Precis

"If you're scared, go home," says 27-year-old Maria as she heads out on another freezing day to front the police and protest against Belarus' long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko.

In the lead up to last year's election, Lukashenko locked up the men who stood against him. The women stood in their place and won huge support in the national vote. But the dictator refused to yield, declaring he'd won by a landslide.

Protests erupted and there were mass arrests of men. Again, the women stepped up and have been protesting ever since.

The revolution's icon is 74-year-old great-grandmother, Nina Baginskaya. Short but fierce, Nina's confrontations with policemen almost twice her size have made her a social media star.

"She's a really inspiring person," says Maria about Nina. "She's not scared of anything. She doesn't give a flying f*** about all of the police and everything."

Working with local crews, former Russia correspondent Eric Campbell gives us a rare insight into a country where most of the foreign media has been banned.

We meet the 'president in exile' Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, now living in Lithuania. She became the main opposition candidate after her activist husband was jailed.

"The government got rid of strong candidates. But they didn't know every strong man has a strong woman who supports him."

We visit Nina's country house, where she sews the banned Belarusian flag, in preparation for another confrontation with the police.

"Evil cannot win, fascism cannot win," she says.

Maria is arrested and charged and while she has no intention of stopping, she admits the police brutality is taking its toll.

"I don't remember a day when I didn't saw [sic] a dream with police," she says. "I'm dreaming how they enter my apartment, how they detain me. So it's some kind of huge national trauma."

Lukashenko's strategy is to belittle the women.

"Our constitution is not made for a woman," he says. "Our society hasn't matured to vote for a woman."

But it's not working, and the women just won't stay at home.

"It's scary to think of the future but it's even more scary to think what will happen to us if we will stop", says Maria.

Protest crowd. Super:
Minsk, Belarus

CROWD:  Nina! Nina!

00:00

Nina at protest

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Nina Baginskaya is a 74-year-old great grandmother who´s become the icon of a revolution.

00:12

MAN:  They don't let you walk, do they?

NINA: Well, at my age it's not easy to run anyway.

WOMAN:  Well done! Thank you!

MAN: Excuse me, can I take a photo with you?

WOMAN: You are our pride!

00:20

Police arrive at protest

Music

00:36

Maria at protest

MARIA: I´ve never been scared since the 9^th of August so, what´s the reason to be scared? If you´re scared stay at home and that´s it.

00:41

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Maria Pugachjova is a 27-year-old office worker who wants to be just like Nina.

MARIA:  She's really inspiring person, definitely. She's not scared of anything. She doesn't give a

00:49

Maria interview

flying fuck about all of the police and everything.

01:03

Protestors chant

01:07

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Maria and Nina are part of an extraordinary uprising – led by women – in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.

01:11

Lukashenko. Various

President Alexander Lukashenko is Europe's longest-ruling dictator. But he's faced near daily protests since August, when he refused to give up power to a woman.

01:18

Lukashenko at microphone

LUKASHENKO: Our constitution is not made for a woman. Our society isn't ready to vote for a woman.

01:33

Sound recordist mics Maria

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Working with local filmmakers, we´ve been following some of the key women in this revolution….

01:42

Svetlana

CREW MEMBER:  We´re recording now Eric. We can go.

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: …among them Svetlana Tikhanovskya, who had to flee the country after she ran for president.

01:47

Eric computer interview with Svetlana. Super:
Reporter
Eric Campbell

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Alexander Lukashenko has declared himself president of Belarus, but am I talking to the rightful elected president of Belarus now?

SVETLANA:  For sure, you are.

01:58

Protestors. Title:
Women of the Revolution

Music

02:08

Archival. Campbell reports.  Riot police/arrests.  Super:
1996

02:23

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: I started covering Lukashenko in the mid 1990s – that's how long he's been in power. Even back then, it was a similar situation. Lukashenko may not have the law on his side, but he does control the police and security service. And they appear willing to do whatever it takes to stop his opponents.

02:31

As the ABC correspondent based in Moscow, I watched how he kept Russia´s small neighbour in check by crushing protests and jailing any genuine challengers. He did the same ahead of last year's election, locking up the men who ran the opposition. But this time, the women took over.

02:53

Svetlana addresses rally

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya became the main opposition candidate after her activist husband was jailed.

