Six Years Ago, A Revolution Began In Belarus
5- 9.08.2026, 8:09
- 3,146
Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets.
August 9, 2020, marked a turning point in Belarus’s recent history. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets not only in Minsk, but in virtually every Belarusian city and even small towns, to demand change in the country and protest against election fraud.
After the mass protests began, Lukashenko shut down the internet for three days. Security forces displayed unprecedented brutality on the streets and in detention centers—on Okrestina Street in Minsk, in Zhodino, in Baranovichi—across the entire country.
After those three days, Lukashenko’s supporters disappeared from the streets. While the protesters initially demanded fair presidential elections, the atrocities committed by the security forces of Lukashenko’s regime demonstrated the need to dismantle the entire system. On August 16, the largest protest rally took place in Minsk, drawing, according to various estimates, up to 500,000 protesters. Across the country, more than 1 million people took to the streets. Even villages joined the protests.
The European Union did not recognize the results of the presidential election in Belarus. Foreign exit polls reported that Lukashenko received only 10.9%, while Svetlana Tikhanovskaya received 71.28%.
According to estimates by human rights and research organizations, up to 500,000 people have left Belarus since 2020, including a significant number of IT specialists and professionals.
The revolution continues
The Belarusian people have not given up and refuse to accept dictatorship: there is a constant stream of new political cases, emigration continues unabated, and Belarusians’ need for independent media is growing.
Experts agree that the Belarusian revolution is ongoing, and that change in our country is only a matter of time:
“Lukashenko continues to be terrified of his own people. All of them—the officials and generals, the KGB agents and OMON officers—know that at the first opportunity, the people will send their regime to hell. And Lukashenko and Putin won’t be able to hide behind their decrepit old grandfathers”, — believes the editor-in-chief of the website Charter97.org Natalia Radina.
“2020 was truly a landmark year. It showed that we are capable of great things. It showed the whole world that Belarus will not return to either the ‘Soviet era’ or a ‘union with Russia.’ It showed that Russia is the enemy. The enemy of everything constructive happening on the territory of the former Soviet Union—and not only there, but in Europe as well. In 2020, we gained invaluable experience in the struggle. And I am certain: this struggle will end in our victory. I have no doubt about that,”, — says in an interview with the website Charter97.org the leader of the “European Belarus” civic campaign Andrei Sannikov.
“Remember what happened in 2020; believe in yourselves and in our people. In 2019, on the eve of the ‘elections,’ someone said: ‘There won’t be any protests; nobody cares; nothing will change.’ Some people are saying the same thing now. But we all saw what happened in 2020; we finally got a taste of freedom. The processes that began then are irreversible. Belarus is part of Europe. We have allies; we have heroes—everyone who took to the streets in 2020, everyone who is currently in prison, everyone who is defending Belarus and all of Europe in Ukraine, and everyone who is helping us. There are many of us; we have become stronger and wiser”, — says one of the leaders of the 2020 revolution, former political prisoner, and coordinator of “European Belarus” Yevgeny Afnagel.
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