Professor, PhD of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Doctor of Pedagogics, former rector of the Belarusian State University, ex-chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Belarusian Social Democratic Party) Hramada. He stopped working in the speciality after repressions following his participation in the 2006 elections and political actions.

Alyaksandr Kazulin was born on November 25, 1955 in Minsk. His father worked as a foreman at the Minsk Tractor Plant, his mother was a teacher.

Alyaksandr Kazulin made a career at the Belarusian State University, where he graduated from Department of Mechanics and Mathematics and later the graduate school, and at the Ministry of Education, where he began working in Soviet times. He was a Deputy and then the First Deputy Minister of Education of Belarus (1992-96). In 1996, he returned to the post of BSU rector. At the BSU, he proved himself a reformer: it was the first institution in Belarus which switched to a multi-level system of training based on the model of European universities. He helped Pavel Sevyarynets during the defense of his thesis. The dean did not want to accept it, since it was written in taraškievica.

At the same time there was information that he got rid of the politically disloyal students and instructors.

From 1998 to 2001, he was a member of the Belarus government (Chairman of the Council of Rectors of the Republic, member of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus).

He was dismissed from the University by Alyaksandr Lukashenka in connection with the scandal over the unitary enterprise Unidragmet BSU, from which almost 35 kilograms of gold, which cost more than $300 thousand, were stolen. This was the beginning of the conflict with the president.

In 2005 he founded the National Movement Will of the People, which was  joined, among others, by a Belarusian national poet Nil Hilevich, academician Henadz Lych and Pyatro Masherau’s daughter Natallia, who also declared her presidential ambitions. His political career was not marked by great achievements. The same year, Mr Kazulin headed the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Belarusian Social Democratic Party) Hramada.

In 2006, Mr Kazulin  had several criminal cases launched against him. The first one — for disorderly conduct, when he tried to register as his party’s delegate at the 3rd All-Belarus People’s Assembly, for which he was beaten by the head of the Interior Ministry special forces Dzmitry Paulyuchenka and then taken to the police station where he smashed a portrait of Mr Lukashenka. During the dispersal of the unauthorized rally on Freedom Day, Mr Kazulin was detained and accused of  ‘organizing group activities with the use of explosives.”

Mr Kazulin was sentenced by 5.5 years in colony. In 2006, in prison, he staged a 53-day long hunger strike to draw attention of the UN Security Council to the situation in Belarus. He lost more than 40 kg. During his stay in prison, he was not allowed to see his wife, a cancer patient. Later, it was very difficult for him to get a permission to attend her funeral. In 2008, he was pardoned by Lukashenka’s decree.

While in prison, Mr Kazulin took part in the scandal of his party: he allegedly wrote a letter while in prison, where he demanded dismissal of his deputies due to the falling popularity of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party. The deputies expressed doubt over the origin and the author of the text. However, prior to Kazulin’s release from prison, his colleagues chose a new leader: it was his deputy Anatol Lyaukovich, who led the party while the chairman was in custody. A few months later, Alyaksandr Kazulin left the BSDP.

Mr Kazulin has two daughters — Volha and Yulia.