“I saw with my own eyes everything that went on there. I took part in all of it. It was simple of course... On the one hand it is beautiful to see so many people and such a powerful protest. The protest was simply in the air. And at the same time it’s terrible, because you hear grenades exploding. Grenades! You hear gunfire. You don’t see the fireworks, but what’s left from the shooting. It was like some nightmare. When someone phoned me, I said it was war here. Really: gunfire – that means it’s war. Those were the worst days of my life. Because I didn’t understand what was going on. How is something like this possible? In Belarus, in Minsk, in my homeland – it can’t be, that Belarusian would be killing Belarusian. Something like that had never occurred to me, never! That was enough for me. I started attending everything. All the events. I just set out in the morning and walked. When the women first went into the streets, I also stood in front of Kamarouski Market. I was with all the Belarusians. Because to be at home was terrible. I completely lost my voice. Because when I’m nervous, stressed, I lose my voice immediately, completely.”
“The situation was also emotional and very unstable, of course. Because obviously not all of my relatives accepted my opinion or accepted me as different, so to say. Before that they had been terrible proud of me, amazed at my success – because I was in TV. Because I sang for the president. And suddenly I was against him. I had an unpleasant conversation with my cousin and my mother. The saddest thing is that I had an issue with my mum. Not because she was against what I had done, but simply that she wasn’t ready to see me take such responsibility upon myself.”
“Of course, with each subsequent concert I grew more and more popular. They wanted to have me for presidential concerts. I had started performing with the presidential orchestra. And at various events attended by our president. I even received a presidential scholarship. I won a competition in Italy, I came third, they gave me some money, though not much. That was it. That means that when you perform for the president, you’re suddenly fully distinguished. They behave differently to you at the theatre of course: they respect and fear you. Especially if you start performing for the president – they start bowing to you then. You just have to say the word ‘president’, and everyone starts turning into fools. And yet the president is a person just like you are I. But no. In our country, the president is a deity. You must bow to him and do everything he wishes. So of course, if you sing for the president, you command complete respect.”
Marharyta Liauchuk was born in the village of Stradzich in Brest Region, former Belarusian SSR, on 16 April 1990. Her father, Alyaksandr Pyatrovich Liauchuk (1964), worked as a lathe operator at “Peace Kolkhoz”. Her mother, Aliena Pyatrouna Liauchuk (1966), had various jobs. Her father would drive Marharyta to the music school in Brest, 20 km away. In 2009 she completed the Ryhor Shyrma Secondary Music School in Brest. In 2014 she graduated from the Belarusian State Academy of Music in Minsk. For five years she was employed at the “Classica” Music Dome in Minsk. In 2017 Marharyta took Third Place in the Grand Opera competition of the Russia Culture TV channel, also placing third in another contest in Italy. From 2019 she was an intern and soloist of the Grand Opera and Ballet Theatre of Belarus. She participated in the protests following the 2020 presidential election. While on a tour of Lithuania in October 2020, she discovered that criminal charges had been brought against her. She did not return to Minsk. She co-hosts the political-satirical programme “Red Greenery” with the blogger Andrey Pauk in Vilnius.
