“Dear Mr. Ambassador Artur Michalski,
Mr. Arkady Rzegocki,
Vice-Director Joanna Wajda,
Dear Ms. Director Dominika Kasprowicz,
Dear Mr. Chairman Jan Piekło,
Dear Belarusians,
Dear Polish and Ukrainian friends!
Let me begin my address by quoting the classic whose heritage we share. Adam Mickiewicz wrote these words in exile. In Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus almost everyone knows them:
“Lithuania! My homeland! You are health alone.
Your worth can only ever be known by one
Who’s lost you”.
In 1829, Mickiewicz lost his homeland. But this led to the world literature being enriched with the “Pan Tadeusz” poem.
I have no doubt that the feeling of great loss described by the poet is familiar to all Belarusians. Both those who left the country long ago and those who were forced to leave their homeland after 2020. But I believe that nothing is lost for us, Belarusians. We, like Mickiewicz, in exile have only learned to appreciate Belarus more. And I am convinced that Belarus will be free and democratic again, and we will definitely return there.
Historically, a significant part of Belarusian culture was created abroad. Some begin the list of famous Belarusian emigrant cultural figures with no less an authority than Francysk Skaryna.
By the way, the beautiful Villa Decius, which hosts this event, was built during his lifetime and is a witness to the Renaissance. Thirty years before the villa was built, Skaryna studied here in Krakow, then in Padua in Italy, and in 1517 in Prague in Czechia published the first printed Cyrillic book, his translation of the Bible, in the Ruthenian (Old Belarusian) language.
Although he did not return to Polatsk, where he was born, he continued his educational activities in Vilnius. And he traveled freely within the lands of our common civilization – across Central and Eastern Europe, across the lands of the Crown of Bohemia, the Crown of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The tolerance of the contemporary Polish and Lithuanian state allowed Skaryna to freely promote our language and culture. And only in the East, in Moscow, was his new invention – the printing press – considered heretical. That “European contagion” challenged the “values” of the modern “Russian world”.
And today, these values are contradicted by such an elementary, basic democratic thing as freedom of speech. Especially during the time of the criminal war against Ukraine, we can see how much lies and heartlessness have infiltrated Russian society, including a significant portion of Russian cultural figures.
It is only natural that without freedom of speech, there can be no artistic freedom.
In the political, economic, informational, and cultural sense, Belarus today is being transformed by the regime into a Russian colony. In fact, any mention of national values is equated with extremism. Even if a person simply talks in Belarusian on the street, it is already considered suspicious and can lead to imprisonment.
The Union of Belarusian Writers, the Belarusian Language Society, Art-Siadziba NGO, a number of publishing houses, and other organizations have been liquidated. Outstanding figures of our culture and science are in Lukashenka's prisons. They include artist Ales Pushkin, literary critic Aliaksandr Fiaduta, political scientist Valeryia Kastsiuhova, philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich, linguist Natallia Dulina, poet Mikita Naidzionau, and musicians of TOR BAND. As Belarusian PEN recently reported, a total of at least 132 cultural figures and at least 31 men and women of the pen are behind bars.
Perhaps the most famous Belarusian literary critic in the world today is political prisoner and Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, a human rights defender and literary scholar who for a long time was director of the literary museum of Maksim Bahdanovich. In one of his books, “Enlightened by Belarusianness” (“Asvechanyia Belaruschunai”), Ales Bialiatski writes:
“Belarusian texts written in prisons, labor camps, exile, and after release, based on experiences, have a long and rich history. I would even include forced emigration in this list, as for many of the authors it was no less tragic than captivity. The only poem by Kastus Kalinouski that reached us was written behind the monastery walls of the Vilnius prison. (…) The powerful cornerstone of our literature, the poem “New Land” (“Novaya Ziamlia”) by Yakub Kolas, was conceived and partly created in the Pischalauski Castle, which now hosts a detention center on Valadarskaha Street in Minsk. Then there were the memories of Frantsishak Alyakhnovich, “In the claws of the HPU” (“U kipciuroch HPU”), which were sensational at the time… and the laconic and ingenious prose of Maxim Haretski, created in desperate exile, far from Belarus. (…) In the Gulag, on wrapping paper, a translation of Adam Mickiewicz's “Pan Tadeusz” was created – by Piatro Bitel, an Orthodox priest and teacher who was imprisoned after the war, under Stalin’s rule…”
I should add that Ales Bialiatski himself wrote this brief review of Belarusian prison literature in 2012 in Babruisk prison, during his first imprisonment…
Today, in 2023, history is unfortunately repeating itself. Like “under Stalin’s rule”, prison is still a place of torture that temper the character of future Belarusian classics. Even those behind bars who until now had no creative ambitions seek an outlet for their experiences and thoughts in drawings or poems.
I am convinced that these works will find their way into textbooks and become a testimony of an entire era and a monument to the feat of Belarusians. But today we must make sure that their authors, and all political prisoners, are released as soon as possible. We want them to come back to us alive and well. Tragedies that occur behind bars, such as the death of Vitold Ashurak and the death of Mikalai Klimovich, must not be repeated.
