Project duration: 1 December 2025 – 30 June 2026
The events of 2020 in Belarus gave rise to a new category of cultural heritage: the material legacy of civic resistance. Handmade posters and banners, white-red-white flags, election ballots, personal belongings of protesters, documents, independent publications, works of art, digital archives, photographs, and video recordings all became tangible testimonies to one of the most significant periods in contemporary Belarusian history.
Very quickly, however, these objects became more than historical evidence. Under conditions of mass political repression, they also became a source of danger for their owners. Possessing a white-red-white flag, election campaign materials, or other protest-related items could result in criminal prosecution. Thousands of Belarusians were forced to hide these objects, destroy them, or store them in unsuitable conditions. At the same time, state authorities systematically confiscated and destroyed such materials during searches and arrests.
In these circumstances, preserving protest artefacts ceased to be solely a museum task. It became equally a matter of protecting people and safeguarding historical memory.
It was in response to this challenge that the Musealising the Artefacts of the Belarusian Protest Movement project was launched by the Free Belarus Museum in 2025–2026.
The project's primary objective was to establish secure mechanisms allowing Belarusians to transfer both physical and digital artefacts documenting the country's contemporary history to the Museum. At the same time, the project sought to ensure their professional preservation, documentation, cataloguing, and future use in research, exhibitions, and educational programmes.
The project was not intended exclusively for people willing to donate their artefacts. We understood that many individuals were either unable or unwilling to part with objects carrying profound personal and emotional significance. For this reason, another important component of the project was the preparation of educational materials explaining how such artefacts could be safely preserved and digitised at home until circumstances made their transfer possible.
The project therefore combined several areas of expertise: museum practice, archival preservation, historical research, public education, and the development of secure methods of cooperation with people living under an authoritarian regime.
One of the project's first priorities was the development of comprehensive security protocols.
The Museum introduced secure communication systems, designed safe procedures for transferring materials, and developed logistical routes allowing artefacts to leave Belarus through third countries whenever necessary. Parts of the Museum's technical infrastructure were also adapted to minimise risks when working with sensitive materials and communicating with people inside Belarus.
For the first time in its history, the Free Belarus Museum integrated professional museum practice with modern principles of digital and operational security. The procedures developed during the project have since become a permanent part of the Museum's work and continue to be used beyond the project's completion.
The most important work of the project took place away from public attention.
Rather than relying on open public calls, the Museum gradually built a trusted network of people inside Belarus who were willing to help preserve endangered cultural heritage. Some contributed their own artefacts, others helped organise their transportation, while many acted as intermediaries between owners and the Museum.
At the outset, we assumed that fear of political repression would be the main reason why people would hesitate to transfer their artefacts. In practice, the reality proved to be far more complex.
For many Belarusians, these objects were not simply historical documents. They had become deeply personal symbols of hope, dignity, and the expectation of one day returning to a free Belarus.
Some people explained that they did not wish to remove their flags or banners from the country because they believed they would eventually return and reclaim them themselves. Others deliberately left national symbols hidden in Belarusian soil, seeing this as a symbolic act of preserving memory until better times.
This became one of the project's most important discoveries. It demonstrated that museums dealing with contemporary history work not only with physical objects but also with personal memory, emotions, trust, and individual life stories.
For that reason, the project's greatest achievement was not the number of artefacts collected but the relationships built with those who entrusted the Museum with fragments of their own history.
Every transfer took place only when three conditions could be met simultaneously: the owner's informed decision, a secure logistical solution, and the Museum's ability to guarantee the long-term preservation and professional care of each artefact.
Despite the significant security risks and the limited possibility of communicating openly with people inside Belarus, the project exceeded its original expectations.
When planning began, the Museum estimated that it might be possible to rescue and preserve around fifty artefacts directly from Belarus. As the project progressed, however, it became clear that the trusted network established by the Museum, together with carefully designed security and logistical procedures, made it possible to save many more.
By the end of the project, the Free Belarus Museum had acquired 303 physical artefacts, registered as 181 accession records in the Museum's collection. Of these, 143 accession records were transferred directly from Belarus, while additional artefacts were donated by Belarusians living in exile who had preserved objects created and used in Belarus.
