Any state institution is based on hierarchy. Prison is not an exception. Belarusian prisons are descendants of the GULAG with its set of informal prison rules (“ponyatiya”) and a strong medieval-like caste system with its leaders, commonfolks and outcasts (“petukhi”), who are strongly associated with homosexuals, totally disrespected and deprived of basic rights. This caste system is maintained not only by crime lords, but also by prison officials – such a division makes the control of the inmates much easier.

Since the Soviet times, Belarusian laws are explicitely adopted for suppressing any solidarity inside prison and putting the conditions convicts live in in a strong dependence from their obedience.

Currently, there are 3 anarchist political prisoners in Belarus. And for them this inhumane system is an everyday reality.

In October 2016, I held a speech where Belarusian prison system is explained in a detailed way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_9urW5SpyA

Thanks to advice of one of my friends some days ago I participated in 3rd International conference “Youth subcultures, worldviews and lifestyles” , which was held in our university in Kaunas. I am far from being an expert in subcultures (not a antropologist or culturologist), but since punk\hardcore DIY is close to my personal experience, and, moreover, plays a certain role in Belarusian political life (lets not forget where our anarchist movement stemmed from 😉 I decided to prepare a paper on this topic and to present it on a conference. Looks like an auditory was satisfied.

You can watch the video, above I hope the speech is legible enough. If not, you can read the entire paper here.

By the way, you can subscribe to my channel: more videos in English are coming!

https://youtu.be/ayfRQuI2QTw

Foreign friends often ask me about the claims of Russia to form in Belarus its “fifth column” and efforts of execute soft power strategies as a part of gaining total influence over Belarus.

It is difficult to outline a situation for those who do not know the context and all the details of the political life in Belarus for the last years. Nevertheless, I have found the excellent document, which sheds light on recent changes of governmental policy of Belarus regarding Russia and Russian culture, changes of Russian media and expert discourse towards Belarus, covers the activities of pro-Russian organizations in Belarus and analyzes many related features.

Belarusian anarchists express solidarity with the people of Venezuela