Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor on Education and Science, Tatiana Shchyttsova, comments on the proposal by the director of the BSU Lyceum, Tatiana Mamchyts, to name the lyceum after Felix Dzerzhinsky. Dzerzhinsky was a Soviet revolutionary and politician and one of the key figures of the Red Terror, which, by different estimates, killed dozens or hundreds of thousands of people.
“It is very telling that the regime proposes to name no less than the BSU Lyceum after the founder of the Cheka. Until 2020, the lyceum was the most advanced educational institution in the country – partly because it was the most free from the control of various government agencies. The long-standing atmosphere of intellectual freedom, creativity, and mutual respect among lyceum students, teachers, and administration made it a truly unique educational institution – and a unique community. To put an end to this tradition, after 2020, the regime systematically dismissed teachers from the lyceum and changed its leaders several times until, finally, a “perfect solution” was found – to appoint a director with a “Chekist” background.
The regime thus sends a symbolic message that defines its cynical and dogmatic approach. What was previously associated with freedom will now be associated with the Cheka founder. And therefore, with the institution that laid the foundation for the long tradition of organized state terror in the Soviet Union and was later transformed into NKVD and then KGB. So this is also a message of support for today’s security bodies, who still have Dzerzhinsky’s portraits in their offices”.
Read the full comment at the link.
