| Abstract: | After the Soviet Union collapsed, Belarus gained independence along with many other East European countries. Shortly after, in 1991, an academy for humanities studies was founded in Minsk with the twin aims of spreading the Belarusian language and of producing a future, elite Belarusian intelligentsia. But in 1995, Lukashenka came to power and democracy and freedom as Belarusians had just begun to know them ended. In this environment of repression, the humanities academy in Minsk was declared a banned institution. Academy students refused to give up, however, and faithfully continued their studies underground. Among them, Franek and his classmates who now works for the 2006 democratic opposition party. |
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