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Today is Belarusian Independence Day from the Soviet Union in 1991.

I can’t describe the feeling of that week for you.

I was getting ready for the start 5th grade at a new school. We had gone shopping for notebooks and school supplies in the days before. I didn’t buy a Young Pioneer scarf because I declined to join the previous spring.

We woke up on August 19 to hear that military hardliners had mounted a putsch and declared a state of emergency.

All we did that week was walk the dog and drink tea while my Dad smoked in the kitchen.

3 days later the putsch collapsed, Yeltsin the opposition’s hero, and Gorbachev returned to Moscow with his grandkids in tow.

3 days later, #Belarus declared independence from the Soviet Union.

We wouldn’t be diplomatically recognized until December 25, 1991 when it became clear to George H.W. Bush that USSR would, in fact, let the republics go.

And yes, I heard and knew everything. No one hid anything from me. Being 10 isn’t what it used to be.