Hi, my name is Sarah Topol and I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times magazine.

For nearly three decades, Belarus has been under the control of an authoritarian president

named Alexander Lukashenko.

Up until 2020, Belarusians for the most part were pretty politically apathetic, content

with things as long as the economy functioned.

There was a kind of agreement that the state provided for the citizens.

The minority opposition that did exist was unpopular.

But then COVID happened and Lukashenko denied it was happening at all, saying things like

you could solve it with a shot of vodka.

This forced people to start paying attention to things outside of their houses.

And they realized that Lukashenko had abandoned them.

The presidential election was scheduled for that summer and three new candidates who

no one had heard of before decided to run.

Remember, Lukashenko was the only president Belarus has had since 1994.

And soon, almost immediately thereafter, all three candidates were either arrested or

taken off the ballot and had fled the country or were behind bars.

Then Lukashenko stole the election.

People were furious, not even because he manipulated the count, but because he did it so blatantly.

They came out to protest and were met by a level of violence none of them were prepared

for.

Days of protest rocked the country.

The security services, known as the saliviki were brutal.

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