Svetlana Alexievich remained silent for a very long time. In late September, the creator left Belarus to obtain medical therapy in Berlin and he or she has obtained visits from members of the German authorities and the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. However she did not give any interviews. When information broke final week, although, of the younger man in Minsk who was overwhelmed to loss of life by safety forces, she made the choice to talk out.
Since summer season, 1000’s of demonstrators have been gathering commonly within the Belarusian capital for peaceable protests in opposition to the nation’s autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko. Forward of the sham election in August, he locked up vital opposition politicians, and afterward, the European Union and the USA accused the federal government in Minsk of perpetrating widespread election fraud and levied sanctions in opposition to the regime.
Alexievich, 72, is deeply apprehensive about her nation’s future. Each morning, she says, she receives emails that trigger her to interrupt down in tears. She reveals just a few to DER SPIEGEL. They embody stunning pictures of crushed and mutilated fingers and our bodies coated in bloody open wounds. They’re images of tortured prisoners from the jails of Belarus.
DER SPIEGEL: Ms. Alexievich, seven weeks in the past, you left your homeland of Belarus to obtain medical therapy in Berlin. How are you doing?
Alexievich: I endure from trigeminal neuralgia, a ache dysfunction in my face. However I can converse once more now, the nerve has calmed down. I am doing properly.
DER SPIEGEL: For a way lengthy are you planning on staying in Berlin?
Alexievich: Till Alexander Lukashenko is gone. What he’s doing is a disaster. Because the election fraud in August, 27,000 individuals have been incarcerated: scientists, professors, regular individuals, employees, college students. Folks from all walks of life. Lukashenko is destroying the nation.
DER SPIEGEL: Had been you in peril as properly?
Alexievich: I used to be a member of the Coordination Council of the opposition. To start with, there have been seven of us, however one-by-one, all of the others had been arrested, or they needed to flee the nation. Once I was the final one nonetheless in freedom, the concierge of the constructing the place I reside advised me: Watch out, do not go outdoors. There are individuals down there ready for you. So I requested buddies and journalists to return as much as my house in order that they would not dare come up. A number of ambassadors from European Union international locations additionally got here.
DER SPIEGEL: That sounds slightly dramatic.
Alexievich: Lukashenko does not care in regards to the functioning of society. Thus far, 50 medical doctors have been arrested, regardless of the dramatic coronavirus state of affairs and overflowing hospitals. There’s a famend heart specialist in Minsk who refused to fireside younger medical doctors who had taken half within the demonstrations and was fired because of this. Yesterday, I obtained a message that his vacation residence had been set on hearth. The perpetrators left behind a risk letter and a voodoo doll of him that had been stabbed by. All of Minsk is filled with masked particular forces who indiscriminately cease individuals and detain them. It is a hybrid civil warfare, with Lukashenko’s followers up in opposition to the opposite half of the inhabitants.
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Titelillustration: SAMSON / DER SPIEGEL
The article you’re studying initially appeared in German in challenge 48/2020 (November 21, 2020) of DER SPIEGEL.
DER SPIEGEL: Who’re his followers?
Alexievich: There are completely regular individuals within the inhabitants who assist him, perhaps as a result of they’re afraid of dropping one thing. Greater than something, although, he’s propped up by leftovers of the Soviet system. I used to be shocked myself by how shortly all the things returned, the key service strategies from the Stalin period. In World Battle II, we defeated fascism and developed an ingrained vaccine in opposition to it. However we have no drugs to guard us from the Gulag and Stalin. The outdated attitudes can apparently be reactivated at any time.
DER SPIEGEL: This summer season, you mentioned that you simply had fallen in love once more with the Belarusian individuals.
A demonstrator with a photograph exhibiting a sufferer of police brutality: “A small, proud nation is preventing in opposition to a loopy assassin.”
Foto: ITAR-TASS / imago pictures
Alexievich: I can bear in mind exactly the way it began, lengthy earlier than the election. In an effort to be acknowledged as a candidate for the presidential election, you should collect 100,000 signatures. At some point, after I was out buying at a market close to my residence, I could not consider my eyes: There was this line that was a minimum of 5 kilometers lengthy. They had been ready to signal for Viktor Babariko, who wished to run for president. Folks had traveled from far-off to take action. Anyone however Lukashenko, they mentioned. I not acknowledged my very own individuals.
DER SPIEGEL: Not lengthy later, Babariko was arrested and was by no means allowed to run for election.
