Youth Protests against Compulsory Membership of Pro-Lukashenka Youth Union

Two residents of Mahiliou addressed President Alexander Lukashenka and the Prosecutor General of Belarus with the request to defend them from compulsory membership in BRSM – pro-Lukashenka youth union.

Siarhei Barodzich is an 11th grade student of secondary school # 33. Paval Chervinski is a 2nd-year student of Mahiliou technical school. Both of them live in the same neighborhood and both have the same concern: administrations of their education institutions are forcing them to become members of BRSM.

It is a well-known fact that the youth organization is created and financed by the authorities. That is why young people are quite skeptical about it. However, not every one is able to express their attitude towards it, writes Bulletinonline.org.

They use the administrative resource to its full capacity. “If it really was voluntary, in a couple of days the organization would lose everything but a name”, -- Paval Chervinski thinks.

The guys do not want to be members of the organization which is based on the ideology of certain officials and does not meet their interests. They don’t like the fact that membership cards still have a portrait of Lenin and the order of October revolution. The young people want to have an opportunity to enter any formal and informal youth organizations which exist in the country. They want to chose an organization which answers their interests and gives them an opportunity to develop their talents and abilities.

That is why they wrote letters to Lukashenka and to the Prosecutor General with the request to defend them from compulsory membership in BRSM. In the end of the letter, expecting negative reaction of the school and college administrations to their statements, the young people ask the authorities to defend them from any form of persecution.