'Thirty Years of Democracy in the World Have Been Lost,' Alexiyevich Says

 Paul Goble

    Staunton, Mar. 3 -- In Vilnius to collect materials for her new book, Waiting for the Barbarians,  a title that echoes C.P. Cavafy's classic poem, Belrusian Nobelist Svetlana Alexiyevich says that "thirty years of democracy in the world have been lost" and that Belarus, which is on the brink of a civil war, is in worse shape that it was in Stalin's time.

    "We Belarusians are now in perhaps the most difficult moment of our history," she says. "What is happening here  is more terrible than what happened under Stalin We have a humanitarian catastrophe ... after hte euphoria of freedom, fascism began to creep in" (rfi.fr/ru/европа/20250303-светлана-алексиевич-тридцать-лет-демократии-в-мире-потеряны-у-людей-во-власти-нет-гуманитарного-диапазона).

    Until this decade, Alexiyevich continnues, "We thought that democracy was some kind of institution tha twould create a new life and a new person by itself. And it seemed that we could simply live and rejoice as it was in all of Europe, and not think that democracy needed to be defended. That didn't occur to anyone. We all made a mistake."

    As a result, "we did not do any of the work that could have prevented the right wing from so confidently marching across the world; and it seems to me that we will not be able to fight back with success anytime soon. For now, we are in shock and despair" but "to win out, we must understand what is what-- and that takes time."

    "I think," she says, "that these 30 years of democracy were lost" because "we turned out to be infantile. That was true in Belarus but not only there. In many countries, the democratic person turned out to be someone who naively believes in goodness and hopes that the world is arranged for good."

    "But the world isn't like that," Alexiyevich argues. "You can resist what it is really like only by developing humanity in yourself. I don't know any other way. But doing that will take time. I see young people here, and they may have time. But to what extent we their elders do, I don't know."

    And she concludes: "The horror of civil war now hangs over us. I am very afraid of that, and I think everyone is afraid -- both here and elsewhere. But in Belarus, Lukashenka is driving us into a corner, into a trap, and leaving no other option open. I think we are thus in for trials; and we must be prepared for them."