Alexievich: Lukashenko had an important males who had been working within the election both arrested or pushed into exile. However the outcomes weren’t what he had been hoping for, as a result of their wives ran of their stead – and had been carried alongside by a brand new wave of enthusiasm. Wherever these ladies went, 1000’s of individuals confirmed as much as see them. The boys had been in jail and the ladies hit the marketing campaign path. That might have been unimaginable beforehand.
DER SPIEGEL: A ladies’s revolution.
Alexievich: Svetlana Tikhanovskaya ran instead of her husband; Veronika Tsepkalo ran for her husband Valery; Babariko’s spouse is deceased, so his marketing campaign supervisor Maria Kolesnikova ran on his behalf. Lukashenko does not actually know what to do with ladies and has often denigrated them. All that issues to him is who was within the military. He underestimated the ladies, till demonstrations in assist of the ladies unfold all the best way into the villages.
DER SPIEGEL: The place does the power of Belarusian ladies come from?
Alexievich: Ladies saved the nation collectively following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Males on the time had been usually despondent and began consuming. Ladies took enormous luggage to neighboring international locations and commenced promoting issues. The networks that resulted had been primarily made up of ladies. For me, it was unimaginable to see all these ladies on the demonstrations. I did not know that there have been so many lovely ladies in Belarus.
DER SPIEGEL: It shortly turned clear that the elections had been manipulated. How did you react?
Alexievich: The concept behind our Coordination Council was that of taking up energy with out violence and bloodshed. The demonstrations had been purported to be celebrations. That is why we introduced flowers alongside. We wished to offer them to the lads within the black masks. We wished them to appreciate that it was additionally their victory. In Belarus, we’ve at all times had the sensation of being left behind by historical past. Who needs to be the final Soviet republic in Europe? Immediately, issues had been altering. The protests had been just like the start of a brand new nation.
DER SPIEGEL: Lukashenko responded to the peaceable demonstrations with violence. Had been you too optimistic?
Alexievich: He and his individuals had been making ready for this example for a very long time. Tools had been stockpiled, individuals had been prepared and ready. And the shift got here shortly. Immediately, the atrocities had been in all places, photographs had been fired, teargas canisters had been flying. I reside in a excessive rise, and from my window, I might see the clouds of teargas floating over the town. I heard the noises, the bangs of the cartridges, the sirens. I needed to cry. After which we realized how individuals had been being handled within the prisons, how they had been being abused. That they had been disappearing. A few of these detained nonetheless have not reappeared to at the present time. That was the second large shock.
DER SPIEGEL: Who’re the individuals committing the atrocities?
Alexievich: They don’t seem to be skilled policemen. They’re individuals who have been tasked with placing down the revolt. And have been given permission to commit no matter cruelties they need. Younger males who the regime has outfitted with weapons and energy.
DER SPIEGEL: For a time, there have been rumors that safety personnel from Russia had been additionally concerned.
Alexievich: I believed so too. I could not think about that our individuals would assault their very own inhabitants with such brutality. However that is what occurred. Lukashenko apparently requested his present protection minister if he was ready to do no matter it took. There are additionally younger males who had been on the navy college and say they had been requested questions like: “Would you kill your individual mother and father to defend the nation?”
DER SPIEGEL: What’s going to occur subsequent?
Police and protesters in Minsk: “The demonstrations had been purported to be celebrations.”
Foto: Tatyana Zenkovich / epa EFE / Shutterstock
Alexievich: The opposition’s Coordination Council does not exist anymore. Its members are, or had been, in jail, they have been expelled from the nation or fled on their very own. There’s a new council, however the names of its members are being saved secret for their very own security. Communication takes place through social networks. However I’ve the sensation that folks within the West do not perceive what is occurring in Belarus. What we’re experiencing is brutal violence in opposition to harmless individuals. Prisons which can be overcrowded with individuals whose solely crime is having participated in demonstrations. Persons are systematically being debased. There’s often no water within the bogs and cells designed for 5 persons are filled with 35. Prisoners must sleep standing up for days, typically weeks. I solely know such tales from the Stalin period. An try is being made to systematically break individuals. I’ve seen numerous unhealthy issues in my nation, however I’m nonetheless horrified by what is occurring in Belarus. A small, proud nation is preventing in opposition to a loopy assassin, proper in the course of Europe! And the world is silent. What crimes have these individuals dedicated? They need new elections. They need the clearly falsified election outcomes to be annulled. And what does Lukashenko say? No, I will not surrender my beloved.