03:14

SVETLANA:  "The government got rid of strong candidates but they didn´t know, behind every strong man is a strong woman."

03:28

My first step was made only for my husband, because he was in jail he couldn't participate himself, but what he was doing for people, it was very important for him.

03:46

Svetlana interview

So I just decided to support him somehow and gave my documents instead of him.

03:57

Svetlana campaigning

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Her campaign captured the public´s imagination rather more than Lukashenko's insistence that women belonged in the kitchen.

04:05

Lukashenko TV appearance

He even suggested there´d be no point debating her.

LUKASHENKO:  What would we debate with her?  She's just made some tasty chops, maybe she fed her kids, and so on. There's still a nice smell of chops and she must debate something.

04:16

Svetlana campaigning

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Knowing how ruthless he could be, Tikhanovskaya sent her young children across the border to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

04:38

Svetlana casts ballot

But as election day approached, it seemed victory was hers.

Did you ever expect to win?

04:46

Eric computer interview with Svetlana

Did you expect to get so much support?

04:54

SVETLANA: I am representative of several candidates. I'm like not as Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, I'm a person who is opposite to Lukashenko.

04:56

Svetlana onstage at rally

And all those people who would vote separately for different candidates, they voted for me as for united candidate.

05:08

Riot police move in on rally

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: But Lukashenko had no intention of handing over power. The Electoral Commission declared he had won by a landslide, claiming one in ten voted for Tikhanovskaya.

05:18

Hundreds of thousands stormed the streets in protest to be met by an army of riot police. When Tikhanovskaya challenged the result, she was threatened with jail.

SVETLANA: I have to choose,

05:36

Svetlana interview

just to stay in Belarus and go straight to jail, or I can leave country and join my children in Vilnius. That was the choice.

05:52

Crossing border

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: That night she was allowed to cross to Lithuania to join her five-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son. She recorded a video asking forgiveness for leaving.

06:01

Svetlana video

SVETLANA:  I know many will understand me. Many will judge me. Many will hate me. But God forbid you face the same choice I faced.

06:12

Riot police at protests/shooting of Taraykouski

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: The protests went on regardless as Tikhanovskaya tried to represent them from abroad. The crackdown was immediate and brutal. Within hours, a protestor, Alexander Taraykouski, was shot dead. Human rights groups claimed hundreds were tortured. State TV labelled them criminals.

06:32

State TV news

NEWSREADER:  Aggressive youths occupied the roads, blocked cars.

06:55

Men being arrested

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: After mass arrests of men, thousands of women took their place.

SVETLANA: Women understood that they have to

07:00

Svetlana interview

stand in front of them and to defend them.

07:11

Women at protests

They didn't want to lead this revolution. They just wanted to support their men. It just happened so naturally.

NINA: Evil cannot win,

07:17

Nina

fascism cannot win.

07:33

Music clip. Super:
Music: Dai Darogu

07:36

LYRICS:  I´m the cop who´s been driving a prison truck for 20 years. My passengers are old ladies and convicts and cripples.

07:39

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: None has taken greater risks, or inspired more courage, than retired geologist Nina Baginskaya, celebrated here in a popular heavy metal song about the protests.

07:48

LYRICS: If you love your Motherland you´re going to cop a beating. If you respect your Fatherland, the prosecutor is waiting for you.

08:00

Nina pulls face covering off policeman

CROWD:  Nina! Nina!

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Her confrontations with police have become some of the most famous images of the revolution.

08:18

Police grab Nina at protests

Police arrest any media trying to film the marches, but protestors have been shooting on smartphones and uploading to independent websites.

08:29

Nina with supporters/at protests

Music

08:39

NINA: The youth have mastered the technology. They have mobile phones, computers and the internet. And they can speak the truth.

08:45

Nina to country cottage

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: She divides her time between her apartment in Minsk, where she protests almost every day, and a small country cottage a short drive from the capital.

09:00

Nina talks with man

MAN:  We are standing next to a celebrity!

NINA: I like it here more.

09:12

MAN: Tell us how things are! Are you going to get rid of that dumb-arse soon or not?

NINA:  He's sacked himself. People aren´t listening to him anymore.

09:19

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Even here she raises people's spirits when they're losing hope.

