Dear friends!
We would like to give the floor to Andrei and Anna — former political prisoners, who were in Hrodna prison for more than half a year in the case of participation in peaceful protests in 2020. Then they managed to leave for Lithuania, and here they had a child. The spouses are not unreasonably afraid for their loved ones, so we decided to make this collection anonymous. Also, for security reasons, we will change some details of their story. Let's turn the floor over to Andrei.
Some time ago, in 1996, I wrote my first story about the Chernobyl disaster, which I witnessed and as a result of which my family had to leave their homeland, urgently leaving to escape death.
I had no possibility to publish my story at that time — it was impossible either technically or due to the situation in the country. So I had to keep the manuscript for almost ten years until I met a journalist from Italy who helped me to translate it into Italian and publish it abroad. This is how my first novel “the title we hid for security reasons — BYSOL note” appeared, which was included in the high school curriculum of many schools in the north of Italy.
Later I published this story in Russian, but could not publish it in Belarus because of the ban on this subject for publishers.
Today, 38 years later, my family and I are again forced to leave our home, saving our lives, because disaster has come to our Belarus again. And if in 1986 the tragedy of the accident at the Chernobyl plant gave birth to an invisible evil — radiation, then the tragedy of the Chernobyl disaster has brought about a new disaster in Belarus.
I cannot even imagine that in our time some people can do such things to other people. I can't understand why I, a grown man, handcuffed in a crucified and helpless state, put my head against the wall and started beating with hands and feet...police officers, who are as old as my sons….Where do they get this cruelty and most importantly — I don't understand WHY? ….…
They knocked out some of my teeth, damaged my internal organs and ribs. The beatings were so severe that even 5 days later, when I was transferred from the TDF to Prison No. 1 in Hrodna, the doctor refused to take me from the convoy after seeing the marks of beatings all over my body.
My mind was screaming when I heard my wife's story of what she went through at the TDF. She begged to be sent to prison as she could not bear any more torture in the TDF. She still cries at the slightest mention of it.
We were in Hrodna prison for more than 6 months. It was the most difficult time and test. To know that your beloved person is in a cell somewhere and is being tortured and abused, and you can't do anything is an unbearable pain that kept me awake every night, and this pain hasn't gone away months after the prison.
I tried to find some way to encourage my spouse. I hid notes and left special signs for her that only we could understand, asked my cellmates to pass on information. I did everything possible to support my wife.
There were many worthy and famous politicians, journalists, activists and just real Belarusians in the prison casemates, with whom we crossed paths in prison No. 1 in Hrodna. Unfortunately, these walls saw a lot of grief and deaths, to which we involuntarily became witnesses, being in its walls for a long time.
I remember the heart-rending screams of the mother-wife of the priest Lubov Rezanovich, who was on trial for the case of Mikalai Autukhovich. Everyone treated her as insane, although it is difficult to remain normal when your whole family, including your husband and son Pavel, is in prison and you are kept in handcuffs from the first day.
I remember Vladimir Gundar, a disabled man without a leg, who was deliberately placed in a cell on the third floor with a hole in the floor instead of a toilet. Vladimir could not even go to the bathroom normally without the help of his cellmates. He refused to participate in trials, and he was often simply dragged along the corridors — on concrete — practically without clothes and placed in a cage 0.8x-0.8m. There he would stand on one leg for long periods of time.
I remember Andrei Pochobut, who greeted me with a smile, trying to give me confidence. It was only later that I learned that Andrei was facing a huge jail sentence for not going through with the deal.
Do you know how they bring the dead out of Grodno prison? Wrapped in the same blanket they died on. Not even on a stretcher, because it doesn't go on the stairs. Ales Pushkin, painter Ruslan Karchauli and many others, whose names we don't know yet, were carried out this way.
Physically and morally, people are tired of the constantly torturous conditions, when in winter in the terrible cold the heating is deliberately turned off in the cells, and people just freeze and scream, from internal pain, from the lack of medical care and abuse. Many of them will not live to be released.
I realize now that my choice between hate and forgiveness is already defining my new reality after all we have been through. Do I have room in my heart for hatred, anger and feelings of revenge? — No. Have I forgiven my tormentors? — No, and I never will.
I write these lines having been safe for several months now, having managed to evacuate the country with the help of BYSOL volunteers. We have not yet recovered from all the events that life has plunged us into, and we do not know how we can help our country, which is being terrorized and genocided. But we will try to do what we can.
We are very grateful to each of you for what you have been doing all these years for people in difficult situations. For the fact that in such difficult periods, which fell to you, you have stood firm and kept your hearts open. Thank you for the timely help, support and reliability of the BYSOL team and everyone who helped us evacuate.
We hope that life will get better and there will be no room for terror, violence and torture, that we will become more mature and wise and move together towards our common victory, the victory of life over the horror of tyranny.
A month ago our son BELARUS was born to us, which means that life goes on in spite of any trials.
We need help for the first time with housing and socialization. At this stage we need to gather our strength and learn to breathe again. And afterwards, we will definitely find an opportunity to say thank you.
Former political prisoners, Andrei and Anna.
How much is needed?
€5000
€2000 — help with child expenses,
€2000 for rent for the first few months,
€400 — legalization costs (insurance, visas, translations of documents),
€600 — household and unforeseen expenses for the first time