DER SPIEGEL: Does he actually say issues like that?
Alexievich: Sure, that is how he sees Belarus. But he has reworked the nation right into a focus camp. And in opposition to that background, I’ve to say: The sanctions aren’t sufficient.
DER SPIEGEL: What can the European Union do?
Alexievich: The EU sanctions are good, however removed from ample. The journey bans for vital authorities functionaries do not actually have an effect on them that a lot since their households can nonetheless journey. And Lukashenko has forbidden his prime officers from leaving the nation anyway. One factor that might be finished is to close Belarus out of the worldwide banking system. The oil trade is vital for the nation, so sanctions might be utilized there as properly. That might hit the economic system arduous. Lukashenko can be powerless in opposition to the protests that might then erupt. We wish a peaceable switch of energy, one thing that Lukashenko can not think about. He believes the workplace belongs to him.
DER SPIEGEL: He is not the one one proper now.
Alexievich: Sure, it seems to be contagious. However the U.S. is a big, vital nation with sturdy democratic establishments. Belarus is not. If issues maintain going as they’re, Lukashenko will defeat us.
DER SPIEGEL: You spoke earlier in regards to the start of a brand new nation. What sort of nation is it? Within the protest motion up to now, there have hardly been any voices calling for nearer ties to the West, in distinction to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, for instance.
Alexievich: That’s true. We want to the West. However these protests are centered on eliminating a dictator, not on the place we want to belong. The brand new Belarus seen final summer season is a democratic nation. The remaining will come later.
DER SPIEGEL: In the meanwhile, there appear to be two teams going through off. One is aggressive, whereas the opposite is the goal of that aggression. In the very best case, it is a stalemate.
Alexievich: If there may be an financial catastrophe and if the political prisoners are freed, we might find yourself at a degree the place one thing new might come up. It is potential that Russia would not enable a reorientation towards Europe, however even that might be acceptable to me proper now. Something can be higher than the present state of affairs.
DER SPIEGEL: And if that is not what occurs?
Alexievich: Lukashenko is able to something. I can think about the entire disintegration of the nation, chaos, a civil warfare.
DER SPIEGEL: What precisely do you imply?
Alexievich: Belarus proper now’s a rustic at arms. All potential models have been mobilized to crush the opposition. On prime of that’s the coronavirus pandemic. The outcome might be an uncontrollable wildfire. These new particular police forces are saved collectively by the blood they shed. They’re afraid of a brand new authorities due to the retribution they might count on. The culpability that they’ve amassed within the final a number of months is a good bond that binds these younger males collectively.
DER SPIEGEL: Do you discover it tough to be right here in Berlin at a time when your nation’s future is being determined?
Alexievich: If I had been despatched to jail, I would not be doing practically as properly with my sickness. I can not do something extra in the intervening time.
DER SPIEGEL: What about you? Would you be ready to tackle the function of transitional president?
Alexievich: I’ve heard that rather a lot, however by no means critically considered it. I’m a author, not a politician. For politics, you want a distinct set of expertise that I do not possess.
DER SPIEGEL: You are not the one vital opposition determine from the Russian talking world who’s presently in Berlin. Are you in contact with Alexei Navalny?
Alexievich: No.
DER SPIEGEL: What about to different members of the Russian opposition?
Alexievich: Over the summer season, I despatched round an enchantment to the Russian intelligentsia. “A individuals is being destroyed earlier than your eyes. Why are you silent?” Ten individuals responded, brave democrats. However solely 10.
DER SPIEGEL: How do you clarify that?
Alexievich: The sensation that the encompassing international locations truly belong to the Russian empire is deeply rooted within the Russian individuals.
DER SPIEGEL: There’s unrest in lots of locations on the Russian periphery: Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia. Why now, three a long time after the collapse of the Soviet Union?
Alexievich: The empire has weakened and the communist elite is slowly dying out in all places. Now, those that need energy are preventing one another. It’s a enormous kettle inside which all the things is simmering: outdated communists, new capitalists.
DER SPIEGEL: In the beginning of our interview, you mentioned can be staying in Berlin for so long as Lukashenko is in energy. Do you assume it is possible for you to to return any time quickly?
Alexievich: In some way, I’ve the sensation that it will not take for much longer. I do not assume Lukashenko will be capable to suppress the individuals’s vitality endlessly. His time has run out. However it is going to solely occur if the worldwide group involves our help.
DER SPIEGEL: Ms. Alexievich, we thanks for this interview.
