2023-10-22 16:56:15
At the entrance to the European Humanitarian University (EHU), housed in a former convent in the old town of Vilnius, a poster in four languages – English, Lithuanian, Russian and Belarusian – is stuck on the entrance door: “The mission of the university is to encourage the development of civil society. » How ? By offering quality studies in the human sciences. This is what made Lia, from a town in northeastern Belarus, decide to sign up.
“Education is declining in my country, confides the communication student, I don’t want to be subjected to propaganda. » Opposed to the war, Ignat fled Moscow at the start of the intervention in Ukraine. “In Moscow, some teachers openly support the intervention in Ukraine”, he laments. In Vilnius, he began studying political science.
Lukashencko and Putin, the best recruiters
In recent years, this private establishment has become a haven for students from the region battered by authoritarian regimes and war. More than 600 admissions in the first year, despite the fees (€1,500 on average per quarter), “a second record year”welcomes the university administration.
For Uladzislau Ivanou, professor of political science, we don’t have to look far to explain this success: « It was the Lukashenko and Putin regime that did all the work (recruitment). » Belarusians remain in the majority there, but Ukrainians and Russians are more numerous every year. In the space of five years, the number of students doubled and the university opened up to countries in the region.
Tensions arise from time to time, fueled by the conflict in Ukraine. Liudmila Ulyashyna, professor of law, particularly remembers the day of February 24, 2022, when Russian troops entered Ukraine : “It was a very difficult moment, already to understand what was happening and how we were going to continue our relations between the different nationalities present on campus. »
One of his colleagues, originally from the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where Russian forces committed a terrible massacre, took refuge in Lithuania. “She considered that Belarus was also responsible for all this”, remembers the law professor. Since then, relations have calmed down.
Ignat says he has never had any problems in Lithuania. “Everyone knows that if you are Russian in Lithuania, it means you are against the war”, he summarizes. But to obtain his residence permit in Vilnius, he still had to explicitly say that he was against it and specify that he considered the Crimean peninsula to be Ukrainian.
Under threat from the FSB
Members of the student association, Ignat and Lia both regret that most of their classmates are not very politically engaged. “Dozens of students came here after being expelled from their universities in Belarus, explains Andrei Vazyanau, lecturer in social sciences. They keep quiet about it because the risks involved are much greater today in their country of origin than in the past. »
So, when Natalia (1), a student in public policy and tourism, returns to see her family in Belarus, she simply tells the border guards that she is pursuing a master’s degree in social sciences, without specifying in which establishment. “To say that you study at the EHU is to run the risk of being questioned by the FSB (ex-KGB) »she emphasizes.
Liudmila Ulyashyna wants to believe that “the EHU can be a place where it is possible to create a better future”. Natalia chose to study public policy so that, she says, she could change the face of her country when the time comes. A study showed that before the 2020 revolt in Belarus, severely repressed by the regime, students returned en masse to their country once they had graduated. Today, the majority of them can no longer return.
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