During her visit to the United States, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya visited the University of Chicago, where she met with the Belarusian diaspora, university leadership, and faculty deans, and delivered a lecture titled “The Power of the Powerless: Standing Against Tyranny in Belarus”.
The Václav Havel Lecture is held annually – last year, it was delivered by the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel. More than 300 people attended Ms. Tsikhanouskaya’s lecture, including students and members of the academic community. The event was moderated by Belarusian playwright Andrei Kureichik.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s lecture:
President Paul Alivisatos,
Dean Deborah Nelson,
esteemed faculty and students,
dear belarusians,
distinguished guests, dear friends –
First of all, I want to thank the University of Chicago and Professor Faith Hillis for the invitation, and bringing me back to this beautiful city.
Everyone knows Chicago for its vibrant Polish, Ukrainian, or Czech communities. But very little is said about Belarusian presence here.
It was a hundred years ago, when the first Belarusian-American association in Chicago was established. Key figures of the Belarusian independence movement are buried here.
And of course, another connection is Belarus-born Marc Chagall, whose paintings Four Seasons, or America Windows – decor this great town. Chagall spent most of his life in exile, but all his paintings are full of love to Belarus.
Dear friends,
There is no better way to start a new academic year, than by honoring Vaclav Havel, his legacy and his values.
And it’s a great honor for me to be the second speaker chosen to hold the annual Vaclav Havel lecture, after Czech President Petr Pavel last year.
Just two days ago, I met President Pavel at UNGA in New York, and when we met — we always mentioned Havel in our conversation.
Today, we are all missing Havel’s wisdom. Maybe he would give us answers: how to deal with all this MESS we have now in the world? And where to find HOPE?
Havel was not just a playwright. Not EVEN just a president. Havel was a moral compass and moral voice in a time of fear.
Yesterday, in New York, in Vaclav Havel Center we honored the legendary Joan Baez, and she spoke about Havel as her main inspiration to fight for justice.
A man who proved that truth can shake empires.
That even THOSE without weapons, without power, CAN STILL CHANGE the course of history.
That all dictatorships seem invincible, until they suddenly collapse.
Yes, Havel’s life was a warning but also a promise. A warning to dictators – and a promise to those who dare to dream of freedom.
As a dissident under Czechoslovak communism, he understood that post‑totalitarian systems are sustained by lies. That dictators can not be appeased. And dictators can not be reeducated.
It was Havel, who first alarmed us about Russian revanchism. He said that Russia’s BIGGEST problem is that it doesn’t know where it begins and where it ends… He predicted the big war, which takes place now in Ukraine.
For us, Belarusians, Havel’s legacy is not history. It is also today. His battles are our battles. The very repression he faced in Czechoslovakia – we face it now in Minsk.
And when Havel said that hope is a moral imperative rather than a naïve expectation, he spoke directly to our situation.
I never met Havel myself, but I met so many people – who called Havel their personal hero. Havel had a special connection with Belarus, which some find difficult to explain rationally.
In contrast to many boring western politicians, he honestly believed that Belarus is not a lost case, that we can win and join the European Union.
It was fun to see a foreign politician who believes in us more than we sometimes believe in ourselves.
For years, he supported the Belarusian democratic movement and independent media – both morally and financially.
Also, Havel regularly wrote letters to political prisoners – even those whom he never personally met.
His last postcard, before he passed away in 2011, was to imprisoned Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski to express his support and admiration.
Later, Ales told his wife Natallia, that, in prison, Havel’s postcard was the thing that he cherished the most.
Today, 14 years later, Ales Bialiatski – now a Nobel Peace Prize laureate – is in prison again. Actually, yesterday he celebrated his 63rd birthday, the fifth in a row behind bars. Combined, he has already spent more than 7 years in jail.
Bialiatski not just goes through the same ordeal as Vaclav Havel – he also shares his ideal: “to live in Truth”. To defend freedom of others, even if it means losing yours.
