Kalinowski Forum
Vincent Kanstancin Kalinoŭski
(Belarusian:
Ві цэ́
Ка а ці́ Ка і ́ ў і),
also known as Wincenty
Konstanty Kalinowski (Polish) and Konstantinas Kalinauskas (Lithuanian) was a 19th-century writer, journalist,
lawyer and revolutionary of the occupied Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was one of the leaders of the
Lithuanian, Polish and Belarusian national revival and the leader of the January Uprising in the lands of the former
Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was imprisoned in Vilnius, where he wrote
one of his most notable works
– the “Letter from Beneath the Gallows” (“Pismo
z-pad szybienicy”),
a passionate
credo for his compatriots that inspires the whole region today
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. He was then tried by a court martial for leading the
revolt against Russia and sentenced to death. He was publicly executed in Lukiškės Square in Vilnius on 22 March
1864, at the age of 26. The remains of the executed insurgent, along with others, were clandestinely buried by the
Tsarist authorities on the site of the military fortress on top of the Gediminas Hill in Vilnius. The remains were
excavated in 2017, and positively identified in 2019, and subsequently solemnly re-interred in Rasos Cemetery on
22
nd
of November, 2019.
The Kalinowski Forum
is a round-table of the best world leaders and experts on the future of Belarus as a part of
the European family, established in Vilnius on 24 August 2020. The first Forum event was attended by many high-
level political figures, including U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, Stephen Biegun, as well as leading academics on
Belarus and Eastern Europe. The participants expressed their great support for the Belarusian opposition and freedom
fighters, and encouraged firm resistance to the repression of the illegitimate Belarusian regime and anti-democratic
support of the Russian Federation. The Forum was supported by the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vilnius
University, European Humanities University and other NGOs, which significantly contributed to creating an
international coalition for Belarusian freedom.
The next annual conference is to be held
on 22 March 2021
to honour the cause of this Belarusian revival hero and
continue his mission in the current context, according to the goals set by democratic Belarusian leader, Sviatlana
Tsikhanouskaya: a) to achieve an inclusive national dialogue; b) to ensure a safe transfer of power, and c) to hold
free and fair elections. The second part of the conference will address the following questions: a) what our coalition
has accomplished since August 2020; b) what our plan to achieve the main goal
–
free and democratic elections under
the auspices of the OSCE
–
is; c) how we can bring our goals in line
with the new American Administration’s
initiative
–
a global Summit for Democracy.
The Kalinowski Forum serves as the key platform for Belarusian freedom fighters and dissidents, political leaders of
international democratic community to express their opinions, develop common strategies to fight the Russian
aggression in the region and restore democracy in Belarus. The Forum is organised by the Seimas of the Republic of
Lithuania (Lithuanian Parliament) in cooperation
with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Office in Vilnius, Lithuanian-
German Forum, International Republican Institute, Swedish International Liberal Centre (SILC) Vilnius Office,
ForumCiv, Freedom House, Institute of International Relations and Political Science and Eastern Europe Studies
Centre.
“Friends, my brothers! From under the Russian gallows I am writing to you for the last time. It is sad to leave my native land
and you, my dear people. My breast sighs and my heart is sore, but it is not a sad lot to perish for your truth. Hear my last words
in sincerity, my people, for it is as if they were written from this world only for your good … as day and night do not reign
together, so also true learning does not go together with Russian slavery. As long as this lies over us, we shall have nothing.
There will be no truth, no riches, no learning. They will only drive us like cattle not to our well-being,
but to our perdition.… go
and fight with the whole people for your human and national rights, for your faith, for your native land. For I say to you from
beneath the gallows, my people, you will only then live happily, when no Russian remains over you!”
Kastuś Kalinoŭski, commentaries by Jan Zaprudnik and Thomas E. Bird: The 1863 Uprising in Byelorussia: "Peasants' Truth"
and "Letters from Beneath the Gallows". Byelorussian Institute of Arts and Sciences, The Krecheuski Foundation, New York,
1980.
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