I painted the White, Red, and White resistance flag on my parking lot because I saw an unexpected unity rise in Belarus from years of oppression and undermining of my people. I witnessed the birth of a nation, the true beginning of a single, common identity with a desire for one thing: justice. I want justice. I want justice for my friends and my family, and my people. I like the White, Red, and White flag––it gives me hope.

For over 26 years, Belarus, a tiny country in the middle of Eastern Europe, a piece that somehow broke off from the Big-Brother USSR, has been under the cruel and idiotic dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko. He is a monster who destroyed all opposition in the government when he took over, and, ever since then, has been spewing stupidity and lies to my people. 

There has been no change since 1996. Multiple decades of stagnation, inflation, and poverty have been poisoning the population. My grandparents survive on just two hundred dollars a month. Not live. Survive. And if there ever was any change in the country, it has been one of eradication of the national identity and a resurgence of “Sovok,” a derogatory term for the Soviet Union that, in Russian, is associated with trash. Despite us being a country of cleanliness, observed, for example, by protesters cleaning up after themselves during the peaceful marches, a dark soot of police helmets surrounds the state.

August 9, Lukashenko falsified the elections yet again, having imprisoned two of the three most prominent opposition leaders, the third one fleeing the country out of danger for his life. What did the people do? They stood behind the wives of the three brave men who, by themselves, organized the opposition. Sviatlana Tikhanovskaya rightfully won the election. What did Lukashenko do? He brought out the army, the police, the KGB, and even recruited special Russian forces, that’s right, military of another country, the country that we, Belarusians, have long been afraid of, to beat up the protesters who did not agree with his staying in power. 

We feared being consumed by Russia, like it happened with Crimea, yet, somehow, we were born anew. Without any instigators, the people stood up. By themselves. Alone. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Together. Not alone.

Belarus is now a contrast of stagnating lies and a powerful feeling of a positive change just around the corner. The old generation that survived through poverty and fear of the 90s, for the fall of the USSR brought with it a lack of all, fears Lukashenko’s propaganda that, if he is to be deposed, those times would return––an old and overused trick of the Club of Post-USSR Dictators. The new, fresh, free generation does not stop to walk out onto the streets every day to protest. These are not the riots of America, where property is destroyed. As I have mentioned, we are a dirty country of clean souls. My people stand up, even if they are beaten, even if they die, even if Tikhanovskaya has been deported, even if he continues with his lies. 

I do not know whether or not change will come soon. But the economic depression from people striking all over the country will not sustain Lukashenko for long. Women will continue to walk out into solidarity marches. People will continue to stand up. Everywhere. Together. He will be carried out. My people will survive. And then live. Жыве Беларусь! Belarus Lives!