On the sixth anniversary of the 2020 protests, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya addresses Belarusians with personal reflections on how we have changed over these years and what we all need to preserve within ourselves today.
Watch the full speech on YouTube or read its full text below.
“Six years is a very long time. In those years, some people had children, while others spent months waiting for letters from prison. Some learned to hide their anxiety from their parents and children, to work, to smile, to say, “Everything is fine” — when in fact, nothing was fine.
Almost every Belarusian family now has its own “before” and “after”. Arrests, searches, a hurried departure with one suitcase. Everyday life itself has changed.
Every year, the country loses some of its most important professionals. Doctors, teachers, and IT specialists are leaving. Pharmacies lack essential medicines. There are problems with banks and cards, difficulties with visas and travel. And in Belarus, people have had to learn to choose their words carefully and check every day whether their loved ones are safe.
This is what the consequences of repression look like today.
It still hurts. And six years is long enough to become tired and to start wondering whether any of this is worth it.
But with every year, one thing becomes clearer: 2020 changed Belarus forever.
They are trying to silence us, but that does not mean we have agreed. They scattered us across different cities and countries, but we did not become strangers to one another. They are trying to convince us that it was all in vain, but we already know what Belarus can be — and what we ourselves can be.
For me, August 9 is a promise not to forget.
Not to forget that we are one nation. Not to forget that moment when, among tens of thousands of people, there was a feeling that we were capable of anything. Someone was smiling. Someone was handing out water. People were looking after one another. And there were so many of us.
And all we wanted was one thing: to be free and to be called human beings.
Perhaps today that feeling looks different.
It means not demanding heroism from those who live every day in fear for themselves and their loved ones. Helping someone find a job or move to safety. Not judging people based on who has done enough and who has not. Not allowing these difficult years to turn us into strangers who no longer trust one another.
It matters to me that August 9 remains not only in old photographs and videos, but lives on in our ability to reach agreements, to be grateful for help, and to help others when we can.
We do not know what events lie ahead or when an opportunity to change the fate of our country will arise.
But one day, Belarus will once again need our ability to trust one another, act together, and take responsibility.
And when that moment comes, we need to reach it not broken and not estranged from one another, but as people who still remember why we took to the streets six years ago”.
