IRDORATH we had to do something more.We wanted to do something else with our art. It was the only way to act. Our music, our band, was not political at all. But we felt we could not continue to produce and release songs about fairy tales and mystical creatures, like we usually did. We found two songs that really fitted for what was going on. We hoped that it would sheer up a lot of people. Nadia: The lyrics to those two songs are very cruel, but they fitted the situation.‘Быў. Ёсць. Буду. (I Was. I Am. I will be)’ is a prayer for everyone who suffered in an attempt to build a castle for humanity, a kind of new world.There is a phrase: ‘I pray for those who will make a revolution, even against god, if it would be needed for the people.’ ‘Kryly (Wings)’ is connected to the women’s manifestations that were happening in Minsk at the time when we recorded those videos. It’s a hymn to Belarussian women.Women took to the streets in white and red dresses, and with lots of flowers. They were brutally repressed. The police attacked them. A lot of women were arrested. They convicted a lot of them in real criminal cases. Their punishment was years in prison. We dedicated this song to all the great women who stood there, attacked by weaponed men. We played a lot, also next to what was visible on YouTube. If you know the story of our revolution, you know about those tea parties in yards. Yes, the yard parties. I wanted to ask you about that also. Nadia: We played there five times. It was as in a spy movie. We played at one place,and then tried to go to another place secretly. Vova: We travelled with several cars, so as not to be together in one car. It was really scary.They knew that we were doing this.But we were lucky.Friends who did the same thing were arrested. But they did not get criminal cases. In this period, that was not the case yet. But anyway, to go for fifteen days in that hell, Okrestina (the prison where a lot of opposition figures were jailed),must have been really hard. Nadia: People will remember what happened in Okrestina. The people who work there are real nazi’s. It’s the most cruel thing that I ever saw with my eyes. Hopefully, the day will come that all these people will be punished by law. I hope they will be punished for what they did as public servants. You were also punished for doing the yards concerts. You had jobs at the Victoria youth center, and you were fired. Vova: We don’t take that as a punishment now.After all they did to us,we understood that it was just a little trouble. Nadia: We were teachers at that education center for eight years.We were ideal teachers and we evolved quickly. I was a teacher of the first category before I was fired.That’s a very good result for eight years. They appreciated us because we www.peek-a-boo-magazine.be - 14 - spoke different languages. We were very good workers for them, but when they understood that we were participating in the protests, they started to be afraid for their own asses. Our bosses were afraid that they would be fired because of us.They chose their own comfort. We had talks,several times.They asked us to stop this,or they would fire us. But we didn’t agree. Should we stop fighting for human rights? Who is crazy? They asked us to stop fighting against violence.Did they support violence,or what? They answered that they were doing their work, that they brought education and culture to children. They spent so many years working there, and they didn’t want to lose it. This is a choice people have to make. They made their own choice.They supported what happened there.Or maybe they didn’t support it, but they just supported their own ego. Vova: And now, after four years,we still have friends who are trying to work there.They tell us it’s like the Soviet Union,full of KGB spies.The spies knowwho is who and tell you how to behave. They walk in as in North Korea. It’s not a cultural or artistic place anymore. It’s just another place with KGB spies. Is this the way the Lukashenko regime manages to survive? The protests were massive, and sociological studies showed that the majority of the people in Belarus supported the protest movement. But this system where every director fires the ones who protests, and where everyone spies on each other… Is that the reason why the regime is still in place? Vova: Unfortunately, Lukashenko has a very strong power vertical.His main weapon is fear.He uses it,and it works well, really well. Nadia: People do not support the games he has played in Belarus, and they have shown it in 2020. We come to that fateful night, on the second of August 2021. It was your birthday party, Nadia, and this was the occasion when the police came to arrest you. Can you tell us what happened that night? Nadia: I can show you a video if you want. I didn’t see the video, but I saw pictures. It seems to have been very violent. The police was firing with weapons during the arrests. Nadia: They behaved like animals. They had surrounded our house, and when they came in, they were shooting in the air. They were extremely brutal. I think they had fun. Vova: It was quite early in the evening, we hadn’t really begun to party. People were arriving with their cars, and we had just poured out the first drinks. We were not really drinking alcohol, because people had to work on the day after.Then they came in, very violently.They were dressed in civilian clothes, but were heavily armed. That was the last time we saw our home in two years.
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