New Eastern Europe podcasts in response to the rigged elections on August ninth, twenty
twenty and the violence used to suppress peaceful protesters, Alexander Lukashenka was attacked by
cyberpartisans or cyber guerrillas in Belarus. That's much more than the actions of hakkas.
The very word guerrilla or partisan is of great importance here, As the
philosopher Amira Osmanova says, this is a very important factor in this year's campaign.
The phenomenon of cyber guerrillas should be considered in two dimensions. First of
all, the very name of cyber guerrillas and about the Russian context, means
a lot for Belarusians, because we're talking not about the hackers, but about
gorillas. In other words, someone who controls and efficiently uses technology and says
I want to oppose the repressive regime. This is of course a new generation,
but what I'm referring to is the continuing tradition of the guerrilla struggle,
which is inscribed in the genetic code of Belarusians. This term is close to
the heart of every Belarusian. Gorillas are a kind of hallmark of Belarusian history.
Both in terms of the Second World War in Belarus and the tradition of
post war Belarusian literature and cinema. There's a reason why the largest Belarusian film
company, Belarus Film, is commonly known as guerrilla film. But this picture
also refers to the fighters for Belarusian independence and culture in the nineties. That's
why the character of the cyber guerrilla combines these two especially important things. On
the one hand, a new generation and new technologies, and on the other
hand, it's a cultural code that now has political meaning. There is nothing
strange about this. Even before the protests, help and support of this kind
had been developing. Campaigns that arose even before the pandemic were highly active.
Their activities had been intensifying since roughly March, so the crowdfunding and technological base
for social mobilization already existed. If we're talking about the role of I strictly
in this year's election campaign, the wy Zent and voice platforms played a particularly
important role because in previous years everyone knew that the authorities would rig elections,
but it'll be exceedingly difficult to prove it, to unmask it almost impossible.
Now it's thanks to these platforms that it was possible to record it and show
it to the whole world. Thanks to these initiatives, it was possible to
gather enough evidence in data to convincingly prove that the elections had been rigged and
even reveal the scale of the forgery. This is an unprecedented situation for Belarus.
This is one of the most important features of the impact of it and
new technologies on the current situation. So far, protests against the rigged presidential
elections have been peaceful. It is the authority that users force people die,
they are hurt, arrested, lose their jobs. A sociologist Olgadrandva warns against
the use of violence by protesters, even if it's cyber violence. Boy,
this is not so clear my opinion, especially when it comes to the issues
of protection and access to personal data. In the West, this is an
extremely sensitive topic. On the one hand, this can be a very bold
and brash kind of move, but it's also a sign that some active citizens
are stuck for other means don't work. The tools used by cyber gorillas are
employed. If the peace agenda didn't work. The flowers that the women gave
to she wal beaks the military strong men didn't work, and the responsive violence
the regime received digital and virtual violence in response to physical violence. You can
understand this, but you have to be sensitive. Even in our situation.
Let's remember that in these actions of cyber gorillas there's lots of insults, hate
speech and verbal violence. Such a reaction in an acute crisis is understandable,
somewhat natural, but the tendency itself doesn't bode well because the appeal to go
out on the street with posters bearing personal data and people then following the information
disclosed, coming to houses, breaking windows and so on. This is one
issue for me that is personally problematic and it may have a negative effect in
the future. The political scientists emphasizes the extraordinary role of youth in protests,
the fact that the weapon they have decided to fight the regime of Alexander Lukashenko
is largely when it comes to young people, I would emphasize creativity and above
all humor, such good political humor and a shift of power in a manner
that's perfectly accurate. But at the same time gentle I did not expect this
kind of humor from young people, especially after all the violence massacre and brutality
on the part of the authorities. I hope someone will hold on to all
those hundreds and thousands of slogans and posters. This here is our political historical
legacy, and the fact that young people approach the beastly regime with such a
perversely positive humor means to me that we have here a new generation, a
generation that has nothing to do with this regime and doesn't identify with it in
any way. Even though this is a generation that grew up under Lukashenka,
they had no other president, but they also grew up in the conditions of
globalization, had contacts with foreign countries, and they traveled. At the same
time, when these young people go abroad, if anyone finds out where they're
from, they're only asked about Lukashenka and they're ashamed. Young people live with
Lukashenka in a parallel reality, and their creative approach to the protest encouraged ordinary
people to participate. They talked about the protest using language that was understandable and
witty. Of course, the fact that the authorities hit and torture and broad
daylight is terrible, but on the other hand, it also matters when people
habitually come out with posters and make fun of the authorities. Yes, they
simply make fun and it's in public. This has not happened before. It
also desecrates Botska's image. Open mocking of the autocrat greatly influenced the public mood
in the first weeks of the protest, and it proved once again the Belarusian's
protest only peacefully. Young people actively use social networks, which have largely been
the driving force behind the protests. Although it can't be said that it's a
youth only operation because all retirees also protests, but it was the youth that
made such a cool, creative engine of protest in the beginning. The sociologist
is not surprised by the active role of youth in the protest movement. Quantum
of this participation of young people is not surprising under all social law, as
young people are the most flexible part of any society. All over the world,
activists are primarily young people. This is a natural process. The youth
has always been the driving force behind Belarusian protests, as it was a few
or a dozen years ago too, but in this protest its importance is immense
the youth themselves have changed. For example, students not only aren't afraid to
protest in the streets, but also at universities, they're not afraid of being
expelled. And there's a much lower possibility of intimidating youth with dismissal than there
is with adults. Optionous to maximiza a politic university. NaSTA Ya Krasova,
the Proosian single and ethnologist, draws attention to the growing solidarity among young people
students students who have experienced fundamental repression such that they cannot speak, who have
been deprived of the right to vote, who have been removed from the student
register. They also come in and protest in defense of their colleagues other students
because they know that it affects everyone. They go because it doesn't only affect
an adult or a working person, it also affects students. Student in Belarus,
the first year student is not yet eighteen years old, and miners have
been taken or seized in a very brutal manner right before the eyes of many
people. No law works, and so a person understands regardless of age,
but it's not normal that you have to rebel against it. You have to
shout about it, and I'm very happy that the students solidarity is being born.
