Lukashenko: aspiration for justice and patriotism rooted in Belarusians’ cultural code
It Will Be Very Interesting performance has begun at the main concert venue in Alexandria which hosts the Kupala Night (Alexandria Gathers Friends) Republican Festival today. Before the start of the main concert, President Aleksandr Lukashenko addressed the guests of the holiday with a powerful speech, mostly in Belarusian. Below is its full text.
Dear compatriots, dear guests! Alexandria has invited its friends again, and we have gathered here.
We have gathered to stop the frantic flight of time for a moment and turn to our origins – at least in our thoughts.
Here, on the picturesque bank of the Dnieper, the pulse of the thousand-year history of the Belarusian land is beating extremely strongly today, and we see it in the works of talented masters, in the melodies of folk songs, in the plots of ancient rituals and in the magic of Kupala night.
Looking at the scales of this holiday, I always think that this festival embodies everything that we are proud to consider our ancestral heritage. This is the greatest value of human relations based on friendship, mutual respect and hospitality. Everything is present here.
This is a special value, and it continues thanks to the strong traditions of the family, caring for parents, and love for children. We see how Belarusians and guests come here with their families every year.
Our festival also embodies the value of historical memory. This is the memory of our glorious past, and that Belarus is our land. Our roots are ancient, and we feel this connection of centuries especially acutely here.
This is actually where we understand the value of our cultural code, and Belarusians' aspiration for justice, high morality and patriotism were embedded in it from the very beginning. Our national state is built and developing on these principles today.
We are all time being attempted to be imposed with so-called universal values, but the latter are not for us. The global state of the future is a utopia. The world will never be monocultural.
There is no such idea for which all nations would give up their ethnic history, lifestyle, and traditions – especially today, when we see how the destinies of entire nations are being destroyed, how the historical roots are being thoughtlessly chopped down, how ancestors’ graves are being disturbed, and monuments are being struggled against.
We see this and we understand that there could be no freedom, sovereignty, respect and security without national dignity.
At present, when the struggle for the preservation of the value basis of the state continues in the world, truly independent nations are doing everything to preserve their distinctive way of life – like we are doing in Russia and Belarus.
Peoples are united not by the culture of cancellation, but by the dialogue of cultures – and this is the main idea of our holiday. That's what inspires us to develop. Alexandria invites friends from all over the world every year with the aim of peace and creation!
