Alexievich: Our revolution has not won but we still have heroes (audio)

Belarusian Nobel Literature Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich spoke about Belarus in Stockholm. Part of her speech was in Belarusian. A banquet was organized at Stockholm Town Hall after Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden had awarded the prizes and diplomas.  Alexievich made a speech there.

The writers thanked the Swedish Academy for the award. People were dreaming about freedom during ‘the perestroika’ in the USSR in the second half of the 1980s but they found themselves in another spot of history, she said. Dictatorship is flourishing in post-Soviet states now – Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the writer noted. However, ‘we are slowly getting out of the debris of the red empire,” she added.

Alexievich dedicated part of her speech to Belarus. “I would like to speak about my country – Belarus,” the Nobel Prize laureate said. “Two young women approached me when I was leaving for Warsaw from a Minsk airport. They were crying: ‘Thank you, now everyone will know where Belarus is.’ I am bringing this ‘thank you’ to you now. Several generations have grown up since Belarus gained independence after the August Coup. Every generation had its own revolution. They came to the square because they wanted freedom. They were beaten, imprisoned, expelled from universities and fired from work. Our revolution has not won but we still have heroes. Freedom is not the quick achievement we dreamt about. It is a long way to go. Now we know it.”

Alexievich pronounced the final part of her speech in Belarusian. “I would like to speak Belarusian in the wonderful place. This is the language of my people,” she explained.

Here is the audio of Svetlana Alexievich’s full speech.