Salihorsk: Young Front Activists Collected 1 796 Signatures in Support of Belarusian Language

According to Nasha Niva

In the beginning of February activists of Salihorsk branch an unregistered organization Young Front started gathering signatures in support of the Belarusian language. They also held a number of pickets and informational actions and directed appeals to private and state enterprises of the city.

All in all they made 4 proposals: to Belarusify the public transport, to organize a literary contest My Ancestors’ Language in all educational establishments of the city, organize a Belarusian-language talk show on the Belarusian TV and dedicate a column in the local state newspaper Salihorski vesnik to the history and culture of Slutsk area.

On 27 February the youth activists had a meeting with the city’s Major Aliaksandr Rymasheuski and passed to him the collected signatures. An activist of the Young Front Ivan Shyla commented on the results of the meeting: ‘They accepted and registered our signatures, but we can hardly hope for favorable attitude of the authorities’. According to Shyla, the Major said the youth were acting on behalf of the politicians and organizations that have been bought by America and proposed to agitate Salihorsk citizens for participation of subbotniks and raise money for the ice palace that is being built in the city. During the meeting Young Front also informed the Major about the upcoming spring actions, to which he again responded that they were doing wrong things and could rather milk cows at collective farms.