Ihar Kuzminich: soon we may hear about many cases of pressurization of lecturers
Ihar Kuzminich, who used to work as a lecturer on theory of jurisprudence at Hrodna State University, says he had to quit his job because of … the tales in his blog.
ERB: Why did
you decide to quit?
Ihar Kuzminich: The
administration persuaded me to write an application for dismissal.
Later my wage was decreased more than in a half – it became just
two million rubles plus something. Belarusian citizens must have the
right to freely express their views even if they don't correspond to
somebody else's ones. It is a duty of the participants of scientific
community to express original views. I disagree with the
pressurization of me and other lecturers.
ERB: What precisely
did the university administration dislike?
Ihar Kuzminich:
They didn't like that I wrote two tales and published them at my
blog. One of them concerned the origin of the white-red-white flag
and the other – the "Pahonia" coat of arms. Frankly
speaking, these are tales for children. All other materials, which
were presented as my fault, have no political coloring either. For
instance, I expressed my opinion as to who can be considered as a
Belarusian writer.
ERB: Historian Andrei Charniakevich was the
first to be dismissed from Hrodna University, now you are leaving it
as well...
Ihar Kuzminich: Most probably, the administration
of the university has nothing to do with it. Charniakevich and I
worked here for almost 20 years. What we said to our students didn't
differ from what we wrote in the Internet. I also taught my subject
in Belarusian. Everything started quite suddenly. In the beginning of
spring 2012 I had perfect relations with the administration. And this
very administration summoned me at the end of spring, and in the
beginning of autumn I was asked to quit. The pressurization started
during the electoral campaign. I don't think that the university
would have dared to take such steps on its own initiative.
ERB:
Does the university administration pressurize anybody else?
Ihar
Kuzminich: Soon we will hear about many cases of such pressurization.
Even now I am aware of several such cases. By the way, it doesn't
concern only the issue of the "Hrodna Studies" book.
Everything is much wider than that.
ERB: What are your plans
for the future? Do you have any proposals of employment?
No,
there haven't been such proposals so far. Probably, I am given some
time to put my candidate's thesis in order, though I can hardly hope
for its successful defense here. However, it's a different
issue.
Reference:
Bear in mind that historian Andrei
Charniakevich, author of the "Hrodna Studies" book,
published in Poland, was the first lecturer to be dismissed from
Hrodna State University. Afterwards, the head of Hrodna Region
Executive Committee Siamion Shapira confessed that it was his
personal decision. A new rector, Andrei Karol, was appointed soon
after it. On 1 April it became known that the Council of Hrodna State
University didn't vote for the appointment of the doctor of
historical sciences Viachaslau Shved at the university contest which
also opened the prospective of his dismissal.