09:30

NINA:  Calm down, calm down.

MAN: I can' t stand it when young people are dying, when they are killing them, stabbing them, raping them, abducting them!

NINA:  That's why I go to the protests with young people.

09:34

MAN: I can´t go, I hardly can walk.

NINA: It´s hard with crutches but I still can run, I'll go for you.

09:47

MAN:  I have heart problems and cancer. I would go, but I can't.

NINA: You're so upset. It´s fine. Everyone does what they can.

09:52

Music

10:05

Nina collecting berries

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Nina Baginskaya was an activist even before Lukashenko came to power. In 1986, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine showered the countryside with deadly radiation. It inspired her to fight for Belarus's independence from the Soviet Union.

NINA: They didn't tell us the truth. They didn´t tell to stay home and not go out and breathe the Chernobyl ash that was falling from the clouds like rain.

10:09

To them we're not human. They just care about their salaries and positions.

10:49

Nina interview in home

So I started supporting all movement in Belarus to revive our nation.

10:59

Archival. National Parade

11:12

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Belarus won its freedom from the Soviet Union in 1991, but when Lukashenko came to power three years later, he snuffed out its new democracy and its symbols of independence. The former collective farm boss pushed for reunification with Russia, hoping to one day rule both countries. He cracked down on the Belarussian language and even banned the national red and white flag in favour of the red and green Soviet banner.

11:17

Nina interview

NINA: Police, prosecutors and courts started to sentence us for street rallies, especially for our Chernobyl protests.

11:49

Nina sews flag

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Decades on, she continues to fight. In her apartment, she sews the banned red and white flags she takes to each protest.

NINA:  Seven flags have been taken away from me by police, so this is the eighth.

12:01

Nina cuts stick for flag

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  After months of being arrested on a regular basis, she's now become the only protester police dare not detain, Lukashenko himself giving a mocking order to leave her be.

12:19

Lukashenko in meeting

LUKASHENKO: Watch out! Don't arrest Nina Baginskaya. If you take away Nina Baginskaya, there will be no opposition.

12:37

Maria leaves apartment and catches bus

Music

12:46

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Not so long ago, Maria Pugachjova never protested. Now, it's all she can think about, even when she goes to work or meets friends.

MARIA:  People still live in this reality and they have no chance not to talk about it. Because every day something happens.

12:51

Maria interview in apartment

This is my life then.

13:11

Maria with women at march

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Whenever she can, she joins women's marches, Lukashenko labelling them prostitutes and alcoholics.

MARIA: It's already

13:14

Maria interview

week number 13, if I'm not mistaken. So, it's unbelievable how people are still believing that we will win soon, because the protests never lasted that long in Belarus.

13:24

Police lock down neighbourhood

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: But often it's a battle just to get to a protest.

13:39

Maria on street

MARIA: Fascist!

13:46

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Police lock down entire neighbourhoods to stop them marching.

13:49

Protest at Maria's neighbourhood

MARIA:  As you can hear everyone is screaming, "Shame, shame, shame." So they are not letting us join each other, but you can see that people are making noise, so we are everywhere, everywhere.

13:55

Women outside apartment

WOMEN:  Long live Belarus!... Long live Belarus!

14:18

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Maria's group retreats to a friend's apartment to wait out the lockdown.

14:25

MARIA:  So maybe we can see what is happening so we can join maybe somewhere. So I think we'll have a cup of tea or something

14:32

Maria and women inside apartment

14:41

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: A locked apartment doesn't make them safe from arrest.

14:50

Phone footage. Police burst into apartment

Every weekend, police have been raiding flats to find protesters, some of the violence recorded secretly and posted to independent news sites.

14:54

Maria and women inside apartment, looking at social media posts

For now, they're safe, but from social media they see police have started grabbing people on the street they just left.

15:19

WOMAN: They say people are being arrested on Miroshnichenko Street. Police are raiding the yards. I just don't understand. Stun grenades and gunfire at Miroshnichenko now?

15:18

Police beat and drag protestors

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Police aren't the only danger at mass gatherings. Belarus is suffering a crippling COVID pandemic, thanks largely to Lukashenko downplaying it. He even suggesting drinking vodka could prevent infection.