It's there, it used to be. It seems to me that it
wasn't on this kind of scale. Kale Max Roust from the University of Warsaw
underlines the role of changing and opening world in which young Belarussians live. Like
other young Europeans, there has been a generational change. Today's millennials in the
twenty and thirties are completely different people, completely different youth who are even five
years ago. In this civilization and European aspect, it has changed a lot.
And I'm not talking only about the development of the IT industry and communication
technologies, but more Belarussian youth are the same as their peers in European countries.
In the United States, They've watched the same series programs, use the
same social media, use the same YouTube, Netflix, Hbo or other similar
services. And in recent years young people have also got used to the fact
that the world is open. That these young people know languages. Maybe they
have a limited access to travel to Europe, but they can also travel cheaply
around Europe via Vilnius or Warsaw. The greatest neglect of the authorities was that
they did not fully notice, in my opinion, that belter Russian youth live
on networks just like their peers and neighboring countries, and the digital environment for
these young people is the natural environment. For the authorities, however, is
still quite an unexplored area. And secondly, today's youth also has completely different
expectations not only for themselves but also from the state, from the world and
looks completely different at how the state should function, how education and business should
function. That's why there are so many startups. So simply, this crew
Soviet rhetoric which the Belarussian ruling elites used all the time, it does not
appeal to contemporary Belarussian youth and it is symptomatic not only for the Belarussian government
but also for the old opposition that it does not seem to be able to
manage. And that is why young people are also so active in these protests.
And these young people are also so much that with the development of today's
technology, they are not afraid that, for example, they will lose their
job, will be thrown out of university, because they know that somehow online
or offline, they will continue their education to online to offline. The generational
change alone does not explain the willingness of jang Bilarussians to protest. Alexandra Papco,
a journalist from Bill sat TV, describes the specific situation of people who
found their way to the rapidly developing IT industry a ludicia truly near comfort of
tim cry. People felt uncomfortable in this country, in this political regime.
You can, of course fence yourself with a fence that is longer than in
reality, go for winter in Bali, or spent your vacation in Paris while
your parents your bank account is in Belarus, and everything that concerns you.
The various absolutely absurd acts of the authority as work. The repressive actions of
the authorities also affect you. And these people simply fear me and have more
time to think about how to continue living and whether it is worth having in
a country like that. Rebellion against the system is the domain of the most
active people. Secondly, the least connected with the authorities. With the power
that has the fewest instruments to influence you feel less connected, less blackmailed.
You can act. I think the life of an ordinary worker is much more
difficult. He hears much more intimidation than a representative of the IT industry.
But this fear that he may slow down, that may come to him,
and he will not leave the country in a few hours as he can as
an IT representative. It is this fear that makes him not protest. The
authorities do not seem to understand that Bilarus has changed and a new generation of
people using new tools has arisen. According to the Belarusian political scientist Babo Usov,
we are dealing with an analogal regime in a digital world. It is
about welfare, about the standard of living, about technological development. The situation
has changed a lot anyway, This revolution was impossible without technological changes in society.
Today, every student, young person or employee of state earned enterprises in
Belarus has a smartphone an iPhone and can film what is happening. This is
where the regime that uses analog technology is and a society that uses digital technologies
clash. When such traditional mass media shouts down. People using telegram already know
everything anyone can communicate. That is the social networks. Communication networks are so
developed, even more developed than in Poland, because in an authoritarian state.
People have to look for some other possibilities or channels that connection. In Belarus
and Russia, telegram channels have become a very powerful tool to fight the system.
Telegram, also Facebook, even the Russian at Naclassniki of contact Ye.
So this information progress in Belarus is very high. Contact actually post ten in
Bardosk Belarussian authorities. So the IT industry only as an element of economic development,
a source of hard currency and a method of using young talents for the
needs of the country's economy Antonio Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of
Over the past seven to ten years, the government has been carefully building the
country's IT image because it's so some economic opportunities in it. For the simple
reason that Belarus, what it inherited from the Soviet Union was generally dependent on
Russia, so it was dependent on raw materials, it was dependent on parts.
