesson for us and the entire democratic world: words do not work on tyrants. The only chance to regain security is uncompromising action.
Second lesson. We must not allow tyrants to divide us. This will allow evil to take root even further. For decades, Belarusians lived in a feeling of loneliness and isolation, until one day they saw each other on the street. And today propaganda is persistently trying to divide us again. Talking about nationalists in Ukraine, then about enemies in Europe, or making criminals out of the Belarusians themselves.
Belarusians no longer buy this propaganda. We united in 2020 against violence and injustice. We united in support of Ukraine. We united to not let the regime destroy us one by one. We realized that only together can we survive and win our country back.
And finally, the third lesson. Whatever the price for freedom, it is worth paying. Belarussians are ready for that.
The protest in Belarus did not subside, it went underground. The level of repression, which Belarus has not seen since the Stalin era, simply does not allow you to go out and display the flag of free Belarus over the gulag.
That’s why today you will not see colorful photos of mass protests. But every day we hear incredible stories of resilience.
Belarusians spread leaflets with honest news across the country . They help our political prisoners, the families of detainees, as well as Ukrainian refugees. Our partisans are resisting the occupiers by carrying out acts of sabotage on the railways. Our cyber-partizans fight on the online battle field, extracting useful data for future investigations of the regime’s crimes.
Belarusians help the Ukrainian army with information, sharing photos and videos about the movement of Russian military equipment and missile launches.
All these people risk years of imprisonment under torture or even the death penalty. But still they resist. Because to give up now means to completely lose our home, and to disappear as a nation.
Dear friends,
I want to share one extra-lesson with you.
Just recently I read the notes of the Belarusian academician Sergei Garanin, where he talked about his imprisonment. The security forces detained him at his workplace, during a raid on the Academy of Sciences. Such raids are not news in Belarus – educated people have always been the enemies of tyrants.
After leaving the detention center, Sergei Garanin wrote about his impressions. And there was one phrase that especially touched me. He wrote: I feel sorry for the young people in prison. It is much easier for us, people who lived under the Soviet Union. Who remember and are not surprised by such human cruelty.
And you know, after reading this phrase, I thought: the future that Belarusians are fighting for – is when people know how to be surprised by evil. When people do not expect cruelty from each other. When such meanness is unacceptable even in small matters.
Opponents of the communist government of Romania died for this future. For this future, dozens of peaceful Belarusians gave their lives during the protests. For this future, Ukrainian soldiers are dying today, and I am proud that our Belarusian volunteers are fighting alongside them.
I am sure that this future will come soon. Because we will never give up until we win it for our children. And today I want to tell you, you who are already living in this democratic future – do not take it for granted. Do not close your eyes when you see even a small act of meanness. Because then you will open them and see how a small act of meanness can mutate into great human suffering”.
