Svetlana Alexievich: An empire doesn't crumble overnight, the road to freedom is thorny
Svetlana Alexievich, Belarusian writer and journalist, Nobel Prize winner, author of “War Has No Woman’s Face,” commented on the events in Ukraine for Belsat TV channel and Gazeta Wyborcza.
Svetlana Alexievich believes that the fight for freedom, in any case, leads to the victory of light over darkness. But the way to this is quite long and challenging, said the Belarusian writer and journalist, Nobel laureate, in a commentary to Belsat and Gazeta Wyborcza.
“Ukraine is an example of courage for us today. It shows that you can keep going and fighting to the end. And it is done not by one person, not two or even a few hundred, but by a whole nation. This makes a great impression on everyone, including the Belarusians and Russians who are in a lethargic sleep.
I am sure that Ukrainians will never surrender. There is a lot of evidence testimonies of ordinary people. A report touched me I saw on TV when a Ukrainian said: “Let it be a year from now, twenty years from now, but we will drive them off our land.” Ukrainians will fight to the end. We must follow the example of Ukraine.
I also think today about the Belarusians, who I fell in love with again in the summer of 2020. And I think how sad it is that our nations have endured two great misfortunes in the form of Vladimir Putin and Alyaksandr Lukashenka. We have to deal with them all the time. Someday we will be free of them, even if not as quickly as we would like.
We have been isolated for years in an aquarium. It’s like someone has lived in a labor camp all his life, and when they get out of it, they are supposed to be a free person right away. After all, they don’t even know how freedom is to live as a free person. We have no experience of democracy. It takes a long time to break out of the yoke. An empire does not crumble overnight; the road to freedom is thorny.
