Belarus / projects

Belarus

https://vimeo.com/516468618

A Russian friend, in January 2021, sent me a copy of Andrei Kureichik's play, Insulted Belarus.  The translator, John Freedman, had single-handedly ensured that the play was read all over the world, in protest at the appalling violence during and after the elections there in August 2020.  I suggested to David Wybrow, the artistic director of the Cockpit Theatre in London that we do a zoom performance of the play, as part of our Dissident Voices programme.  This was during the lockdown, so zoom was the best we could do.

In the event, there were about 70 people watching.  There was a Q&A afterwards and huge enthusiasm.  Both Andrei and John joined us and took loads of questions from the audience, many of whom had been unaware of the rigged elections in Belarus the previous August  and the terrible violence that followed, when Lugashenko brought in thugs from all over the former Soviet Union to do his dirty work of murder, rape and torture.

I followed Insulted, Belarus with a second piece by Andrei, who had fled Belarus - like so many artists and intellectuals - when it became clear that his life was in danger.

Earlier, in late 2020, I had made a short video of a section of Svetlana Alexievich's remarkable book, Second Hand Time, which went viral in Belarus.  I had given a public reading of the book - with three marvellous actors - after editing it down to a manageable length, at a west London church, St John the Baptist.  The church was packed.  And amazingly, Svetlana was there!  It was just before the first lockdown and when my producer, Larissa, had said she was going to invite her, I'd laughed in her face!  'Oh yes, do ask her, she's bound to come all the way from Belarus!'  It never crossed my mind that she would actually do so, but half an hour before we were due to start I got a call from Larissa, saying Svetlana was on her way.

It was one of the proudest and most joyful  moments of my life.  I have such admiration for this woman - not just for her great wisdom, but also for her massive gift.  She has performed a remarkable historical service, by recording and writing - first - about the terrible aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union (largely ignored here), and second, about the extraordinary women of Soviet Russia who volunteered for the front line during the second world war (what is called in Russia, The Great Patriotic War). Recently, I took part in a fund-raising evening here in London, to raise funds for the families of political prisoners in Belarus.  Lugashenko is still there.  Hundreds of people, if not thousands, have been imprisoned in terrible jails, simply for wanting a change of government.  Svetlana Tikhonovskaya, the rightful President, was deported, her imprisoned husband threatened with torture.  This is the man who is only clinging to power because his much more powerful neighbour, Putin, needs him.  For now.

I should like to add that I'm not an activist. I simply believe in freedom to vote according to one's conscience. Belarus has been called in the past the last dictatorship in Europe. Svetlana Tikhonovskaya won the first round of the election by 70 to 30, but she was thrown out of her country. Is that freedom?