26 Time March 15/March 22, 2021
truncheons and rifle butts, and hauled them into
jam-packed prisons. Amid the upheaval in Au-
gust, Tikhanovskaya slipped across the border into
Lithuania, where she now lives in exile with her
children, ages 10 and 5, plotting the downfall of her
nemesis, Lukashenko. She spoke to TIME in De-
cember, during a visit to Brussels.
Lukashenko has likened his beleaguered presi-
dency to the last days of the Soviet Union before its
collapse in 1991. His foes are tools of foreign gov-
ernments, plotting a “blitzkrieg coup,” he told his
supporters on Feb. 11: “We must endure no matter
the cost.” The cost has been severe. Outraged by Lu-
kashenko’s actions, the E.U. is preparing its fourth
round of economic sanctions against his officials.
More than six months of protests have left Belarus’
economy battered, even after Putin agreed to a
$1.5 billion bailout last September.
On Feb. 22, Lukashenko met Putin again, in
Sochi, Russia, to ask him for $3 billion more, ac-
cording to Russia’s Kommersant newspaper—a
loan that could open the way for Putin to have a far
greater hold over Belarus. Opposition leaders pre-
dict that could further ignite protests, as people see
their country increasingly in the pocket of Russia—
perhaps one reason Lukashenko has denied asking
Putin for financial help. “People don’t want to give
up independence to save Lukashenko’s ass,” says
Franak Viacorka, a Belarusian journalist and adviser
to Tikhanovskaya. “Lukashenko is cornered,” he
says. “He doesn’t have a choice.”
Protests have simmered down in recent months,
but activists say they plan to return with full force in
the spring. Tikhanovskaya estimates about 33,000
people have been detained since August, in a coun-
try of just 9.5 million. More than 900 face criminal
charges, some of which carry 15-year prison sen-
tences, according to Viacorka. “People are being
tortured, in violence and chaos,” Tikhanovskaya
says. “It is so scary, you cannot even imagine.”Tikhanovskaya says the past months have
left her feeling drained, as she attempts to piece
together, among the dozens of activists who
have fled Belarus in recent months, a political
force capable of collapsing a decades-old
government. Called the Coordination Council,
it now acts as a kind of government in waiting,
with Tikhanovskaya as its leader. “We have been
sleeping for 26 years,” she says. “We thought after
every election, there would be a rise of people,
but it was brutally cracked down on.” This time,
however, she sees a profound shift. “People have
started to feel that we are a nation,” she says. “They
started to feel proud of this fact.”
Months on, she is still anguished by the choice
she made that August day, as she paced her empty
apartment in Minsk. She says she has been unableOn a hOT summer day lasT augusT, sveTlana
Tikhanovskaya was pacing up and down her
empty apartment in Minsk, the capital of Belarus
in Central Europe, her life—and her country—in
turmoil. With her husband in jail, she had sent her
two small children out of the country, to safety, and
now faced a stark choice, bluntly handed to her by
the nation’s security forces: flee into exile herself, or
face arrest. “I had a couple of hours, but I could not
pack anything, because I was so overstressed,” she
recalls. “It was a shock. I was not prepared for this.”
It is hard to imagine how Tikhanovskaya could
have prepared for the jolting transformation of
her life. Within the space of a few months, she
emerged from obscurity to become the leader of
Belarus’ biggest revolt in decades, determined to
bring down President Alexander Lukashenko, who
has ruled the former Soviet republic for more than
26 years as what many call Europe’s last dictator—
despite an on-off relationship with Russian Presi-
dent Vladimir Putin.
Until last year, Tikhanovskaya, 38, was a full-
time mother, planning to pick up her earlier career
as an English teacher. Then last May, the govern-
ment arrested her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky,
thwarting his run for President in August elections,
in opposition to Lukashenko.
With no political experience, Tikhanovskaya
jumped in to replace Sergei as a candidate,
campaigning alongside the wife of another jailed
activist and the female campaign manager of a
third. In Lukashenko’s mind, the three women—
who were barely adults when Lukashenko came to
power in 1994—hardly seemed like a threat. But
Tikhanovskaya, a soft-spoken neophyte appointed
as leader by the group, exhorted the crowds to
oust Belarus’ strongman in the August vote. Her
presence was electrifying. Thousands of women
thronged to hear her, clutching flowers and draped
in the opposition colors of red and white.
When Lukashenko declared he had won—
claiming more than 80% of the vote—people poured
into the streets in fury. Tikhanovskaya had reason to
believe her own vote was around 75%. The estimate
was based partly on voters who photo graphed and
uploaded their ballots to a platform built by activists,
in anticipation of election fraud.
Lukashenko responded by dispatching heav-
ily armed security forces who beat protesters with
TIKHANOVSK AYA
QUICK FACTS
Nuclear
fallout
She was one of
the “Chernobyl
kids” who
were sent
from their
homes after
the power
plant’s nuclear
accident in
1986; she
spent the
summer in
Ireland.Campaign
Her election
rally in Minsk,
with an
estimated
63,000
people, was
the largest in
a decade.Family
To reassure
her children
(not pictured),
she has told
her 5-year-old
daughter
that they
left Belarus
because of
the pandemic
and that her
father is on a
business trip.Belarus’ opposition
leader Svetlana
Tikhanovskaya
learns to lead in exile
By Vivienne Walt
TheBrief TIME With ...