[crowd clapping] crowd: nina, nina! nina, nina! nina, nina! nina! eric campbell: nina baginskaya is a 74-year-old great-grandmother who's become the icon of a revolution. maria pugachjova: i've never been scared since the 9th of august, so what's the reason to be scared?

if you're scared stay at home, and that's it, so. eric: maria pugachjova is a 27-year-old office worker who wants to be just like nina. maria: she's really inspiring person definitely. she's not scared of anything. she doesn't give a flying f-- about all of the police and everything. [crowd chanting] eric: maria and nina are part of an extraordinary uprising led by women in the former soviet republic of belarus. president alexander lukashenko is europe's longest-ruling dictator, but he's faced near daily protests since august when he refused to give up power to a woman. eric: working with local filmmakers, we've been following

some of the key women in this revolution. crew member: we're recording now, eric, we can go. eric: among them svetlana tikhanovskaya, who had to flee the country after she ran for president. eric: alexander lukashenko has declared himself president of belarus, but am i talking to the rightful elected president of belarus now? svetlana tikhanovskaya: for sure you are. [laughing] [horns blaring] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ eric: i started covering lukashenko in the mid-1990s. that's how long he's been in power. even back then it was a similar situation. eric: lukashenko may not have the law on his side, but he does

control the police and security service. and they appear willing to do whatever it takes to stop his opponents. eric: as the abc correspondent based in moscow, i watched how he kept russia's small neighbor in check by crushing protests and jailing any genuine challengers. he did the same ahead of last year's election, locking up the men who ran the opposition, but this time the women took over. [man speaking foreign language over loudspeaker] eric: svetlana tikhanovskaya became the main opposition candidate after her activist husband was jailed. [crowd cheering]

svetlana: my first step was made only for my husband because he was in jail. he couldn't participate himself. but what he was doing for people was very important for him, so i just decided to support him somehow and gave my documents instead of him. eric: her campaign captured the public's imagination, rather more than lukashenko's insistence that women belonged in the kitchen. he even suggested there'd be no point debating her. eric: knowing how ruthless he could be, tikhanovskaya sent her young children across the border to the lithuanian capital

vilnius, but as election day approached it seemed victory was hers. eric: did you ever expect to win? did you expect to get so much support? svetlana: i'm representative of several candidates. i'm, like, not as svetlana tikhanovskaya. i'm a person who is opposite to lukashenko, and all those people who would vote separately for different candidates, they voted for me as for united candidate. eric: but lukashenko had no intention of handing over power. the electoral commission declared he had won by a landslide, claiming one in ten voted for tikhanovskaya. hundreds of thousands stormed the streets in protest to be met by an army of riot police.

when tikhanovskaya challenged the result, she was threatened with jail. svetlana: i have to choose just to stay in belarus and go straight to jail, or i can leave country and join my children in vilnius. that was the choice. eric: that night she was allowed to cross to lithuania to join her five-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son. she recorded a video asking forgiveness for leaving. eric: the protests went on regardless as tikhanovskaya tried to represent them from abroad. the crackdown was immediate and brutal.

within hours, a protestor, alexander taraikovsky, was shot dead. human rights groups claimed hundreds were tortured. state tv labelled them criminals. eric: after mass arrests of men, thousands of women took their place. svetlana: women understood that they have to stand in front of them and to defend them. they didn't want to lead this revolution. they just wanted to support their men. it just happened so naturally. [crowd chanting] ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ eric: none has taken greater risks or inspired more courage than retired geologist nina baginskaya, celebrated here in a popular heavy metal song about the protests. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ crowd: nina! nina! nina! nina! eric: her confrontations with police have become some of the most famous images of the revolution. police arrest any media trying to film the marches, but protestors have been shooting on smartphones and uploading to independent websites.

eric: she divides her time between her apartment in minsk, where she protests almost every day, and a small country cottage a short drive from the capital. eric: even here she raises people's spirits when they're losing hope.

eric: nina baginskaya was an activist even before lukashenko came to power. in 1986, an explosion at the chernobyl nuclear plant in ukraine showered the countryside with deadly radiation. it inspired her to fight for belarus's independence from the soviet union.

♪♪♪ eric: belarus won its freedom from the soviet union in 1991, but when lukashenko came to power three years later, he snuffed out its new democracy and its symbols of independence. the former collective farm boss pushed for reunification with russia, hoping to one day rule both countries. he cracked down on the belarusian language and even banned the national red-and-white flag in favor of

the red-and-green soviet banner. eric: decades on she continues to fight. in her apartment she sews the banned red-and-white flags she takes to each protest. eric: after months of being arrested on a regular basis, she's now become the only protester police dare not detain, lukashenko himself giving a mocking order to leave her be.

eric: not so long ago, maria pugachjova never protested. now it's all she can think about, even when she goes to work or meets friends. maria: people just still live in this reality, and they have no chance not to talk about it because every day something happens. this is my life, then. eric: whenever she can she joins women's marches, lukashenko labeling them prostitutes and alcoholics. maria: it's already week number 13, if i'm not mistaken, so it's unbelievable how people are still believing that we will win soon, 'cause the protests never lasted that long in belarus.

