We left Belarus as stateless refugees.

Years after we left, the Lukashenko regime put in place restrictions that made it challenging for us to ever return.

For most of my life, I have never looked back.

My family has deep roots in that land.

These were the Jews who stayed when when the Russians cut up Poland, when the French invaded, and when the Germans invaded twice.

I'm hoping some documentation will soon validate family lore that goes back at least 200 years.

As an adult I have never been able to visit my hometown, see my ancestors' graves, or meet the children of my parents' friends who stayed.

I've known it all through care packages we sent, pictures sent our way, and some googling.

Most of the time I gave it little thought.

Before 2020 I regarded it as a hopeless place.

The KGB is still called the KGB! The government still dominates people's lives. There is still widespread forced labor.

An entire generation grew up *post Soviet* and yet not. I shudder when I think what I'd be if we stayed.

The material poverty in Belarus is hard to fathom from Western eyes. This is not a "developing" country.

It's one where the whole population is literate, and it was part of the heartland of Soviet manufacturing.

But men with guns only care about their own prosperity.

I didn't mourn most of this because the regime sent us clear messages for most of my life.

Bobruisk, where I was born, has a long Jewish history. Or I should say had. It's a small community today.

Here's what Lukashenko had to say about Bobruisk and its Jews in 2007:

There was never another Belarus to imagine. Until 2020.

Belarus become a different country in my eyes this year. People took to the streets by the tens of thousands when a dictator faked election results.

You can imagine how pleased I was seeing these images out of Bobruisk. https://twitter.com/HannaLiubakova/status/1287110556118405120?s=19

Belarus isn't dominating the headlines in America because we have had our own acute challenges to navigate.

But 5 months after a dictator lied about an election and refused to step down, the people there are still fighting for a real democracy.

Belarusians are still organizing. They're still being kidnapped. They're still protesting. They're still being tortured. They're still marching for freedom and dignity.

And they're doing all of this while the government has left them to fend for themselves during COVID.

It's difficult to convey in words how proud I am of Belarusians.

There's no real tradition of civil disobedience. No real experience with democracy. And hell, they've been led by fierce women!

Not one of those is a thing to take for granted anywhere in Eastern Europe.

I would like to tell you that this story will have a happy ending. That the Belarusian people who are fighting so bravely will win.

But this is the land at the center of a book called "Bloodlands." The ambitions of empires and gangsters always leave heartbreak in their wake.

I don't know how this struggle will play out. Cynicism and pessimism only serve the interests of the powerful.

But I hope one day it will not be a land of heartbreak. I would like to see it once more.