Halina Sinitsyna: Our efforts were not enough since USSR is still here
One of the participants of Orsha anti-SCSE picket describes the historic events on the 20th anniversary of the August coup d’etat.
A group of conspirators from the higher echelon of the government created a military clique called the State Committee of the State of Emergency and tried to introduce a state of emergency on the territory of the USSR 20 years ago. However, people went out to the streets in all the republics of the dying USSR to express their protest. There were four of them in Orsha, Belarus – Halina Sinitsyna, Zmitser Dzyadzenka and Alena and Yuras Stsyapanaus.
Euroradio has interviewed Ms. Halina 20 year later.
Euroradio: How did it happen?
Halina Sinitsyna: I was not alone there. It was a period of enthusiasm, there was a group of us – we were waiting for changes. And then the SCSE appeared. We wanted to resist it somehow as everything was stagnant at that moment. We made a huge stand – 3x2m - and it contained the latest reports from Moscow and Minsk and handwritten Radio Liberty news. It was like an impulse, we did not want to feel like cattle that could be made to do anything.
Euroradio: How many people joined you?
Halina Sinitsyna: “Zmitser Dzyadzenka, a famous Belarusian essayist, poet and bard. He was a BSU student back then. We went out and our friends were watching us. When they arrested us, our friends started shouting it from the housetops, they even informed Radio Liberty about it so that it would not remain unnoticed. They detained only two of us, but there were two or three people more – the Stsyapanaus. They were very severe when they detained us. However, they noticed the changes later and it was clear that the members of special police troops did not know what to do with us. We felt that nothing bad would happen to us. We spent 3 or 4 hours in the police office.
Euroradio: Were you released on the same day?
Halina Sinitsyna: It was on August 21 and Moscow events suggested what had to be done about us. We were released. We received our belongings, the flag and the stand the following day. By the way, Orsha authorities had agreed not to detain us – we were detained by Vitsebsk special police troops.
Euroradio: Did people take part in similar pickets in other cities?
Halina Sinitsyna: Ihar Tsishkin organized something in Vitsebsk. The local SCSE was located there and their leader threatened them with Tsishkin. I do not know anything else about it.
Euroradio: What did you do after the picket?
Halina Sinitsyna: I joined the revival movement after the manifestation to Kurapaty with Zyanon Pazpyak. “Povyaz” was created in Orsha later and we studied the Belarusian literature and history. Mikola Yermalovich visited us. One of my pupils saw the white-red-white flag being replaced and it impressed him so much that he also joined us… Our efforts were not enough since the Soviet Union is still here”.