That is, the economic dependence remained, and in the IT sector,
the IT direction could give some economic independence. Of course, there was a
prospect of a few that was a high technology park built near Minsk. Also
a political activist but also an activist of Lukashenka's power was at the head of
this. Previously he was the chairman of the Belarussian Youth Alliance, and it
somehow developed. There people willingly stayed in Minsk. They did not go abroad.
They could stay in Minsk and decent money, go work with uber,
have fun on Friday and Saturday nights. Even for this reason, this many
entertainment district in Mints Ports created, which is informally called Zabidska, that is
a series of small streets with bars, pubs and restaurants in the old town.
It unfolded on the way all these transformations started With the fun of this
it development, young people were more and more willing to stay in the country.
Accordingly, in August everything started. People who tried not to participate in
political life by not accepting certain elements of the reaction to society on the part
of the authorities began to participate more and more actively. We remember that a
man who lives in Minsk but works and has contacts with foreign countries can often
afford to go somewhere else, for example, for a weekend in Europe,
on vacation or on business. Of course, it can compare. And it
just happened at some point, not that it fired, but that it simply
passed from sleep to such an active phase. From a certain excess of it
specialists. One of these forms was created, that is cyber guerrillas as a
form of peace protest. First, there have always been provocations to show the
appropriate TV picture later right and closed the case. However, no provocation succeeded
this time because society after the three days of protests cared for the image that
these were peaceful protests and one such forms were actually cyber activity. So the
beginning was quite simple that I would say today we are attacking the site sort
of state structures, state institutions, and then it has already started to develop.
People who got involved in this movement saw some perspective in it. I
cannot say that this is one of the key elements. This is interesting for
now as a phenomenon. There is a high probability that this will develop.
It must be understood that these are people who do not all sit in Belarus.
They are mainly foreign people. They work, have different views, come
from different backgrounds, and there are certain processes which this movement must go through
in order to shape the only front of action and shats. So for Belarussians
in general, there was no surprise because the only way for us to live
a normal life in quotation Marks was to go to Java courses, study after
six months and find a job. Even a lot of my colleagues, from
the knowledge of history have gone this way or gone to work, for example
as a tester in World of Tanks, World of Times. The prospects of
a good life and relative freedom have attracted open minded people to the IT industry.
The combination of technical skills in the pursuit of freedom outside one's own country
resulted in the awakening of a movement that is still difficult to define. No
wonder that Alexander Loukashenko's quasi Soviet regime does not understand it. Business vanzan is
protest or high tech business within the internet sector plays a key role or has
become such an icon of protest if they do not support the protest. The
picture that has been presented, the picture that has been present entered that this
is such a force leading these protests is largely true, and in my opinion,
it is related to the fact that this sector has become such a reservoir
of people with most liberal views. It in Belarus is not just an industry
of the economy where for ten years the most active people have gone who could
possibly find themselves in other industries from medicine to art. Only due to the
fact that this sector is integrated with the whole world and that wages there are
at a global level and not at a Belarusian level, people consciously chose to
work in IT rather than go to perhaps more heartfelt but not so well profitable
sectors. Because of these market dysfunctions in Belarus, Because of these distortions caused
by state regulation, the distort in Belarusian economy, people were going to the
IT sector, and this sector gathered not just talented people whose talent was that
they write code nicely, but that the sector gather people with a high imagination,
open world views, and many other qualities that are not definitely important for
the IT sector but also important for society as such. One should not be
surprised if we see the largest number of patrons among this sector, people supporting
the protest activity with money. One should not be surprised if we see people
they're inventing new forms of protest, if we see people participating in protests.
There little is known about cyber partisans. We do not really know who the
cyber gorillas are. As an ordinary citizen or as a man watching the protests,
I see literally a few of their actions. The first is blocking the
websites of some offices. The second type of action as the publishing of lists
of people cooperating with the regime. Only again, is it an activity that
requires knowledge of the IT industry or just access to people working in power structures
Temple Luji. Modern technologies also make it possible to disseminate information about events in
bi larrous reports are often published immediately on the internet on social media. It
underlies the role of civic journalism. The analyst Vernica Laputka underlines that the Russian
Awakening is not only the domain of young people protests, dentivis parts via.
The scale of these protests among young people and students is very large, and
journalists who in actuality work in military conflict contracts also play in a specially important
role. What they do is work that is terribly dangerous for them and terribly
important. Without journalists, there wouldn't be so much information about what's happening.
It can be said that there's a growing number of so called citizen journalists,
people who shoot videos NonStop document what's happening in Belarus and transmit it via channels
on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, transmit it to the whole world in fashion.
I'd like to emphasize the role of Belarusian pensioners who joined the protests and
the solidarity chains, and people with disabilities, because I believe that they are
truly more vulnerable to attacks by the militia simply for physical reasons. They may
be physically weaker and not so quick to run away, and they keep going
on, and of course it's double courage on their part that they participate in
the protests and in the solidarity chains and demonstrate also that they cannot put up
with what's happening in Belarus. We invite you to listen to podcasts devoted to
other aspects of the Belarusian awakening, the art of protests and the role of
women. Podcasts are produced by Free Range Productions.