eric: but often it's a battle just to get to a protest. [maria yelling in foreign language] eric: police lock down entire neighborhoods to stop them marching. maria: as you can hear, everyone is screaming "shame, shame, shame." [speaking foreign language] so, they're not letting us join each other, but you can see that people are making noise. so, we're everywhere. everywhere. [horns honking] eric: maria's group retreats to a friend's apartment to wait out the lockdown. maria: so, maybe we can see what is happening so we can join maybe somewhere, so i think we'll have a cup of tea or something. [all speaking foreign language]

eric: a locked apartment doesn't make them safe from arrest. every weekend police have been raiding flats to find protesters, some of the violence recorded secretly and posted to independent news sites. for now, they're safe, but from social media they see police have started grabbing people on the street they just left. eric: police aren't the only danger at mass gatherings. belarus is suffering a crippling covid pandemic, thanks largely

to lukashenko downplaying it. he even suggested drinking vodka could prevent infection. maria: maybe the virus is not that painful as a young guy being killed by police, so covid is not that important for people now, and i understand them. when people ask me what did i do before the 9th of august, i don't remember my life before that. so, covid, yeah, okay, but we still have a person to fight out of this country. [all speaking foreign language] eric: as they wait, they enjoy themselves as best they can.

eric: for maria, joking around is one way of dealing with trauma. maria: remembering the first few days, i saw a lot of blood on the streets. i saw a lot of awful things that are still in front of my eyes and maybe that's one of the reasons, because i'm still protesting, like, every single moment i have. ♪♪♪

maria: i don't remember a day when i didn't saw a dream with police in that dream. so, i'm dreaming how they enter my apartment, how they detain me, so it's some kind of huge national trauma. so, all that is left for us is to fight a peaceful way that we've chosen. eric: finally, it's too dark to join the protest. there'll be more marching tomorrow. [women speaking foreign language] eric: while the women march on the streets, svetlana tikhanovskaya tries to build support internationally.

russia is still backing lukashenko, so she's focusing on the eu, meeting leaders like france's emmanuel macron and germany's angela merkel, and reaching out to joe biden. svetlana: the strategy is to start negotiations with our authorities. not with lukashenko, but with the authorities who can take responsibility. my mission, just to organize new elections where i'm not going to participate. eric: you wouldn't participate? you don't want to be leader? svetlana: no, no, no, i don't want to be the president of belarus because, you know, we are really in deep economic hole, and i think that the ruler should be at least experienced person who knows how to rise up the economy of belarus. eric: for now, she continues to play the role of president in

exile, even delivering a new year's presidential greeting. eric: lukashenko, meanwhile, was filmed at a new year's eve ball dancing with a miss belarus contestant. having forced his opponent to flee, he now mocks her for trying to lead from abroad.

eric: but the lack of central control has been one of the revolution's strengths. people have formed their own protest groups: women, pensioners, neighborhoods. it's meant lukashenko can't stop the revolt by jailing the leaders, but after one particularly violent protest we find maria dejected. riot police arrested her and took her to a station to be charged. maria: they saw me, and they're just like, "i think you have pretty much fun these days, let's go." just like, "what?" "let's go, let's go, let's go." they were smiling and, you know, just like, "we're going for a ride now." eric: in two weeks she'll go to court to face a possible jail term. it's small comfort that as a woman she'll probably

fare better than the men. maria: belarus is not really country full of feminists, so a lot of men think that we're just, you know, just nice girls and that's it. they don't know how much activity and how much of ourselves we put into protests. they have no idea how many emotions, how many strength we are, how many-- everyday routine. they don't know, they think that it's a game for us. maybe that's why. on the other hand, i saw many, many beaten girls, many aggressively detained girls, so it depends. ♪♪♪ eric: a few days later she finds reason to regain her optimism.

we organize for her to meet her heroine nina baginskaya. eric: nina normally shares her flat with one of her granddaughters, but, like many protesters, she's had to disappear. [maria speaking foreign language] eric: maria starts pouring out her anguish.

eric: some people in nina's generation still support lukashenko. alya valuyevich, who's 80, lives in a hamlet 200 kilometers from minsk.

after 26 years of lukashenko's rule, the house still has no heating or running water. she has to chop wood and fetch water from a well, but she feels blessed. when the wind doesn't blow the antenna down, she can watch state tv. eric: having lived most of her life in soviet times, she sees lukashenko as a guarantor of stability. her monthly pension of 520 rubles, about

$260 australian, covers her basic needs. [tv playing in foreign language]

♪♪♪ eric: it's an hour before dawn, and maria is getting ready for court, deciding what to pack and what to wear. maria: i'm packing my socks just in case they will decide to give me arrest instead of fine, so i think it's better to be prepared than not to be. i didn't really want to read shakespeare in prison, but okay. i don't want to get sick, but-- eric: her main worry is not jail itself but covid. maria: you never know. plus, it's prison. you cannot be safe enough. ♪♪♪

eric: today the random roulette of punishment spins in her favor, and she's released with a fine. she knows it may be worse next time, but she has no intention of stopping the fight. maria: yes, of course. that's what all the people do after the arrest. they go and keep protesting. ♪♪♪ eric: and so, on a freezing weekday afternoon, she and her friends continue marching. the uprising that began in august has turned into a battle of wills. maria's generation knows it has no future if lukashenko stays in power.

the coming months will see who prevails, one brutal man with an army of thugs or a peaceful revolution led by women. maria: maybe we'll change the history. i don't know. nobody knows. it's scary to think about future, but it's even more scary to think what will happen to us if we will stop. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ cc by aberdeen captioning www.aberdeen.io 1-800-688-6621