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Dr. Anatoli Mikhailov is the rector of the European Humanities University – the Belarusian Western-thinking University that was recently expelled from the country for contradicting state ideology. Mikhailov, a professor of philosophy, sat down with The Baltic Times to discuss his experiences with democracy and education.

Your mission statement says you are educating the future of Belarus, has this changed since your expulsion from the country?

No, it remains the same. We created this university in Belarus to bring it where it belongs. We were cut off from the civilized world in the Soviet Union and in order to be integrated into Europe – we are not in the near east or Latin America – we have to be integrated into the intellectual landscape of the West. Under Soviet leadership we had the communist ideology – everything was forbidden, everything was under control. First of all there was this destructive influence in social science and humanities. It was clear that a transition from a totalitarian society into democracy needed a totally different vision. This vision was not available; this vision implies a lot of intellectual activity, not just repeating some schemes. I think what is happening now in Belarus it is a result of not knowing reality, but imposing a strange visual thinking – everything will go in the wrong direction. Belarus is now in isolation and events there create concern for everybody.

Why did Lukashenka send you away?

Lukashenka himself acknowledged publicly while speaking before students in Brest that the minister of education who was blamed for the closure of the university had nothing to do with it – he said it was his own personal decision. He said this university was going to create an elite in Belarus looking to the West and we don’t need such people – we will educate our own elite.

How would you describe Belarusian education?

This education still remains in the shadow of totalitarian heritage from our soviet past, with one exception. In natural sciences, like mathematics and technical sciences, there was a certain level of development in schools and also a certain high level of professionalism because natural sciences couldn’t exist within the frame of the nation borders.

Just the other day there was the publication of the new decree by the minister of education on how they [lecturers] teach the state ideology and the ideological upbringing of students. In Belarus "BA” and "MA” mean nothing. In Belarus they have established a Soviet style education without the existence of a Soviet Union at all. Intellectual resources are even more limited, so the situation is just a disaster.

Do Belarusian people want to be Western?

The problem is that at the beginning of the ’90s, in the former Soviet Union, critical potential regarding democratic transition was available. Hundreds of thousands of people were in the streets in Minsk, long before Kiev or Tbilisi. Unfortunately, we underestimated the difficulty of these transitions and the intellectual capacity simply wasn’t available. Certain kinds of wishful thinking were imposed upon this reality, resulting in the opposite result than expected. Also, no proper intellectual assistance was given to Belarus and this rare chance was spoilt and not properly used – the result was the isolation of Belarus and confrontation with the whole world.

What does your university offer?

We remain a university for Belarus – we were expelled, but we hope the time will come when we can return. Now we are a university in exile. We are the only university for Belarusian students where free education is given without state ideology and without state control and almost all of our students come from Belarus. For them it is vitally important because if they go to the state institutions, they will get knowledge that is not, in reality, knowledge at all. To expect that they would have a future [with state education] is nonsense.

How do you find the academic environment in Lithuania?

It was unexpected that we would be closed – it was a brutal action. We had cooperated already with Lithuanian institutions in humanities and other institutions, but after we were parachuted here, it has been a new reality for us and I hope that our presence here will contribute to the internationalization of higher education here in Lithuania. We live in a global world and education and research does not recognize national borders. The quality of education is based upon criteria by the international community. We had connections with important institutions in Europe and America and we are in the process of reestablishment of all these ties and making new cooperation – this will be fruitful for the educational landscape of Lithuania. The coordination of intellectual skills is important and we will become an important part of academic life here in Lithuania.

How would you compare democracy in Belarus and Lithuania and how is it progressing?

To speak about democracy in Belarus is very strange – it is developing in the opposite direction. Belarus is identified by Europe and America as being far from a democratic country. In Lithuania, the decision was made and the European integration process has begun. It is clear that the process of transformation [reveals] a lot of obstacles and problems, but this is a normal process. What is important is to find the way to mobilize intellectual resources, to address crucial issues of social transformation and these resources are never adequate to challenges. The great danger is just to apply something that was functioning in some other country. The reality should be that the country finds its own vision and way of transformation.

It is evident what it means to have Western experience – what we have now in Europe and North America are developments that have centuries of interplays of various factors – in literature, in philosophy, in legal thinking, everything. This background is necessary, so it’s important not simply to believe [that other] recipes and themes could be simply applied. This is a very challenging activity – how do you apply something that was created in a different cultural environment and with a different history and civilization to a place that isn’t very favorable?

Are other institutions suffering in Belarus?

A lot of attempts to create something in Belarus that was independent were crushed and closed. Our university was also closed. Unfortunately, assistance to Belarus could be much more targeted, much more professional. You need acupuncture strategy that is precisely done – not "blah blah blah” and wishful thinking. Social organisms need special treatment and we have to learn lessons from previous mistakes.

Apart from the ideological influence, how does Belarusian education differ from Western education?

Western education is not under strict control of the bureaucratic strategy – there is a tradition of academic continuation and there is a huge activity going on in education, but still there are problems in education. There needs to be reform in Europe for instance. Certain conservatism still exists – there are positive, but also a lot of negative sides to this. Education should help the new generation confront challenges that are forthcoming.

So what is the sense of teaching something that is outdated? For example this financial crisis in the U.S. – where was the knowledge and the predictions? How did this suddenly happen? All the great specialists in financial knowledge and Nobel Prize winners, but it was like an earthquake. So we have to be aware of a dramatically changing world. If we learn something that was relevant in the 19th or 20th century, then what could we expect?

By Adam Mullett