Viachaslau Siuchyk: We Can Defeat This System

It's necessary to defend independence whatever the circumstances.

The leader of the Razam Solidarity Movement, one of the most prominent figures of the Belarusian resistance, Viachaslau Siuchyk, is celebrating his 60th birthday today.

The opposition politician recalled the brightest moments of the struggle for freedom and shared his vision of the future of Belarus with the Charter97.org website.

— You have been involved in the Belarusian resistance for more than thirty years. Did you think that the struggle would take decades when you started your political path?

— When I joined the political struggle, I had a feeling that there would be a “storming of the Bastille”, we would expel the communists, and I would do completely different things. But you know the latest history of Belarus: there was only a short-term thaw, just a few years - the end of "perestroika", the period of independence and until the moment this monster, whose name is Lukashenka, came to power.

Therefore, there was simply no way to evade, it’s because the situation in Belarus has always been critical. Now, when we are talking, it is simply catastrophic. Our country and our people have never been in such a situation in the last hundred years.

– You organized a lot of notable protests in the 90s. The closed Skaryna Avenue was among them. Then you protested against the attempts of Yeltsin and Lukashenka to create a “union state”. What was it like?

– At that time there was a certain democratization of the Russian Federation. In particular, there were various media that had a fairly large audience in Belarus. And in those days, two main pictures were broadcast: Lukashenka and Yeltsin signing something in Moscow, where the dictator even broke glasses of vodka for joy, and at the same time Minsk residents blocked the main Skaryna Avenue. This was done twice: in 1998 and 1999. We were holding the avenue for about half an hour.

We have shown not only the whole world, but above all the Belarusians, that independence is the highest value that must be upheld in any situation. And this influenced further events in Belarus.

– Looking at the years of resistance, what can Viachaslau Siuchyk be proud of?

– There are many reasons to be proud: the 1996 spring and a number of other campaigns that many have forgotten today, including the 1997 spring, which took place in very difficult conditions, but it still happened. Of course, this is the blocked avenue, which you just remembered.

The anti-Putin action was also quite important when he came up with his "flies and meatballs". When Putin arrived in Belarus for the first time after this statement, we demanded that he ask for forgiveness from the Belarusian people. Not only the whole world but also Belarusians saw it. Because at that time, Putin's gang had not yet privatized all the Moscow media.

And, of course, we can be most proud of the Kastus Kalinouski Square [protection of the tent city in the centre of Minsk in 2006 - Ed.] It was a miracle in a way. There were a lot of discussions after the events on how we should act then, what was done right and what was wrong. But these more than three days, which the island of freedom was held in the centre of Minsk, is a real Belarusian miracle. We protested in defiance of both Lukashenka's structures and Moscow's. For a number of factors, I can say that the Russian special services were involved in dispersing the Kastus Kalinouski Square.

— When in 2020 the Belarusian people took to the streets under white-red-white flags, did you feel continuity? After all, people like you have been carrying the national flag through the years.

— Sure. Moreover, I was always very unpleasant when they tried to oppose the so-called old opposition to those politicians who were born of this latest electoral farce, which took place during a global pandemic and in the conditions of the hybrid war of the Russian Federation against Belarus.

Lukashenka's lackeys were bandits back in the 20th century. Then the leaders of the Belarusian opposition were killed: Viktar Hanchar, Yury Zakharenka, Henadz Karpenka. The bandits headed by Lukashenka have not been held accountable for these crimes. But every person who came across this gang understood the pain of everyone who ended up in the concentration camp at Akrestsina and other concentration camps.

We are to be proud that the Belarusians in those conditions were capable of mass popular resistance. We should not forget about those hundreds of thousands and millions of citizens who marched under white-red-white flags not only in Minsk, not only in large cities but in almost all settlements of Belarus. Once again, the Belarusians reminded the world that there is Belarus and there are the Belarusian people.

Our country has turned into a concentration camp. However, the most important thing in this difficult situation is that the Belarusian national interest and Belarusian solidarity should not be just words or rhetorics, but be supported by all Belarusians. We still have extremely hard challenges ahead of us. The nation will be able to overcome it with fewer victims only after the unification of the Belarusian forces.

Once again, I draw your attention to the tragic 2020 events, when the opposition was replaced almost according to the Moscow plan. Unfortunately, little is said about this, but it is true. It should not be forgotten that today opposition leaders are in Lukashenka's prisons: Mikalai Statkevich, Pavel Seviarynets, Ryhor Kastusiou, leaders of the European Belarus Yauhen Afnahel and Maksim Viniarski, Henadz Drazdou one of the leaders of the well-known creative association Pahonia, Ales Pushkin, and a number of other public figures. We can name many names of heroic people.

