When referring to Belarus, the international news headlines speak of the country mostly as a security threat and a military polygon of Russia. The Belarusian opposition is frequently depicted as divided and the nation's identity – as fragile. Unfortunately, too little attention has been granted to the Belarusian diaspora in Europe, particularly in Latvia. This diaspora has grown in response to the contested presidential elections of August 2020 and the subsequent violent crackdown on public protests. The discussion "Life in Parallel: Experience of the Other Belarus” brought together representatives and allies from the historical and current Belarusian diaspora in Latvia. The aim of the discussion was to grant an insight into the lived experience of a nation that has lost its homeland to a oppressive authoritarian regime. We spoke about the different resistance strategies of the Belarusian diaspora, their understanding of homeland, identity, and their hopes for the future of Belarus.
Participants: Lizaveta Dubinka-Hushcha (Лізавета Дубинко-Гуща), Nasta Zakharevicha (Наста Захарэвіч), Anna Ivane. The discussion was moderated by Elizabete Vizgunova-Vikmane.
Elizabete Vizgunova-Vikmane is a researcher at the Latvian Institute of International Affairs and a journalist at TVNET Group. She is currently pursuing her PhD at Rīga Stradiņš University, where she is also a visiting lecturer. Since June 2022, she is the coordinator of the Belarus Research Network for Neighborhood Policy.
Dr Lizaveta Dubinka-Hushcha (Лізавета Дубiнкa-Гушча) is a historian and political scientist of Belarusian origin who studied and has lived in Denmark since 2001. She is the scientific editor of the Belarus Research Network for Neighborhood Policy on behalf of the Danish Foreign Policy Society. Lizaveta was appointed as the Regional Director of the Danish Cultural Institute (DCI) in the Baltic states and the Baltic Sea Region in June 2023 and is the head of the DCI office in Riga.
Nasta Zakharevich (Наста Захарэвіч) is a Belarusian independent journalist and refugee in Latvia. She was covering protests in Minsk in 2020, was sentenced twice for that and had to flee her country to avoid illegal and unfair criminal prosecution. She's been living in Riga since December 2020 and continues writing about Belarus for international media raising awareness about political prisoners and various forms of repression in Belarus.
Anna Ivane was born in Belarus and graduated from the Belarusian State University (Faculty of Philology) in 1986. In 1986 she got married and came to Latvia with her husband. Since 1995 she has been working at the Janka Kupala Primary Belarusian School in Riga as a deputy headmistress and Belarusian language teacher. From 2002 to 2018 she was the headmistress of the school.
The discussion was organised in cooperation and dialogue with the association "FreeBelarus", which works with the Belarusian refugee community that arrived in Latvia after the 2020 protests, providing day-to-day integration support, helping to understand the principles of civil society, providing insight into Latvian political life and practical assistance in organising events.
“FreeBelarus” was founded in early 2022 by activists who came together in August 2020 after the presidential "elections" in Belarus and created the Twitter account @free_Belarus_lv. For three years, volunteers have been reporting on the latest developments in Belarus in Latvian every day, following different news sources, opinion leaders and political decisions.
The event was part of the "Collective Community Movement" project. The project is implemented by the LCCA in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut in Riga and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany.