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Belarus

Fiction

Stories from The Zekameron

During the protests in Belarus in 2020, poet, writer and lawyer Maksim Znak was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. While in prison, he began writing and smuggling out The Zekameron, one...

Maksim Znak March 18 2025
Poetry

(2020–2023)

In October 2019, PEN Belarus started monitoring violations of rights in the cultural sphere. Since the stolen election in 2020 Belarus has experienced an unprecedented wave of repression against civil...

Text: Taciana Niadbaj November 14 2024
Poetry

Poem from Prison

In November 2020, Kacharyna Andreyeva covered a demonstration honoring the memory of artist Raman Bandarenka, who was beaten to death during a protest. Thousands of people were arrested and Andrejeva...

Text: Katsjaryna Andrejeva November 14 2024
Article

NOTES FROM THESE TROUBLED TIMES

This text, signed by the pseudonym E.V., closely describes the course of events surrounding the liquidation of the Belarusian PEN and the Writers' Union. The liquidation was part of the massive...

Text: E.V. December 06 2021
Article

With my head lying on a plastic bottle - prison diary.

More than 36,000 people have been arrested in Belarus over the past year for political reasons. The author, Andrej Dyńko, is still under criminal investigation. His colleagues, the editors of Naša...

Text: Dynko Andrej November 15 2021
Poetry

Protest poems by Dmitry Strotsev

Dmitry Strotsev's poetry moves in its very own border country in between political themes, issues of power abuse, religiosity, and spirituality. He illustrates the government’s abusive violence and...

Poems: Dmitry Strotsev November 15 2021
Poetry

Rose Pandemic

We woke up. We heard voices calling us, we heard our own voices crying out. The people’s uprising in Belarus became a mighty wave erupting from somewhere that looked like nowhere, which wasn’t true...

Poems: Valzhyna Mort January 20 2021
Poetry

Unprotected

The crackdown on the peaceful protesters during the first days of August was strikingly violent. Many were arrested and beaten, at least one person was killed. In ”The Unprotected”, a series of poems...

poems: Hanna Komar December 15 2020
Poetry

Prison Poems

In early September, the poet, musician, and PEN member Uladzimir Liankevich was arrested during a peaceful manifestation in Minsk. He was sentenced to six days in prison. He was again arrested in...

Poems: Uladzimir Liankevich December 15 2020
Poetry

Protest poems

On October 21, one of Belarus' foremost poets, Dmitry Strotsev (b. 1963) disappeared without a trace. The day after, his name appeared on a list of interns at the infamous Akrestsina Detention Centre...

Poems: Dmitry Strotsev November 29 2020
Editorial

When Hatred Becomes the Air We Breathe

What is hate speech? Hate speech differs from any other use of language since it is used only to threaten, silence, and...

Text: Casia Bromberg September 17 2020
Article

A Frozen Soviet Fragment

Belarus is often called Europe’s last dictatorship. However, oppression within the country does not adhere to the more common nationalistic model—quite the opposite.

Text: Dmitri Plax September 17 2016
Article

Europe's last dictatorship

Belarus is described as Europe’s last dictatorship. The country has had the same president for twenty years and is the only one in Europe still employing capital punishment. The regime has also...

Text: Dmitrij Strotsev October 13 2015

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