It is also worth paying attention to the total Lukashenka's lies that he allegedly “does not fight with women.” We have real Belarusian heroines: Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk and Volha Zalatar. They were separated from their children and thrown into prison.

In 2021, we were preparing one of the actions of solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners and decided that one hundred names would be mentioned there. But the preparation for this action brought surprises even for me. It turned out that the lists of Belarusian political prisoners had not been properly structured by that time.

Another point: it turned out that I personally know more than a hundred political prisoners who were in Lukashenka's prisons at that time. It was very painful. We are all indebted to these people, because they, being in absolutely inhuman conditions, give hope to the entire Belarusian people, really fighting for the freedom of the whole country and the whole nation.

We must go in waves of Belarusian solidarity, because, unfortunately, there are a lot of political prisoners. The figures we know today are just the tip of the iceberg.

We should not forget the first steps of the Belarusian national liberation movement. The famous Kastus Kalinouski newspaper, which inspired the Belarusians, was called the Muzhytskaia Prauda (the People’s Truth) for a reason. It is important to tell the truth about the gang that, unfortunately, has been leading Belarus for a long time.

In 2020, it turned from a Lukashenka gang into a Lukashenka-Putin gang, because Moscow’s influence on law enforcement agencies grew precisely due to the events of that year. The tragedy that we face today became possible: the use of the territory of Belarus during the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Secondly, it is important to conduct those actions of solidarity that can still be carried out. Any support for political prisoners and their families is worth a lot because this is humanity, such things help people fight non-humans. The current regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka is absolutely inhuman. His power has a Chekist origin, a terrible origin that claimed tens of millions of lives in the 20th century, including Belarusians.

— Considering the current situation in Belarus, what can we hope for and what should we do to bring a free Belarus closer?

– We have to rely only on ourselves. It is a big mistake when someone hopes for some miracles outside the Belarusian people, despite a very tough situation. Whether we like it or not, Stalin's times have returned to Belarus.

You know that starting from August 9, 2020, and even earlier, throughout the summer of 2020, tortures in Lukashenka's prisons had been running on schedule. That repressive line does not stop. When Belarusians are arrested every day, every day in different parts of the country, punishers capture more and more Belarusians.

Only the resistance of the Belarusian people can save Belarus under these conditions.

I draw your attention to the fact that one of the most famous Belarusian political prisoners, one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition, Pavel Seviarynets, while still in Lukashenka's prison, managed to transfer his drawings to freedom. Thanks to this, a calendar for 2023 was published, which contains the slogan that every Belarusian needs today: “Belarus is Sacred”.

The Belarusian nation must be consolidated around our age-old slogans because we have the duty to fulfill the behest of Kastus Kalinouski, to fulfill the main political goal of the Belarusian people, so that it is the Belarusians who choose the power they want. We will be able to defeat this inhuman system that has been ruling our country for too long only through understanding that Belarus is our people.

— What do you think Belarus should look like in order to be able to say: “I have been fighting for such a country all my life”?

– The same as our predecessors saw it a hundred years ago and even earlier. We are Europeans, Belarusian culture and Belarusian history are European culture and European history. Therefore, our goal is the same as that of the previous generations of Belarusian revivalists: to make Belarus a free European and prosperous country. Despite all this Lukashenka gang, despite the terror that they directed against the Belarusian people, this is not just a dream - it will happen! And I really wish it was faster. The disease, which is called "Lukashenka", has taken a very long time.

Reference by Charter97.org

Viachaslau Siuchyk was born on December 18, 1962, in Minsk. Belarusian public and political figure, one of the founders of the Belarusian Popular Front Political Party and the leader of the Razam Solidarity Movement.

In 1984 he graduated from the Faculty of Geography of the Belarusian State University. He worked at the production association "Gruzmorberegozashchita", "Belarusgeologiya" and at the National Academy of Sciences. From 1998 to 2001 he was the editor-in-chief of the Kirmash bulletin.

He has been the chairman of the West Belarusian Center in Ukraine since 2011.

He is the initiator and organizer of street actions of the democratic opposition in various years including the Freedom Day and the Chornobyl Way. Repeatedly brought to criminal and administrative responsibility for this. One of the first political prisoners of the Lukashenka regime.

Coordinator of the Belarusian participants in the Ukrainian Orange Revolution (2004-2005). One of the organizers of the tent camp on October Square on March 20-24, 2006.

Married. Has two sons.

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