Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to speak on resisting tyranny at the second Havel Lecture

By Sarah Steimer

In 2020, an English teacher and mother found herself leading a democratic movement in Belarus. Although she was exiled from the country soon after the presidential election that same year, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the National Leader of Belarus and Head of the United Transitional Cabinet, continues to act as a leader and inspiration for those looking to resist oppression.

Tsikhanouskaya is this year’s featured guest for the Václav Havel Lecture Series, to be held September 26 at the International House Assembly Hall. Presented by the Center for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (CEERES) and the Division of the Social Sciences, this year’s event is the second of a three-part series. This initiative has been made possible by a generous gift from Gabriel Eichler (A.M., ’74), Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Václav Havel Library, and his wife Tatiana Eichler.

Faith Hillis, a professor of Russian History and the Director of CEERES, says this year’s lecture centers on resistance to authoritarianism. Tsikhanouskaya will discuss her own experience as an opposition leader, while also speaking to a broader comparative world experience: the ways in which the Belarus struggle for freedom is connected with Ukraine's, and how activists in Eastern Europe can offer lessons to those in other countries struggling with heavy-handed governance.

“I am honored to deliver this year’s Václav Havel Lecture, because Havel’s courage and moral clarity continue to inspire those of us resisting tyranny in Belarus,” Tsikhanouskaya said in an emailed statement. “Havel insisted that Belarus belongs in the European family. I hope to share how Belarusians are standing up to dictatorship and why our struggle is inseparable from Ukraine’s fight for freedom. My message to the audience is simple: Freedom anywhere depends on solidarity everywhere. When the world remembers Belarus, it strengthens not only our cause, but the cause of democracy itself."

Tsikhanouskaya entered the Belarus presidential race against long-standing dictator Aliaksandr Lukashenka after the arrest of her husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, who had declared his own presidential aspirations. Although Lukashenka dismissed Tsikhanouskaya as a “housewife” and said a woman could never become president, independent observers widely agree that Tsikhanouskaya defeated Lukashenka to win the Belarusian presidential election in 2020.

After being forced into exile post-election, Tsikhanouskaya inspired large, peaceful protests in Belarus. And when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Tsikhanouskaya established and continues to lead the United Transitional Cabinet as a Belarusian pro-democracy movement. Under her leadership, Belarusian anti-war activists engaged in underground resistance in Belarus, which has included sabotaging railway transportation to disrupt Russian troop movements and Belarusian-staffed volunteer units joining the fight for Ukraine. 

“She still considers herself the duly elected leader of Belarus and has been trying to free political prisoners, give attention to the plight of Belarusians who've been living under a dictatorship for three decades, and has been quite active in helping to stop the war in Ukraine,” Hillis says.

Tsikhanouskaya is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, the 2022 International Four Freedoms Award, and the Charlemagne Prize. In 2021 and 2022, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and members of the Norwegian Parliament, respectively. 

Last year, the university screened The Accidental President, a documentary about Tsikhanouskaya’s rise to power, the plight of her husband, and the series of protests that culminated in the election and her subsequent exile. Hillis says the turnout of students, Chicagoans, and members of Chicago’s Belarusian diaspora showed the robust interest in Tsikhanouskaya’s story and the ways in which it intersects with questions that Americans are asking now.

This year’s event will include a conversation between Tsikhanouskaya and Andrei Kureichyk, a Belarusian playwright and director who was involved in the 2020 revolution. Kureichyk is also a current graduate student in the university’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

“I see a striking conceptual similarity in the paths of these two figures (Havel and Tsikhanouskaya),” Kureichyk says. “Both confronted totalitarian systems built over decades on Soviet ideology — systems sustained by relentless brainwashing and brutal repression that left no room for democracy or alternative political life. Traditional politicians crashed against that wall. But those least expected to be politicians proved effective in challenging it.” 

Kureichyk notes that while neither Havel nor Tsikhanouskaya had political backgrounds, both used morality and humanity to unite large parts of society against dictatorships. Kureichyk hopes to highlight these parallels and underscore the Belarusian pro-democracy movement’s efforts to dismantle the existing systems through peaceful efforts.

“The defining feature of the Belarusian movement in 2020 was its vision of a human-centered society built on dignity, solidarity, national identity, and the hope of positive development,”  Kureichyk says. “The goal was never to topple Lukashenko at any cost, never to plunge the nation into civil war or bloodshed. On the contrary, the movement sought to channel its energy not into hatred or endless arguments with the regime, but into presenting a picture of Belarus’s future — one rooted in democracy, human rights, a growing economy, and a renewed sense of dignity.”

Kureichyk says he hopes audience members walk away with a reminder that everything is possible (“A playwright can become a president, a housewife can become a national leader and reshape the consciousness of an entire nation.”). He notes that people must constantly fight for democracy, and that countries like Ukraine, Belarus, and others are undergoing a process of decolonization. 

“Yet it’s essential to understand that even a small country can have an outsized impact,” he says.