‘This Sunday I Walked Along Minsk Streets With White-Red-White Flag For First Time’
- Maksim Charvonenka, Telegram channel “European Belarus”
- 10.12.2019, 13:15
- 9,492
And you know what? I liked it.
Weekend protests in Minsk came as a surprise to many. Decades of dictatorship, the destruction of historical memory, the departure of thousands of Belarusians abroad - and still a sea of national flags and patriotic slogans.
Just think, 25 years is not a year or ten. This is a third of the life of an average Belarusian. Birth, school, university, first job, creating a family - this is what this term means for those born 25 years ago. And this is also the time when views are formed, and the realization that you will need to fight for these views throughout your adult life.
We noticed that the generation that grew up under the dictatorship took to the streets. Next to me were those who were born together with independent Belarus, for whom the white-red-white flag above the Government House and the street resistance of the end of the last century are nothing more than legends.
We always understood that Lukashenka was lying, selling the country, that he was a dictator and tyrant. But the logic of recent decades and the instinct of self-preservation suggested a simple way out - to finish school / university and get out of here. Not because we are not patriots, not because we are scared. Because they did not see the point of butting against the wall.
Why are we protesting now? Because we saw that the wall, which yesterday seemed like a granite monolith, is all in cracks. Behind crumbling plaster - rot, mold and bricks crumbling into dust. I do not know why nobody saw it before. Maybe they didn’t pay attention, maybe they were weak and insecure, maybe something else.
I first came to the Square on November 8, a month ago. On November 16, for the first time in my life, I joined an opposition organization. This Sunday, for the first time in my life, I walked along the streets of Minsk with a white-red-white-flag. And you know what? I liked it.
Maksim Charvonenka, 25 years old, Telegram channel “European Belarus”