Havel had a big heart (a heart was even in his signature!), and he also knew well how cruel life under tyranny is, and how important solidarity is: this feeling of HOPE, sent to you from outside prison walls.
Dear friends,
Sometimes, it feels that Belarus is stuck in time. Once, President George Bush called Belarus “the last dictatorship in Europe.”
But there is another metaphor given by an Italian journalist, who called Belarus a “communism with a taste of cappuccino.”
It’s like a country where the past clashes with reality. Where else could you find a McDonald’s right next to a KGB — yes, still called KGB with a prison for political hostages? Modern Tesla’s parking near Soviet-time Lenin’ monuments? And this hypocrisy is everywhere.
If you don’t look deeper behind walls, you won’t even differentiate dictatorship from a normal country. Dictators are usually masters of wrapping outdated goods in brand new packages.
Squeezed between West and East, EU and Russia – Belarus was always on the frontline, between democracy and tyranny, in the center of wars, clash of civilizations.
But never before the question of geopolitical choice stood so high as now.
The pro-Russian regime of Alexander Lukashenka, ruling Belarus for 30 years, chose Russia, and traded away Belarus’s independence in exchange for Moscow’s political protection.
His system survived not on innovation or competitiveness, but on cheap Russian oil and gas, and endless loans from the Kremlin.
For 30 years, Lukashenka has mastered the art of playing geopolitical seesaw.
We often joke that in winter, he becomes “pro-Russian” to secure cheaper resources, while in summer he suddenly turns “pro-Western” to get financial assistance from the EU and US.
To suppress those who disagree, he has built the system of repression and fear. Political opponents have been murdered, imprisoned, or driven into exile. But first of all, everything started with silencing the media – so no one knows for sure what is happening.
For three decades Belarus was a black spot on the map of Europe, forgotten and isolated.
Too often, behind Lukashenka, the world fails to see the best of Belarus: its people.
While the dictatorship was building its prisons and police stations, building a totalitarian state – the society developed its own way, western way, European way.
Belarusian society has outgrown the dictator. Five years ago, we saw its blooming on the streets of Belarus. When millions of Belarusians rose up against dictatorship.
And this is where my story has started. I was an ordinary woman, bringing up 2 children.
When my husband, a blogger, after announcing his presidential ambitions, ended up in jail, I decided to run in his place.
When your loved ones are in danger, you don’t wait for someone else to act. You stand up.
The regime registered me as a candidate – as a joke. “Our Constitution is not for women,” Lukashenka said. But that joke became his fatal mistake.
We WON that election, with more than 60%. Even a savvy dictator could no longer hide this truth. We organized an alternative vote count that proved our victory.
The regime stole our victory – but the people said “No.” In every city, people took to the streets. Not just politicians. Factory workers. Students. Nurses. Priests. Grandmothers. Teenagers. They came holding flowers. Holding each other. And chanting one word: Enough.
But like every dictator, Lukashenka refused to step down. Supported by Putin, it unleashed brutal terror that Europe hasn’t seen for decades.
Thousands got beaten, arrested and tortured, dozens killed. Hundreds of thousands had to flee.
This terror continues to this day. As we speak, every single day, from 10 to 15 people are being detained.
Moreover, the dictator dragged Belarus into the Russian war against Ukraine, of course against the will of the Belarusian people.
It was from Belarus that Russian tanks rolled on Kyiv. It was from Belarus that the first Russian missiles flew to hit Ukraine. Our country became a launchpad for war, while nine million people were taken hostage by two aging dictators.
Meanwhile, Belarusians quickly mobilized to help Ukraine, organized sabotage against the Russian military, and many went to fight for Ukraine as volunteers.
We made our stance clear: we are against this war, and we stand with Ukraine.
Looking back from today’s perspective, I often think: if our uprising had succeeded in 2020, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might never have happened—and history could have taken a very different course.
