Stanislau Shushkevich Celebrates His 85th Birthday!

Our congratulations to the first leader of independent Belarus.

Stanislau Shushkevich contributed to the fall of the “empire of evil”. Belarus became an independent state with its own army, currency and national symbols.

Stanislau Shushkevich has been in opposition to Lukashenka for the years of the dictatorship. He is one of the most honest and principled politicians in the country.

The website Charter97.org gives the floor to the hero of the day to hear what he finds most important in his life.

HOW KAROL WOJTYLA MADE EVERYTHING CLEAR TO ME

My childhood has the greatest influence on my life. It was the time of Stalin's purges and then the German occupation. I was raised as a Soviet boy, though my father was exiled to Siberia.

Mother never emphasized it for obvious reasons. I was lucky to have good teachers, clever classmates and neighbours. They were decent, simple and fair people. My grandmother was a great philosopher. She didn't have education but gave me the wisest advice. For example, she said: it's easy to find something bad in anyone, but you should look for something good and rejoice when you find it.

I began to understand slowly what the Soviet regime is. Everything appeared to be completely clear in 1974, when I worked at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow as part of an exchange programme. I was strolling the streets on the Feast of Corpus Christi and heard four sermons by Karol Wojtyla. This man made everything clear to me. I even felt fear for him. What if he is arrested for absolutely anti-Soviet words? I came to Minsk, but I didn't dare say honestly what I thought. I admired Wojtyla's words and his bravery. I learnt in four years that he became Pope.

I became engaged in politics as a result of my friends' joke. I didn't want to do any political work. I was a physicist and the head of a department at the university. I didn't need anything else. I was the time of the “perestroika”. We had plenty of elections. All USSR people's deputies were elected, but the elections in our constituency were declared invalid. My friends told me: “We have a meeting tomorrow. Promise that you won't withdraw yourself. We don't want inappropriate people to be elected.” I promised. Party officials were shocked. They expected that I would refuse to run in the elections as usual. They had praised me before that incident, but now they began to vilify and revile me. I won the elections. That's how my political career began.

THE BELAVEZHA ACCORDS ARE MY MAIN ACHIEVEMENT

I am happy that I helped unfairly convicted people when I was a people's deputy. I made appeals to the USSSR General Prosecutor's Office. Believe it or not, but most decisions were made in favour of the convicted people.

I think the Belavezha Accords that I signed have incredible importance. The Soviet Union collapsed, and Russia recognized the independence of Belarus.

As for the nuclear disarmament, it was influenced by my education as a physicist. I knew that Belarus was the world leader in nuclear weapons per capita and per unit area. We were the most nuclear country in the world, but we also were a hostage of Russia. All weapons was on the surface. The weapons that posed a threat to Europe would have been destroyed in case of any conflict. The probability of delivering a strike on our country was very high. It would have destroyed the entire Belarusian nation.

My personal achievement is that I never obeyed indecent people. I never do it. I chose not to defend my doctoral thesis in Belarus, because I didn't want to please then president of the BSSR Academy of Science Mikalai Barysavich. I defended the thesis in Moscow, at the Russian Research Institute for Opticophysical Measurements. There was a very strong board, consisting of three Nobel Prize winners, the most prominent Soviet scientists and researches. I defended my theses. It is also my achievement.

I ADMIRE BERNARD SHAW, ANTON CHEKHOV AND WINSTON CHURCHILL

Let's speak about the people I idolise. I have always admired Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill. I like aphorisms of the former and aphoristic sayings of the latter. I don't like long books, so my favourite writer is Anton Chekhov. I often reread him with pleasure.

There are many people, also political figures, that I like, for instance, US president George Bush senior, president of Finland Mauno Koivisto, president of France Charles de Gaulle. They did a lot for their countries.

I am a supporter of Boris Yeltsin. I respected and respect him now. I liked Boris for one simple reason. He wasn't hypocritical. He was a real democrat and fighter for human rights. Yes, Yeltsin made mistakes, for example with the Chechen wars, but he admitted his mistakes. Unlike some Soviet politicians, he was an intellectual.

LUKASHENKA IS STUPID BUT VERY CUNNING

I was disappointed in Viachaslau Kebichb. He and I could have done a lot for Belarus. But he was so hypocritical. He said one thing but did another. I must admit that he insinuated himself into my confidence.

I was disappointed in Mikhail Gorbachev after his attempts to hide the Chernobyl accident. I used to idolize him, but when he said on the television in 1986 that everything was fine, I took against him. But he deserves a monument for allowing Germany to reunite.

By the way, I wasn't disappointed in Aliaksandr Lukashenka. I have never considered him to be a decent person. It is the greatest ignorance to say such a blatant lie, to say that Bykau wrote poetry and that nuclear waste allows making a nuclear bomb in Belarus. He has his hands in blood. He ordered to shoot peaceful balloonists and ordered to execute people immediately though the situation was not completely clear. He put the people of Belarus into an atmosphere of fear. He is a stupid person of primitive thinking but he is very cunning. He adapts to people like him in Belarus and Russia.

I WASN'T BRAVE ENOUGH TO BE A DISSIDENT

Conscience is the most important principle in life.

The worst thing I did in my life is that I didn't protest against obviously mean things of the Soviet authorities. The worst thing I did is that I was silent. I admit that I wasn't brave enough to be a dissident. I couldn't do what Sergei Kovalev and Valeria Novodvorskaya did.

I tried to work honestly. I never violated law and didn't call to bypass laws, the thing that we can see today everywhere, including Lukashenka's so called “elections” and “referendums”. I didn't want to enjoy my personal power and strengthen it because I wanted to work for my country, not for myself.

I cannot stand meanness, lie and stupidity. In my opinion, every normal person has the same views.

I AM HAPPY WHEN PEOPLE UNDERSTAND ME CORRECTLY

I am happy when people understand me correctly, when they don't have suspicions that I say one thing and do another. I noticed that these suspicions, especially in politics, are sometimes artificial. I am a happy man.

I am happy if I can help someone. I was once walking down the street when I wasn't the chairman of the Supreme Council anymore, and a woman ran up to me and began to hug. She said: “Thank you for your help. I survived because you had given me a flat.” But I didn't have power to give flats to people. I even couldn't choose my assistant independently without the consent of the higher instance. It turned out that I wrote instructions to the head of the Minsk authorities asking to sort out the situation and decisions on the piles of appeals that I received. “Sort it out” – it was my strictest instruction. I relied on conscience of officials, but it turned out that people took it as a direct command.

I am proud of the department of nuclear physics at the Belarusian State University, because we were guided by scientific principles. Professors and students were taken equally at seminars. I used my own method at exams. I didn't torture the students who studied really hard. I learnt this method in Poland. Many students are still grateful. I receive invitations to reunions every year.

ADVICE TO GRANDCHILDREN

Do so that your children and grandchildren can be proud of you. Or at least that they cannot be ashamed of you. I advise just one thing to my son, daughter and granddaughter: “You should be able to explain clearly why you did so.”

I'D LIKE TO SEE BELARUS A FREE EUROPEAN COUNTRY

- All my birthdays I celebrate with my family. Only once my birthday was celebrated out of house. It was organized by my greatest friends Aleh Bebenin, Andrei Sannikov, Zmitser Bandarenka, Natallia Radzina. I celebrated my 75th birthday.

I will be glad to see how your wishes about my 100th birthday come true. I’d like to see Belarus free European country.

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