Фото: t.me/CabinetBelarus
Belarusian historian Aliaksandr Smalianchuk has received a joint award from the Poland–Lithuania Cooperation and Dialogue Forum and the Jerzy Giedroyc Dialogue and Cooperation Forum for his contributions to history and collective memory.
During the award ceremony, the Belarusian scholar said that he views the honor as recognition of the work of those Belarusian historians who have been forced to leave their country, where, in his words, there is currently no freedom of academic research and where scholars face the threat of repression.
“Please do not forget about Belarus, which is fighting, living, and will live. Long live Belarus!” Smalianchuk said at the end of his speech.
Previously, the award had been presented exclusively to cultural and public figures from Poland and Lithuania, and since 2022 to representatives from Ukraine. This year, for the first time, it has been extended to representatives of the Belarusian democratic civil society and movement.
The ceremony was attended by Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet and Lech Wałęsa Solidarity Prize laureate Pavel Latushka, as well as representatives of Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture, the Lithuanian ambassador to Poland, the leadership of cultural institutions in Poland and Lithuania, and cultural figures.
In his speech, Pavel Latushka emphasized that extending the award to Belarusian scholars at a difficult moment for the country is a signal of Belarus’s European identity.
“We understand that as long as Belarus remains in the hands of a dictator, the security of the entire region will be under threat. But Belarus is not Lukashenka. Belarus is a people who in 2020 made an irreversible European choice. We are the heirs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Our intellectual code is freedom. Thank you to Poland and Lithuania for their fidelity to Giedroyc’s legacy. We will return Belarus to our common European home. There is no other path,” he said.
As noted by the press service of the United Transitional Cabinet, speakers at the ceremony stressed that there can be no free Poland and Lithuania without a free Ukraine and a free Belarus.
Among previous recipients of the award were Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, Polish President Lech Kaczyński, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, philanthropist Maciej Radziwiłł, one of the leaders of Poland’s Solidarity movement and editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza Adam Michnik.