In Russia’s eyes, Belarus and Ukraine are naughty children. Russia doesn’t see us as an independent nation. Putin wants Ukraine to be the same as Lukashenka’s Belarus – controlled and loyal.
Yes, Lukashenka and Putin may hate each other, but they need each other, it’s a symbiotic relationship.
Without Putin, Lukashenka would not survive a single day, like a scuba diver without an oxygen tank. And it is naïve to think we can split them.
It’s also naïve to think that we can re-educate them, or appease them. Believe me: dictators don’t seek peace. They need war, because it fuels their regimes, but also justifies terror.
Today, our fate largely depends on the geopolitical context. We understand that if Ukraine wins we will have another chance too. And Ukraine loses, it will be difficult to take Belarus from the Russian bear.
When in 2020, it seemed, everything depended on us. Today, Belarus became a part of a bigger problem.
We can’t go to protest openly today, but we can prepare for a new momentum, and I am sure it will open a new window of opportunity for us.
There are two things that keep our movement alive: solidarity – and hope.
You may ask where is HOPE in all of that?
You know that my husband Siarhei was recently released, after five years of solitary confinement. For much of that time, I did not even know if he was alive. But I have never stopped fighting for his release.
He has been tortured. Kept in solitary confinement. He missed our children growing up. They forgot the sound of his laugh.
How did my husband manage to survive all that torture? By knowing that he’s on the side of Truth.
And how did I manage to survive? By not losing Hope.
Sometimes people still ask me: Why not give up?
Because I cannot. Hope is not a luxury for us. It is a duty.
Hope is what carried me through the darkest days and years without hearing my husband’s voice.
Hope is what drives the people still resisting inside Belarus.
Hope is what drives the Kalinoŭski Regiment – Belarusians fighting side by side with Ukrainians for freedom. 80 of them gave their lives to the better future of both our countries: for our freedom and yours.
One of them was Maryia Zaitsava. In 2020, she became one of the most recognizable faces of our revolution. In 2025, she sacrificed her young life defending Ukraine. She was killed in battle on the day after celebrating her 24th birthday.
There is a quote by Vaclav Havel that Ales Bialiatski sent to his wife in a letter from prison:
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something is worth doing no matter how it turns out.”
We live by these words. Our hope has never been the naive expectation of an easy victory.
It has been the certainty that a free Belarus is worth fighting for – worth every risk, worth every setback.
Hope requires us to act, to speak and to believe that our actions have meaning even when we cannot foresee the outcome.
People who refuse to give up hope are a people a dictator can never truly defeat.
Thank you and Lessons learned
Dear friends,
Speaking to you today, I want to share several pieces of advice, and lessons learned during my short and accidental political career.
First, cherish what you have. Often, people living in a democracy take it for granted. But in countries like Belarus, or Ukraine, we know its true price — because we sacrifice everything for it.
Freedom is never guaranteed. It’s so easy to lose, and so hard to get back. It must be protected. Nurtured. Fought for – again and again.
Second: Never stop looking for the truth. Never stop asking questions. Never stop learning. Keep an open mind and use the amazing tools you have available today. The goal of tyranny is to make you confuse truth and lies.
Third: Never lose hope. Maybe, hope alone is not enough, but it’s something that keeps you afloat in the most difficult moments. People who were just released from Lukashenka’s prisons said it was hope alone that helped them survive.
Fourth: Listen to your heart as well as to your mind. Empathy, compassion, and solidarity is our greatest superpower. Sometimes life puts you in circumstances, when you just have to act.
And finally. No fight can be won alone. You always need friends, you need allies. You need a common effort. The fight for democracy is not local, it’s a global one.
The greatest threat to democracy is not always violence. It’s often fear, doubts, fatigue, loss of hope. And simply forgetting who we are and what we stand for.
So today, standing here under Havel’s name, I am not mourning democracy. I am renewing faith in it. Let us renew our commitment to freedom.
The Belarusian people have not given up. And neither should the world.
Together, we will prove – once again – that the power of the powerless can change history.
Thank you.
