Mikalai Statkevich: Belarusians Deserved Independence By Struggle Of Generations

A politician shared memories about events how Belarus became independent.

The politician, former political prisoner and former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich stated that in an interview to Radio Svaboda. He is the only military man who publicly spoke against Moscow coup on August 20, 1990. He also is the establisher of the Belarusian Union of Military Men and one of initiators of the first Belarusian military oath. - You served in the Murmansk region in Soviet times.

Now you are the one of persons due to whom Belarusian soldiers do not serve abroad. Do you think the Soviet Union could exist now? And who would be Mikalai Statkevich then?

- Everything could be possible. But I would not have been an ordinary Soviet officer, because there was a publicity and an alternative information became available. I was a Belarusian and knew my origins. I even had books in Belarusian when I served in the army. I was a successful officer. At the time of the coup I was colonel and person working for degree of doctor...

- But you had already left the Communist party in protest against events in Vilnius...

- Yes. But there was no turning back. If the Soviet Union survived, as well as the Communist Party, I would have kicked out of the army in the autumn of 1991 ...

- Could you become a political prisoner then?

- Yes, I could. I was prepared to it. When the State Committee on the State of Emergency was established the minimum objective was set - to take a public action for future generations to make it a history and a contribution to future independence, the maximum task was to try to prevent... First, on August 19 all the opposition leaders gathered in the Bogdanovich house-museum, the Belarusian Popular Front was in charge.

I stated that the establishment of the Belarusian Military Organization was required the next day (we planned to do it in the autumn). I said that we did not know what would happen in a few days, but that step needed to be done, because that was an important symbolic step. This organization involved mostly reservists, who were in different parties ...

In the morning of August 20 we met in a room of the BSU.

Viktar Ivashkevich and Henadz Bankevich represented the BPF, there were military men from the Peasant's Party and Social-Democratic Party... We announced the establishent of the Belarusian Union of Military Men and its objective - independence and the creation of the Belarusian army. We also addressed the Belarusian Military District calling them not to follow orders of the SCSE and do not shoot people ...

I managed to perform on the Belarusian radio. It was a music program. Vital Semashka joined the BPF and offered me to do it. I agreed, and we went on the radio on the Krasnaya Street and recorded my appeal. It was recorded three times. It was really hard to do, everyone was nervous. But we succeeded...

- 19 years later you shot a presidential candidate's video and urged: "Make our elections back.: Give us back what has been stolen." Was the personnel nervous?

- No.

- They were friendly.

- Participants of the independence movement had a different opinion on whether the independence was conquered, or dropped from the skies. Mikhail Chyhir, for example, believes that it dropped from the sky. Zenon Pozniak believes that this is the result of the struggle of generations of Belarusians. Your version…

- It is complex…Belarusians have deserved independence by struggle of generations, but at that particular moment the independence dropped from the sky. The Soviet Union just collapsed. I highly appreciate the role of the BPF's opposition deputies in the Supreme Council, but, if there was no such role, we would not have become independent on August 25, and possibly did it on 28 August as there were no other options. There was no government. You may live the way you like. Let me remind you that according to polls, the third of Belarusians stood for independence, other third was against it, and the rest, as always, did not care...