Dziyana Mikulskaya: Believe And Do

What did the Charter’97, the People’s University and the newspaper Rabochy have in common?

Dziyana Mikulskaya, a democratic activist, the former executive director of the newspaper Rabochy and the ally of one of the founders of the civil initiative Charter’97 Viktar Ivashkevich, has told about this to the website Charter97.org.

— Dziyana, let us recall how the civil initiative Charter’97 started 20 years ago. The Charter worked in the office of the Free Trade Union for the first several months, where the editor’s office of the legendary newspaper Rabochy was also located, right?

— Yes, it all started in our office! The founders of the Charter came to us, to the editor’s office of Rabochy, I remember them sitting with the editor-in-chief Viktar Ivashkevich, discussing plans, they took the decision to create such an initiative. All of us signed the Charter document back then, and all the work was done in our office first. Of course it was a very important event for us. We compared our Charter with the Charter that was signed in 1977 in Czechoslovakia, and we had great expectations. We wanted to do something very important, very good, which then, in fact, it turned out.

There was a sense of change. It seemed to us then that even a little bit more and we will win. I often think about this now, I remember how we hoped that a little more effort will finish everything...

— The Charter also founded the People’s University. You took an active part in this project also, right?

— Yes. The People’s University was a good program. It worked for about 9 years. The leaders of this university were Andrei Sannikov and Yury Khadyka. The university worked throughout Belarus and was very successful. Great halls were assembled for lectures that were given by our people. We attracted very good staff and travelled across the country every weekend.

I myself was the secretary of the People's University, we cooperated with the BPF structures, which organized premises and lectures of our teachers locally. Many people attended, many young people. They shared their impressions that they liked the level of teaching, and they learned a lot. Therefore, it was a very good educational program, which everyone liked.

I myself remember how I went to Maladechna. We were able to assemble a hall in the city

council there, about 200 people came, and they listened to lectures on Saturday morning, no one left. It is a pity that now there is no such People's University.

— Do you remember how Viktar Ivashkevich took the creation of the Charter?

— Victar was so enthusiastic! He was generally a great optimist. He never believed that "everything was lost." He was not like that.

Victar participated in the work of the Charter with great pleasure and great joy, he believed that this would change everything.

Huge thanks to the website Charter97.org for the fact that the National Human Rights Award is named after Victar Ivashkevich. This is a very good memory of him. I think that Victar is worthy of such a prize. He did a lot, was one of the first signers of the Charter.

— You recall that you believed back in 1997 that the situation in Belarus would change for the better soon. Do you believe this now?

— It’s not worth living without such belief. The situation has changed, of course. However, I still participate in everything, in street actions. Surely, not in the forefront, like once with Viktar, but if we stop doing this, stop coming out to hold street actions — what will happen? We need to believe and do.