15:33

Maria interview

MARIA:  Maybe the virus is not that painful as a young guy being killed by police.

15:53

So COVID is not that important for people now. And I understand them. When people ask me, what did I do before the 9th of August, I don't remember my life before that. So COVID, yeah okay. But we still have a person to fight out of this country.

16:03

Maria with friends in apartment

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: As they wait, they enjoy themselves as best they can.

16:19

WOMAN:  Oh, the media is here. Oh no! We're drinking tea. What will they think about us in Australia?

WOMAN 2: They'll think we're alcoholics, drug addicts, unemployed and prostitutes.

WOMAN 3: We are dealing with stress. You discredit our revolution.

16:27

Anton in the kitchen preparing food

16:44

WOMAN 4: It's so weird there are lots of women being waited on by a man.  It's insane.

MARIA:  I bet Australian women would love that. 'See that revolution they're having. I want that too.'

WOMAN 4: Thank you Anton, you're so nice…

16:47

Anton serves food

Are you married, Anton?

MARIA: How old are you, Anton?  We'll marry you.

ANTON: I'm old.

17:09

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: For Maria, joking around is one way of dealing with trauma.

MARIA:  Remembering the first few days, I saw a lot of blood on the streets.

17:17

I saw a lot of awful things that are still in front of my eyes and maybe that's one of the reasons, because I'm still protesting like every single moment I have.

17:26

Women watch footage on social media

Music

17:37

MARIA:  I don't remember a day when I didn't saw a dream with police in that dream.

17:44

So I'm dreaming how they enter my apartment, how they detain me. So it's some kind of huge national trauma. So all that is left for us is to fight a peaceful way that we've chosen.

17:49

Maria and women leave apartment

18:12

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Finally, it's too dark to join the protest. There'll be more marching tomorrow.

MARIA:  Thank you for the cake. Long live Belarus!

WOMAN:  It's a long goodbye. Come on! Get out!

18:17

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  While the women march on the streets,

18:32

Svetlana with EU leaders

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya tries to build support internationally. Russia is still backing Lukashenko, so she's focussing on the EU, meeting leaders like France´s Emmanuel Macron and Germany´s Angela Merkel, and reaching out to Joe Biden.

SVETLANA: The strategy is

18:39

Svetlana interview

to set negotiations with our authorities, not with Lukashenko, but with the authorities who can take responsibility.  My mission, just to organise new elections, where I'm not going to participate.

18:58

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: You wouldn't participate? You don't want to be leader?

19:14

SVETLANA: No, I don't want to be the president of Belarus, because you know, we are really in deep economic hole. And I think that the ruler should be at least experienced person who knows how to rise up the economy of Belarus.

19:17

Svetlana New Year greeting video

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: For now, she continues to play the role of president in exile, even delivering a New Year's presidential greeting.

SVETLANA:  We all deserve a home. The new year will bring us home to a free Belarus.

19:38

Lukashenko at New Year's ball

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Lukashenko, meanwhile, was filmed at a New Year´s Eve ball dancing with a Miss Belarus contestant. Having forced his opponent to flee, he now mocks her for trying to lead from abroad.

20:00

Lukashenko clip

LUKASHENKO:  We intercepted a conference of these losers — Tikhanovskaya, all these runaways. I was shocked when I saw the transcript on my desk. Svetlana said: "Guys, what do you want from me? You understand that I'm not the one who decides" - I'm quoting.  "I'm not the one who decides" says our president in Lithuania.

20:17

Women march

Music

20:43

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: But the lack of central control has been one of the revolution´s strengths. People have formed their own protest groups – women, pensioners, neighbourhoods. It's meant Lukashenko can't stop the revolt by jailing the leaders.

20:49

Riot police

But after one particularly violent protest, we find Maria dejected. Riot police arrested her and took her to a station to be charged.

MARIA: They saw me, and they just like,

21:03

Maria interview

"I think you have pretty much fun these days, let's go." Just like, "What?" Like, "Let's go, let's go, let's go." They were smiling and you know just like, "We're going for a ride."

21:20

Maria lights cigarette

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: In two weeks, she´ll go to court to face a possible jail term. It's small comfort that as a woman she'll probably fare better than the men.

MARIA: Belarus is not really a country full of feminists.

