Maksim Viniarski: We Need To Bring Down Three Key Pillars Of Colonial Policy

The leader of Belarus today is a Russian official.

This was stated by coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign MaKSim VinIarski as he spoke at the conference “Belarusian intelligentsia in support of the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church”. The press-center of the Belarusian National Congress cites the text of his speech:

- Still very young, from time to time I came to the village of my grandmother, the mother of my father. I saw her praying, as she herself said, “in Polish”. The second grandmother, who lived in Minsk, prayed differently, as she said, “in Russian”. And I just couldn’t understand why both Belarusians pray in different ways, why they spoke about it that way, why they don’t pray in Belarusian? Time passed, and from the history of my people, I perfectly understood why it happened. I learned how strangers destroyed our church before taking our homes. How our ancestors died for the freedom of their country with different prayers on their lips. Catholics, Orthodoxies, Uniates. Belarusians were again and again forced to choose either this or that, not allowing anything to take root. For the neighbors from the East, this has even become state policy, which is embodied in the famous phrase:

“What the Russian bayonet fails to finish, the Russian official, the Russian school and the Russian priest will do”.

We all know who, when and under what conditions said this phrase. It was the main message of Moscow’s policy towards our country.This phrase guided the thoughts and actions of both the Russian tsars and the communist leaders. The result is well remembered by those who lived during the late Soviet Union. Then there was a feeling that in another decade Belarus will have to bid farewell to the dreams of independence.

But it happened differently. Belarus has become, at least for a while, an independent state. Formally, we have not lost sovereignty now, but every day, at every step, we stand against the continuation of the same policy. Belarusian children go to a Russian school, to a Russian university. A Russian official today is the head of the colonial occupation administration in Belarus. We go to pray in the Russian Orthodox Church.

The struggle for the freedom of our country was inextricably linked with the struggle against these three pillars of colonial policy. Building a national church is one of the most important. This was understood by the Lithuanian princes when they achieved the creation of the Novogrudok diocese. This was understood by the patriots in the beginning of the last century, when they tried to establish autocephaly in the harsh and adverse conditions. We understand this - those who are fighting for freedom today.

The Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the main pillars on which the future independent Belarusian state will be built. I believe that it will be built on the foundation laid here today.

Long Live Belarus!