At the invitation of Fundacja Demokracja, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya attended a public event with historian Timothy Snyder in Warsaw to deliver opening remarks. The conversation with Mr. Snyder was moderated by Polish journalist and founder of Krytyka Polityczna Sławomir Sierakowski, who supports Belarus’s democratic movement and personally witnessed the protests and repression in Minsk in 2020.
Timothy Snyder is one of the best-known scholars of the history of Central and Eastern Europe and the author of “Bloodlands”, “On Tyranny”, and “The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus”. He has also consistently supported Ukraine and researched its history.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya noted that Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania are part of the region that Timothy Snyder called the Bloodlands — lands that suffered particularly heavily from wars, totalitarianism, and dictatorships. She stressed that Ukraine is once again defending its freedom against Russian aggression, while for Belarus, Ukraine’s victory and the preservation of its own independence are directly linked.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: “Our lands know the price of tyranny all too well. Today, Ukraine is once again paying an enormous price for freedom, while Belarusians continue their struggle against dictatorship. But Poland’s example reminds us that dictatorships do not last forever. I believe that Ukraine will defend its freedom, Belarus will become a free European country, and our region will never again be the ‘Bloodlands’”.
Mr. Snyder and Ms. Tsikhanouskaya previously met in December 2023 at Yale University. Timothy Snyder moderated Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s discussion, “Belarus, Ukraine and the Future of Europe”, which focused on the war in Ukraine, democratic change in Belarus, and the future of Europe.