21:35

Maria interview

So a lot of men think that they're we´re just nice girls and that's it. They don't know how much

21:51

Women protest

activity and how much of ourselves we put into protests. They have no idea how many emotions, how many strength we put how many every day routine. They don't know. They think that it's a game for us, maybe that's why.  On the other hand, I saw many, many beaten girls, many

21:58

Maria interview

aggressively detained girls. So it depends.

22:24

Maria visits Nina

Music

22:27

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: A few days later, she finds reason to regain her optimism. We organise for her to meet her heroine Nina Baginskaya.

22:37

NINA:  Come in, we'll have some tea inside, not in the corridor.

22:47

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Nina normally shares her flat with one of her granddaughters, but like many protesters she's had to disappear.

22:54

Nina and Maria drink tea

NINA: My granddaughter is not here now. She's hiding from authorities in an unknown location.

MARIA:  How old is she?

NINA: She's 23 and she's started to be interested in politics.

23:05

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Maria starts pouring out her anguish.

23:24

Maria and Nina

MARIA: I remember the first days – the 9^th, 10^th and 11^th. I was on Pushkinskaya Square about an hour before Taraykouski was killed. I remember guys in white T-shirts in blood and all this violence. When you see these kinds of things you will never forget it.

NINA:  Never forgive or forget.

23:28

MARIA:  I saw many times when you came to these fascists with your flag… Wow!

NINA: Maria, at my age it's ridiculous to be afraid of anything.  If you are sane and you realise your life is coming to an end, then you want to use your talents and your courage to resist evil. It's a goal of any normal person.

23:56

Alya's house

Music

24:24

Alya collects wood

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  Some people in Nina's generation still support Lukashenko. Alya Valuyevich, who is 80, lives in a hamlet 200 kilometres from Minsk. After 26 years of Lukashenko's rule, the house still has no heating or running water. She has to chop wood and fetch water from a well. But she feels blessed. When the wind doesn't blow the antenna down she can watch State TV.

24:32

ALYA:  I watch the news, I watch Lukashenko speak, I watch "Field of Wonders", I watch "Fashion Verdict", "Let's Get Married". I'm looking for a boyfriend.

25:04

Alya looks at book on Lenin

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Having lived most of her life in Soviet times, she sees Lukashenko as a guarantor of stability. Her monthly pension of 520 roubles – about 260 Australian dollars – covers her basic needs.

25:28

Alya watches TV

25:50

ALYA:  How can I say anything bad about Lukashenko if he is paying?

25:55

Alya interview

We are getting our pensions regularly, on the same day every month! There is nothing to say. The young people shouldn't have protested. What did they achieve? Nothing! 

26:00

Alya stokes fire

A woman can't govern the country like Lukashenko. It's a man's job. Only a man can govern. Not a woman.

26:26

Music

26:43

Maria prepares for court

Music

26:49

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter:  It's an hour before dawn and Maria is getting ready for court, deciding what to pack and what to wear.

MARIA: I'm packing my socks just in case they will decide to give me arrest instead of fines, so I think it is better to be prepared than not to be.

26:54

I didn´t really want to read Shakespeare in prison, but OK. I don't want to get sick.

27:20

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Her main worry is not jail itself, but COVID.

MARIA: You never know, because it's prison. You cannot be safe enough.

27:29

Maria on bus

Music

27:41

Maria greets friend outside court

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: Today, the random roulette of punishment spins in her favour, and she's released with a fine. She knows it may be worse next time, but she has no intention of stopping the fight.

27:49

Maria interview

MARIA: Yes. Of course. That's what all the people do after the arrest. They go and keep protesting.

28:02

Maria and women friends march

Music

28:12

ERIC CAMPBELL, Reporter: And so, on a freezing weekday afternoon she and her friends continue marching. The uprising that began in August has turned into a battle of wills. Maria's generation knows it has no future if Lukashenko stays in power. The coming months will see who prevails – one brutal man with an army of thugs or a peaceful revolution led by women.

MARIA:  Maybe we'll change the history, I don't know, nobody knows.

28:25

Maria interview

It's scary to think about future,

28:56

Women march

but it's even more scary to think what will happen to us if we will stop.

29:00

Music

29:08

Credits [see below]

29:16

Outpoint

29:32