Hello everyone. My name is Maksim Shabutski.
In July 2020, I tried to organize a mass protest of Belarusians against Lukashenko’s regime by appealing to officers and paratroopers, and by writing a revolutionary plan “Bagration.” To be honest, it didn’t really work out.
On the very first day, I was declared wanted, and out of desperation I had to go deep underground. For a year and a half, I stayed in Belarus and ran a YouTube channel. Throughout 2021 I consistently ranked in the top five by views. And in spring 2022, I “jumped” over the Polish fence and ended up in the EU.
For almost the entire year of 2023, I was a volunteer fighter in the Kalinowski Regiment. If you look at my combat history through the prism of effectiveness, it turned out about the same as with the “Bagration” plan.
Instead of destroying the Kantemirovskaya division, the only thing I effectively destroyed were two intervertebral discs (I was in Kyiv’s 6th hospital, have medical records and scans), and I also seriously injured my right hand (surgery at the Trauma Research Institute, medical records available).
In 2024, I took part in the elections to the Coordination Council (Independent Belarusians faction) and tried to create a Belarusian unit within the structure of the Polish Armed Forces. That didn’t really work out either.
Representatives of the Polish authorities very diplomatically explained that (quoting literally): “They would sooner become part of Lithuania than have Belarusians walking around their country with patches of the Polish Republic.” I’m sure in their place I would have reacted the same way, but still it was very, very painful.
In 2025, my body decided it was time to send me the bill for several years of permanent stress, which resulted in deep depression with total apathy towards everything. Plus, sharp mood swings multiplied by insomnia.
As “the smartest man in the world,” I firmly decided to ignore all the symptoms and professionally went into stand-up comedy. It lasted exactly one mediocre set.
Then, as “the smartest man in the world,” I decided to change strategy and just get a normal job to distract myself from problems. I changed three jobs, from production to delivery, but each time the story ended the same: first positivity, then back pain, then sick leave, lots of injections (mostly Dexalgin and Diclofenac), dismissal, and falling into even deeper depression.
As “the smartest man in the world,” I would have made a fourth attempt, but the problem is that I live in a village on the outskirts of a small Polish town where there is one small shopping center, 156 churches, and a couple of thousand Ukrainian refugees who are looking for work from morning to evening. At least that’s what I was always told in the local unemployment office every time I tried to sell them the story of my diploma from the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Belarus…
To sum up.
I clearly understood that it was time to change my life. That’s why I left the Coordination Council and the whole opposition “movement.” I think for good. God sees, I tried…
Now I have only one way forward – moving to Warsaw, where there are plenty of job options that suit both my back and my mental state. The problem is that it’s hard to move having only a laptop and a broken car from 1997 which (after Ukrainian roads) is impossible to sell, and whose insurance, by the way, expired on August 31.
A month ago, my pride would never have allowed me to ask for help like this. But the irony is that depression also has another side of the coin: at some point you just stop caring about public opinion…
I hope for your understanding.
Long live Belarus!
Update from the fundraising team: while we were preparing this text for publication, news appeared that special proceedings have been initiated against Maksim. The charges involve several articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus. Among them, Art. 357 part 1 (Conspiracy to seize state power), Art. 361-1 part 1 (Founding an extremist entity), Art. 369-1 (Discrediting the Republic of Belarus), etc.
Fundraising goal:
€1900
€1100 – housing for 2-3 months
€200 – moving to Warsaw
€450 – food and medicines during job search
€150 – insurance