Of course, spirited people cannot stand aside from the trials that their nation goes through. A vivid example of this is former political prisoner, ex-presidential candidate, laureate of the Jerzy Giedroyc Literary Award, the pride of our poetry Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, who is here with us today. He could tell better than anyone else about how poetry lives and survives in prison. He has, though, already done so in his “Letters to Liberty”.
“Through bars, through barbed wires,
You smiled at me in the midnight hour,
And I fell asleep — through wires, through bars,
I soared on the wings of your smile.”
We, the wives of political prisoners, whom prison has separated from our loved ones, are also familiar with these feelings.
My husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski had never written poetry – before prison. I am proud to be able to share his poems with Belarusians from time to time. I'm sure it warms Siarhei’s heart to know that his words are reaching his compatriots in this way. I am not a critic, but for me, this is the purest and truest poetry, written from the heart.
“You are there, I am here – time goes by,
Years fly… you are there, I am here.
To be imprisoned – for you and for me.
To scream in dreams – for you and for me.
We do not live. Only dreams live.
Yours are all there. Mine are all here.
At least to know – for you and for me,
How long to wait – for you and for me.
But the days do not wait. You are there, I am here.
Years pass. You are there, I am here…”
It is terribly sad to read these words. I don't know what is happening with Siarhei right now. We haven't heard from him for several months. Most likely, he is being held in punitive confinement. The censorship blocks the letters and drawings our children and I send to him. But I believe that Siarhei is alive and that the day will come when he returns to us. I believe that once he is free, he will write many more poems and publish many books.
Remembering our political prisoners, I would like to give special thanks to the Belarusian PEN Center and the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which together with the Viasna Human Rights Center continue to monitor the situation of political prisoners and help Belarusian artists abroad. Your work is very important, and we in the United Transitional Cabinet will do our best to ensure that it continues unhindered.
I am grateful to every Belarusian at home and abroad who keeps supporting our political prisoners. A postcard sent to a prison is in itself a work of art. The art of being human.
Dear Friends,
As we know, at the time when the Belarusian language was banned in tsarist Russia, books and periodicals in the Belarusian language had to be published outside Belarus. For example, the iconic Dudka Belaruskaja by Francišak Bahuševič was published in 1891 here in Krakow, and his Smyk Belaruski – three years later in Poznan.
And today books are again banned and declared “extremist” in Belarus. So it is truly important that they are printed in the free world instead, particularly in Poland, but also in Lithuania, Czechia, Germany, Great Britain, and other countries.
In addition, exhibitions of Belarusian artists and photographers are held all over the world. The performances of Free Kupalaucy, Free Theater, Kryly Halopa, and other theatrical groups are a great success. The Free Choir performs on tour. Belarusian films are awarded prizes at prestigious film festivals. An art residence (“Dom Tvortsau”) works in Warsaw, and another one is due to open in Bialystok. We, Belarusians, feel that we are not alone in the world. Art, among other things, contributes to this feeling.
I believe that despite all the difficulties, Belarusian culture in the free world is unlikely to disappear. On the contrary, we should be most concerned about the fate of Belarusian culture in today's unfree Belarus.
A free and natural evolution of our national culture is only possible when our country is independent and democratic. This future for Belarus is a shared goal of our political and cultural activities. And I believe that every action, every act of solidarity, every creation in which we tell the world about Belarus, brings us closer to our victory, little by little.
In today’s situation, in which our people have found themselves due to the dictator's fault, we cannot help but express our gratitude to our foreign friends for their solidarity and the comprehensive support they provide for our culture. They have welcomed our creators in their countries as equals, as brothers and sisters, and have given them the opportunity to further develop their talents.
Programs such as grants from the Belarusian Council for Culture would simply not be possible without the generous support of the European Union. We at the United Transitional Cabinet, together with Representative for National Revival Alina Koushyk who is here today, are doing our best to remind our European partners of the need to continue supporting Belarusian culture through scholarships, art residencies, and other programs for our creators.
As long as we want to remain Belarusians, it is essential that the vibrant and diverse cultural life of our diaspora does not subside. The free creativity of Belarusian musicians, artists, actors, and writers should remain the best proof that Belarus survives and will live long, even in exile. No matter how hard the dictator and his accomplices, the russifiers, try to rip the heart of Belarusian identity from the body of Belarus, they will not succeed.
And I would like to conclude with a quote from a classic, the famous words of Francysk Skaryna from the preface to the book “Judith”, translated into modern Belarusian by the late Ales Razanau:
“Because beasts from birth, walking in the desert,
know their own hollows;
the birds, flying through the air,
know their own nests;
the fish, swimming in the sea and in the rivers,
know their own waves;
the bees, and others of the same,
take care of their hives,
as well as people, where they were born and fed by God,
have great lovingkindness for that place”.
I am confident that the time will come when our creators will return to their native places. They will continue to travel the world, and everywhere they will be greeted with respect as the sons and daughters of a free, educated, and European nation – the Belarusian nation. But no one will ever forbid them from returning home to speak, live, and create freely in their own country.
Thank you for listening.
Long Live Belarus!”
