Kovshik talks about the initiatives and plans for 2023, which she proposed to declare the year of the Belarusian language, tells when she started speaking Belarusian herself, and explains why the Belarusian language is not only a weapon, but also a defense.

Here are fragments of the interview

- During the trial, the Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski and his colleagues from the Human Rights Center "Viasna" petitioned for the trial to be conducted in Belarusian.

They were denied this.

The next request was to invite an interpreter to the trial - again refused.

Why is it not only a question of language?

- This is absolutely not just a question of language.

This is a question of uncompromisingness, steadfastness and demonstration of one's position.

Ales Bialiatski and his associates, who are being tried by the Lukashenka authorities absolutely illegally, express their disagreement with the lack of law in Belarus through the Belarusian language.

And the fact that the authorities are unable to satisfy the request to conduct records and courts in Belarusian, one of the state languages, is an indicator that today our country is under occupation, including linguistic occupation.

I want to express my sincere admiration for "springmen", people thanks to whom we really believe that spring will come.

Because if Belarus has such honest people, such giants, who so persistently defend their principled positions, for which they fight all their lives, it means that we have an opportunity to win, and we, the free people, should not give up .

"Today language is our weapon"

— Alina, you proposed to declare 2023 as the year of the Belarusian language.

I would like to start our conversation a little from afar, from Dziadov 2013, when at a rally one of the heads of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of Ukraine Yuras Belenki said the following: "

Then it caused a great reaction, and not everyone agreed with Mr. Belenky.

How would you comment on this call now?

- This statement is very strong.

If we look at it from the point of view of today, when the Russian word has actually turned into a weapon, with which Ukrainians are really shot - by the way, and Belarusians who are fighting on the side of Ukrainians.

We see that the Russian empire does not stop at words, it is about complete enslavement, destruction of the Ukrainian nation and the Belarusian nation.

That's why I'm not afraid of this word.

There is a war going on in Ukraine, and an occupation is going on in Belarus.

We see how the Kremlin does not stop in its desire to have these lands for itself.

But we, the citizens of these countries, show our disagreement with someone else deciding our fate.

Our fate depends on us, the Belarusians showed it in 2020.

And Belarusians do not stop fighting.

What Yuras Belenki said in 2013 was actually said by our giants of Belarusian thought much earlier.

Even in the 16th century, when Lev Sapega spoke about the fact that our laws are not written in a foreign language, but in our own, and we will respond to any offense with our own laws.

The importance of the native language was understood by our thinkers from the very beginning.

This means that today language is our weapon, it shows our difference, originality, the value of our entire history, the fact that the next generation should remain Belarusians, not Russians, as the Kremlin is trying to do.

- In 2023, how would you paraphrase the famous words of the Russian empress Catherine, who said: "What the Russian bayonet did not do, the Russian priest, the Russian official, and the Russian school will finish"?

What ingredient would you add, remove, or leave unchanged?

- This formula worked for quite a long time and meaningfully in the service of the Russian Empire.

Today, I would add Russian television to this phrase, which is a machine of propaganda, changing people's consciousness.

We see how the Ukrainians struggled with this by turning off Russian TV channels.

Unfortunately, Russian television is available in Belarus.

And what's more, the Belarusian state television also performs the functions of Russian propaganda.

They change the narratives a little, but mostly they are very similar.

In the 21st century, information weapons, information war, play no less a role than real weapons, than those Russian officials, and even more than the Russian Orthodox Church.

• Anna Sous

  Radio Svaboda journalist

  Editor of the "Only women" community on Facebook 

  sousa@rferl.org

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