Belarusians Demand Not to Dismiss the Legendary Director of the Museum of History of Mahileu

More than 350 people have already supported these demands.

The Belarusians are going to defend the legendary director of the history of Mahileu, whom the officials decided to dismiss - they are collecting signatures under the petition. Officially, they simply do not renew the contract with Aliaksei Batsiukou. Unofficially, this is the expected reaction of officials to the fact that Batsiukou was fined for participating in three protests and that he and his team signed a letter demanding Lukashenka's resignation, tut.by writes.

A petition demanding "to stop pressure on the director of the Museum of History of Mahileu" was created by the ex-deputy of Aliaksei Batsiukou - Yauhen Balberau, who had previously resigned from the museum in protest against the repressions against his brother. Aliaksandr Balberau was fired from the regional art museum named after Maslenikov by a former official of the regional executive committee, and now the director of the museum, Alena Babrova.

The petition in support of Aliaksei Batsiukou specifies the requirements: to stop pressure on him, to extend the labor contract with Batsiukou as director of the museum, and also "to stop the persecution of cultural workers and pressure on civil society in Belarus."

More than 350 people have already supported these demands.

The author of the petition writes that the decision of the management - and the employer of the director of the Museum of History of Mahileu is the city executive committee - "is caused by the fact that Aliaksei Mikalayevich honestly and consistently defends his civic position and the free choice of the Belarusian people."

The petition lists the numerous achievements of Aliaksei Batsiukou during his 9 years as director of the Museum of History of Mahileu, including the fact that thanks to him, the museum was able to return to Belarus and replenish its collection with valuable artifacts, with donations from citizens and enterprises. Among them is the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was a unique event for the Belarusian culture.

Aliaksei Batsiukou, together with the well-known deputy Ihar Marzaliuk, participated in returning to Belarus of a 518-year-old knight's sword stolen in Mstsislaul, which, together with the armor of the owner of this weapon, is now on display at the Museum of History of Mahileu.

Recall that in September 2020, Aliaksei Batsiukou, together with six subordinates, signed an open letter condemning the "unmotivated brutality of law enforcement officers" and noted that "citizens do not feel safe." Among the demands was the resignation of Lukashenka.

In October 2020, Batsiukou was fined 621 rubles for participating in three protests.

Aliaksei Batsiukou told TUT.BY that he was invited to the Mahileu City Executive Committee to sign a notice of dismissal from office on January 6. The document was signed on January 4.

- It was funny there - they handed it over and asked: "Well, why don't you ask us [about the reasons]." I say: "What to ask, everything is clear." We agreed on that.

And the reasons for the non-extension of the contract were not given to him.

- They just nodded their heads up. And they said that there is nothing personal in this, said Aliaksei Mikalayevich.

And he added that he expected such a decision of officials.

The last working day of Batsiukou under the contract is February 16.