The project also significantly expanded the Museum's digital collections. More than 7,000 digital files were added to the archives, creating one of the most comprehensive collections documenting the Belarusian protest movement and civic resistance.
Every object—whether physical or digital—was professionally accessioned, catalogued, documented, and preserved according to contemporary museum standards. As a result, these items became part of a permanent collection available for future research, exhibitions, and educational initiatives.
The project fundamentally transformed the Museum's collection.
Although the Free Belarus Museum already held materials relating to Belarus's recent history, the project made it possible to document the country's democratic movement in far greater depth and across a much broader historical period.
The newly acquired collections cover the period from the early 1990s to the present day.
They include documents produced by political parties and civic organisations, materials from independent trade unions, election campaign documents, archives of regional democratic activists, independent newspapers, campaign materials, artefacts connected with the 2020 presidential election, and numerous personal belongings belonging to participants in the protest movement.
Particularly important are the artefacts documenting the events of August 2020.
Among them are original election ballots that were intended to be destroyed after the vote count, white-red-white flags carried during demonstrations, campaign materials from Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's presidential campaign, documents created by grassroots civic initiatives, and personal archives belonging to participants in the protests.
The collection also includes works of art created in direct response to the events of 2020. One of the most remarkable groups consists of plaster reliefs cast from flowers that people left at spontaneous memorials to victims of police violence, including the memorial dedicated to Alyaksandr Taraikouski.
The geographical scope of the Museum's collections has also expanded considerably. In addition to materials from Minsk, the project brought artefacts from Brest, Mahilioŭ, Babruisk, Hłusk, Kruhlaje, Pruzhany and many other towns across Belarus.
As a result, the collection now presents the democratic movement as a nationwide phenomenon rather than one centred exclusively on the capital.
One of the project's most significant achievements was the development of new approaches to preserving digital heritage.
While physical artefacts have long been recognised as museum objects, large-scale digital collections have only recently begun to receive similar attention within museum practice.
The project enabled the Museum to acquire several unique digital archives.
Among the most valuable are archives from Belarusian protest communities on Telegram, as well as an extensive photographic collection documenting the appearance of white-red-white symbols throughout the urban landscape of Minsk. Together, these materials provide an exceptional visual record of how public space was transformed during the protests of 2020 and 2021.
In addition to these large archives, the Museum also received dozens of individual photographs from people still living in Belarus. Many document small but powerful acts of civic resistance that continued long after 2020—from a white-red-white decorated New Year's tree to photographs of fragments of munitions used during the suppression of peaceful demonstrations.
Working with such materials required the Museum to develop entirely new methods of accessioning, documenting, preserving, and interpreting digital heritage. The project therefore became an important milestone in expanding the Museum's professional expertise in this rapidly developing field.
The project was never intended solely as an effort to expand the Museum's collections.
From the outset, we recognised that many people would be unable to transfer their artefacts safely. Supporting them in preserving these objects where they were became an equally important objective.
To address this need, the Museum created an educational programme entitled "Museum at Home."
Two educational videos were produced explaining practical methods for preserving and digitising historical artefacts in domestic conditions. They introduced basic museum standards for storing paper documents, photographs, textiles, and other fragile materials, while also demonstrating how to create high-quality digital copies.
Together, the videos received approximately 10,300 views, with around 99% of viewers located in Belarus.
The Museum also organised online workshops dedicated to preserving private collections and digitising historical materials. Although security concerns inevitably limited participation from within Belarus, these workshops became another important way of sharing professional knowledge and maintaining contact with people committed to preserving the country's recent history.
The project demonstrated that even when physical artefacts cannot be transferred, museums can continue to protect historical memory through education, expert guidance, and the dissemination of practical knowledge.
The project culminated in the exhibition Depatriation, presented at the Free Belarus Museum in Warsaw from 9 to 26 June 2026.
For the first time, the public was able to see dozens of artefacts that had only recently been transferred from Belarus after years of being hidden under conditions of constant risk. Most of these objects had never before been exhibited.
