20 Years Of Struggle Under White-Red-White Flag
- 6.09.2017, 8:56
The Young Front was established on September 6, 1997.
The Young Front, which was the first organization for many youth and political leaders, was established on September 6, 1997. Participants of the constituent congress remember that they originally wanted to hold it on the Day of Belarusian Military Glory on September 8, but this date fell on a weekday, so they decided to move the congress to the 6th.
The impetus for the creation of the organization was the events of the spring of 1997, when protests were held in Minsk almost every week. "At that time people were very embittered against the authorities. They went out with the desire to talk, even to fight with law enforcement officials. We could easily go to the Russian embassy after the rally and picket it," – Aliaksei Yanukevich recalls.
As a result, the idea to create a youth opposition organization was implemented in a few months of traveling around the regions. In two years, there were more than 200 activists of the Young Front in Minsk, about the same number of them were in the regions.
Radio Svaboda asked the creators of the first political youth organization of the country to share pictures from old photo albums. Some of them are published for the first time.
Pavel Seviarynets’ speech at the first congress of the Young Front. 6 September 1997.
The rally on Yakub Kolas square in winter, 1998. From left to right: Andrei Siarheyau, Aliaksandr Shybko, Aliaksei Charniayeu.
2 April, 1998. Pavel Seviarynets passes through the special forces cordon, he will be arrested in a few minutes. He will spend two months in the pre-trial detention center in Valadarski Street.
Chernobyl Way 1998. The rally in support of the arrested Pavel Seviarynets. The future leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, Aliaksei Yanukevich (second from the left in the first row), is 22 years old.
The Young Front leadership is going to Kiev to meet with Zianon Pazniak in 1998. From left to right: Aliaksandr Karnilenka (didn’t belong to the Young Front leadership), Alina Shalina, Pavel Seviarynets, Yauhen Skachko, Andrei Piatrou, Aliaksei Yanukevich.
Pavel Seviarynets and Aliaksei Yanukevich at the BPF Board in Varvashenia street, 1999.
1999, one of the first Young Front press conferences. The former BPF board in Varvashenia Street. In the first row from the left to the right: Aliaksei Yanukevich, Katsiaryna Biaspalava, Pavel Seviarynets, Aliaksandr Straltsou. In the second row: Yauhen Skachko, Volha Antsipovich, Andrei Piatrou, Aliaksei Shein.
The March of Freedom. Leader of the Koidanava YF organization Yauhen Afnahel is at the head of the march. 1999
The Young Front rally in Brest in autumn 1999.
2000, the rally in support of the disappeared politicians and journalists on Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk.
A trip of the leadership and activists of the organization to the Czech Republic to meet with Vaclav Havel in spring, 2000.
The Congress of Belarusian Youth in 2001. In the first years of the existence, the Young Front held almost all the events and congresses of in the recreation center Sukno.
The rally of the young Front girls who protested against the arrest of activists of the organization Krai in Hrodna.