Granddaughter Of Stanislau Shushkevich: Authorities Are Afraid Even Of Memory Of First Head Of Independent Belarus

But Belarusians will always honor him.

Even after the death of the first head of independent Belarus, Stanislau Shushkevich, the authorities do not allow them to honor him properly. His relatives tell about it in the "Tok" film.

Stanislau Shushkevich's granddaughter Stasia Hlinnik describes what brought her grandfather down.

"I think he would have lived much longer, but it just happened that his cousin died a few years ago and his sister died at the funeral. Within three days he lost two people close to him. And after that his condition began to deteriorate. He was very attached to close people, he was a very empathic person", Stasia shares.

Shushkevich frequently got to the hospital.

"He was leaving for about a month and a half. And I understood that it was almost the end, when for the first time in his life my grandfather complained about how he was feeling. For even when he was ill, he always said he was fine.

We were talking, it was one of the last times, and he said, as he had never said in his life, "Remember that I did everything I could for Belarus". I realized it was such a summing up. He went back into hospital after that conversation, then he was out again, was home and spent his last days there.

It was strange for me to see the pictures from the interview where he had lost weight, to me Granddad was always a strong man. And I think he was disgusted with himself that he was weak, it caused him internal resistance. He had been in charge all his life, he had solved the family's and the country's problems. And the state when he could not do anything was unbearable for him. When he could no longer get up, he asked me to bring him a carrot to peel it.

And it was already clear that it was the end, when he asked the priest to come," the granddaughter says.

Lots of academicians, famous persons of art and officials were buried in the Eastern cemetery. The authorities did not offer Shushkevich a place there. The first head of independent Belarus was buried in the Paunochnyja cemetery, next to his mother and other relatives. But even there, they didn't offer a normal place for him.

"The burial place is the only place next to the fence. And now they won't let us buy the space next to it - we were thinking of putting a bench there, so we could come and sit," Stasia Hlinnik notes. "That will change - the memory of Granddad is forever, but of Lukashenka is not."