Hello!
My name is Sergey Korshun. I was born and grew up in the city of Minsk.
In 2020, I administered the Telegram channel “Army with the People”. There was hope that there were honest and decent people among the security forces, and they would be able to unite to oppose the regime. In reality, there were few such people, and we were too gullible and naive. Very late we found out that there were people in our association who had been recruited by the GUBOP.
This led to the fact that I was arrested with the use of force even before the elections, in July 2020. I spent more than a year in the pre-trial detention center in Volodarskiy. In May 2021, the court sentenced me to 4.5 years of imprisonment of enhanced regime. In the colony, I almost immediately received the status of “extremist”, so I was put on a special preventive register.
In order to endure this huge sentence, I had to find some sense of life for myself inside. Knowing how the prison system breaks people, I decided to help new arrivals on political charges. This was my inner struggle with the regime. I organized a “road” for the transfer of correspondence — letters and postcards went “outside the perimeter” bypassing the censor and the administration staff. This system worked for almost a year, until I was found out.
It cost me 40 days in the SHIZO*. I spent a month and a half in a solitary cell with a glass door, where there is no mattress, no radiator, and a yellow light bulb on all day long. In addition, I was regularly visited there by the colony staff trying to hurt or humiliate me in some way. But I do not regret anything. It was the price for hundreds of letters, without which it is much harder to endure these inhuman conditions in prison.
I was released on July 17, 2024, with preventive supervision as a persistent violator, and my extremist status was added to my terrorist status. This left me feeling as if I had never left prison: regular night checks, police check-ins every day, fictitious violations to find a reason to return me to the colony.
Despite the fear of the unknown and lack of money, I was forced to leave Belarus. Now I am in Poland, safe. But my financial situation forces me to ask for help. All my savings were blocked, I left with practically nothing. I have practically no personal belongings left after prison, and there is no possibility to buy them now. According to the court decision, all my equipment was confiscated. Besides, I really need to put my health in order, I have a lot of psychological problems that I cannot solve without specialists. After 4 years in prison, I came out with a very shaken nervous system, and I still can't fully recover.
I feel especially lonely in a foreign country and in order to adapt, I plan to learn Polish. I also plan to start a project called “I'm not a fugitive”, where I think I will cover everything that happens to emigrants here. All this requires money, which I don't have.
In my mind and heart I am still in 2020 and despite all the horror I went through, I still believe in our solidarity. I don't know what will happen to me tomorrow. But I really hope that the years I spent in prison are not lost. That I'm remembered and appreciated and not left by the side of the road.
*A SHIZO (punitive isolation cell) in a Belarusian prison is a room where prisoners can be placed for various violations of the prison regime. It is a peculiar form of punishment inside the prison, applied to those who violate discipline or rules set by the administration. BYSOL Note
How much is needed?
€3000
€1800 — rent for three months + deposit
€600 — clothes and shoes in season, hygiene and basic necessities
€600 — Polish language courses to adapt to Poland