Colin Kaepernick, Rachel Hill…GM Viktor Kupreichik & The Man Who Defied Hitler!
If you are a fan of history, and browse the same obscure corners of the internet that I do then you would have surely read the backstory to the following photograph.
Perhaps, like me, you may have even seen it as part of a political post on Facebook, or other social media platforms as a way of highlighting and supporting one of two seemingly opposing movements. I have either seen people use it as a way of showing support for the decisions made by both Colin Kaepernick, who chose to kneel during the national anthem while his teammates stood, which was his way of protesting against racial injustice,
Or later, Rachel Hill, who chose to stand for the very same song when all of her teammates knelt, because of what it means to her military family and herself.
The comparison, supporters of both athletes, and by extension movements have made (i.e. in standing up for what you believe in despite being the only one) harkens back to that first photograph of a man most commonly known as August Landmesser (there are competing claims that it could also be Gustav Wegert. There is no way to know for sure), who refused to give the nazi salute to Adolf Hitler, instead crossing his arms across his chest in defiance during an appearance by the Nazi leader in 1936. Landmesser openly had a relationship with a Jewish woman named Irma Eckler, who he married “illegally” (according to the Nazi laws of the time), and far beyond just refusing to salute the evil dictator was actually sent to a concentration camp for refusing to end that relationship, with both he and Eckler most likely being killed during the war. Alternatively, Gustav Wegert, the other candidate, habitually refused to salute based on religious convictions as according to his family. Wegert survived the war.
While I, as an American support the constitutional rights of Colin Kaepernick, and Rachel Hill to stand up for what they believe in, the simple fact is comparing them to the likes of August Landmesser/Gustav Wegert is inherently misguided. While it is true that these athletes risk their livelihoods, or their standing among their fellow citizens, the key difference is what they ultimately don’t risk losing is their freedom, or life at the hands of the government. I say that without somehow trivially dismissing the risk to their job. What’s more in Stalin’s USSR, the path towards a guilty verdict, and the boiler plate death sentence and execution, often began with a loss of one’s position at work. At the same time in no way can it be said that this is even remotely the case here in the United States.
Which is where GM Viktor Kupreichik and chess come into the picture.
I’m not going to discuss his career as a chess player here, as many others have done so before me and there is already a wealth of information out there on the topic. Suffice it to say he was definitely an exciting, poor man’s version of Mikhail Tal if going back to my standard boxing analogies, and that ultimately made him an excellent player, as well as a fan favorite.
Here though our discussion will focus more on what he did away from the board, many many years ago, and a few years before the true explosion of the internet, which probably would have made this episode that much more meaningful.
For anyone who follows current affairs, and ever since this year’s controversial August 9th election in the Republic of Belarus where Viktor Kupreichik was from and lived his whole life, hundreds of thousands of Belarusian citizens have filled the streets demanding an end to the rule of Alexander Lukashenko, a man who has served as president for an eye catching 26 years, and has infamously held the title of “Europe’s last dictator.”
I didn’t much care about this as an American before the election, not because I didn’t support the people there, so much as just having long come to terms with the fact that ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, one authoritarian government has been replaced by multiple localized versions of the same thing (albeit with some exceptions like for instance in the Baltic states).
For many years Lukashenko was just one such example to me. That is until a few days before their election, when something happened which altered my own personal views.
During an event in Minsk, two local DJs were arrested for playing a song called “Change” by my idol, the Soviet musician Viktor Tsoy. The authorities came, broke their equipment, and jailed the pair for ten days for what are simply inexplicable reasons to a person living in a place like the United States.
Such is the way of things in Lukashenko’s Belarus.
This event triggered something within me and with my cousin WFM Hana Itkis in toe, we went down to the Belarusian Consulate in Manhattan, where I put on my own pitiful one-man protest playing the guitar and performing that very same song in front of the building (the video is in Russian but you get the gist).
Nobody, including the random pedestrians walking by, or the three police officers across the street, cared, or objected which was partly my point. I had the freedom to do something, that many people in this world either do not have, or take for granted: I could freely criticize and speak my mind. Now one could say I was criticizing a foreign government, to which I will simply mention that on the way there I saw (and it wasn't the first time mind you) a man standing on a street corner holding anti-Trump signs and speaking his mind much the same way.
Americans like Rachel Hill, and Colin Kaepernick, and I have that right, thanks to the sacrifices of generations of uniformed, and none-uniformed individuals and it is important to never forget that it is something which can get people get jailed, or killed in other countries even to this day. It is an important right we exercise but it is still not the same thing as what was done in that photo by Landmesser/Wegert because of the danger presented by the government they protested.
GM Viktor Kupreichik was also responsible for one such fairly obscure act.
The year was 1997 and held was a vote to determine the new president of the Olympic Committee of Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko was just three years into his ongoing twenty-six-year tenure, and the sort of voting about anything which goes on in authoritarian regimes of that nature, usually rubber stamps decisions earlier made behind closed doors and by the dictator himself. That by the way, is why people like Kim Jong Un win with 100% of the vote counted in North Korea, while the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein limited himself to a modest 97% in Iraq.
The result was pre-determined and the 116 votes in favor of Lukashenko, were partly opposed by just two abstentions from a pair of female athletes and one single, lone vote “against.”
The vote was made by the then vice-president of the Belarusian Chess Federation, GM Viktor Kupreichik.
According to an interview given in 2010, Kupreichik justified his symbolic act as follows: “I didn’t vote against Lukashenko, but against breaking the law. The Olympic Charter states that this position cannot be occupied by a person who holds an official position in the government. I defended my decision as such-we were breaking the law of the Olympic Charter. I felt, and still feel that if there is a document, we should respect its will first and foremost.
Many people told me I made the right decision, because it was an honest one. A knight doesn’t move like a bishop, or a pawn like a queen. I always fought for fairness, and was always an admirer of the truth…”
Understanding the very nature of Kupreichik’s choice, is hard without knowing the context of how Lukashenko has dealt with any opposition to his rule throughout the past quarter century. For instance, in this crucial election the main opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was but the wife of the man Sergey Tikhanovsky, who planned to run for president himself, but who Lukashenko ultimately threw in jail weeks before the election.
As near as I can tell Kupreichik was thankfully never punished for his vote even if he very well could have been and certainly in more ways than one.
Alexander Lukashenko remains president of the Belarus Olympic Committee, as well as the entire country to this day.
While GM Viktor Kupreichik passed away three years ago.
By writing this post I can only hope that his humble act of defiance against tyranny will live on, both as an example to others, and as a way for free people, like myself and those in America, and other countries to both appreciate, and exercise the liberty they already enjoy even while trying to make their countries a better place for future generations.