The exhibition's title, Depatriation, was coined by the Museum's curatorial team. It refers to the forced displacement of cultural heritage from its country of origin in order to ensure its survival. More broadly, the exhibition explored the evacuation of a nation's material memory under conditions of political repression.
The exhibition featured artefacts acquired during the project, including election ballots from the 2020 presidential election, documents produced by civic organisations, white-red-white flags, protest objects, works of art, personal belongings of participants in the democratic movement, digital collections, and archival photographs.
The exhibition was conceived by Belarusian conceptual artist Aliaksandr Adamau, whose curatorial approach focused not only on the objects themselves but also on the people behind them—those who created, protected, concealed, and ultimately entrusted them to the Museum despite the risks involved.
Approximately 300 visitors attended the exhibition. For many, it was the first opportunity to encounter original artefacts of the Belarusian protest movement in a museum setting and to view them not simply as political objects but as part of Belarus's contemporary cultural heritage.
The exhibition was accompanied by the publication of the Free Belarus Museum's second collection catalogue, presenting photographs and scholarly descriptions of more than fifty key artefacts acquired through the project.
The project attracted considerable attention in both Belarusian and Polish media. The exhibition was covered by leading independent Belarusian outlets as well as Polish media, helping introduce the project and its objectives to a broader international audience.
The project's significance extends far beyond the number of artefacts it succeeded in preserving.
It demonstrated that documenting the contemporary history of Belarus requires fundamentally different approaches from those traditionally used in museum collecting. In a country where the possession of historical objects may expose their owners to persecution, protecting people becomes inseparable from protecting heritage.
During the project, the Museum developed and tested secure procedures for communication, documentation, transportation, and accessioning of politically sensitive artefacts. These methods have become an integral part of the Museum's long-term practice and will continue to support future initiatives involving collaborators inside Belarus.
The project also advanced the Museum's work with digital heritage. Large-scale digital archives, online communities, photographs, audiovisual materials, and other born-digital objects required the development of new standards for documentation, preservation, and scholarly description. These experiences have significantly expanded the Museum's professional expertise.
Perhaps the project's most unexpected discovery, however, concerned the relationship between people and the artefacts they preserved.
Many participants explained that these objects were far more than historical evidence. They represented hope, dignity, personal memory, and an unfinished story. Some deliberately chose not to remove their flags and other symbolic objects from Belarus because they hoped one day to return and recover them themselves. Others regarded hidden national symbols as a symbolic promise that both memory and resistance continued to exist, even when forced underground.
These conversations revealed that preserving contemporary heritage is not simply about collecting objects. It is equally about understanding memory, trust, responsibility, and the emotional significance that these artefacts continue to hold for those who lived through the events they represent.
Although the Musealising the Artefacts of the Belarusian Protest Movement project formally concluded in June 2026, its impact continues to shape the work of the Free Belarus Museum.
All artefacts acquired during the project have become part of the Museum's permanent collection and continue to undergo scholarly research, cataloguing, and conservation. They already serve as the basis for exhibitions, publications, educational programmes, and ongoing historical research.
The project also established a lasting network of cooperation with people inside Belarus, researchers, museum professionals, and other partners. These relationships continue to support the preservation and documentation of contemporary Belarusian history beyond the project's official timeframe.
The security procedures, logistical solutions, and methods for working with digital heritage developed during the project have become permanent components of the Museum's institutional practice. They now provide the foundation for future collecting initiatives involving endangered cultural heritage.
The collections assembled through the project are already generating new museum projects. In particular, the photographic archive documenting white-red-white symbols throughout Minsk has become the foundation of the exhibition "2020: Minsk Speaks." Other newly acquired collections are expected to form the basis of future exhibitions and research initiatives.
Ultimately, the project achieved far more than rescuing hundreds of artefacts from possible destruction.
It established a sustainable framework for preserving, researching, interpreting, and presenting the material legacy of Belarus's democratic movement. In doing so, it contributed not only to the growth of the Museum's collections but also to the development of new approaches to safeguarding cultural heritage created under conditions of repression, political violence, and forced displacement.
