Voluntary Slave Not to Be Free

The struggle of the state with BPR is not only its ideology, but also physiology.

And this ugly woman who got her fifteen minutes of fame the other day is right. Everyone discussed her speech on "We must ignore Freedom Day, because this event contradicts the ideology of the Republic of Belarus". And you have no reason to insult her. She is right, it contradicts. Freedom Day, the centenary of BPR, the history of BPR - all this ideologically and also physiologically is alien to our present state.

It makes fun to hear "it is authorized! the concert is authorized! the equipment is promised!". Children, really! The authorities have nothing authorized. They will just organize it. Now the state deals with it. And look how successful the authorities are.

They first seek a conflict and formally allow one thing and forbid another knowing that people divide. Because one dream of the concert, fun, and others dream of marching with national flags along the streets. Then the authority plays dirty games, provoke scandals, and short-minded citizens accept it and waken fire on their own. Then they divide the concert and the march for them not to meet and agree upon anything. Now Uladzimir Nyaklyayew is not allowed to opening of the exhibition dedicated to the centenary of BPR. And finally, on the eve of March 25 they arrest activists Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, Maksim Vinyarski, Vyachyslau Siuchyk. Do you think they are afraid? Not this time. The BNC has stated that the march will be a festive not a protesting one. It means flags, smiles, children and "Long Live Belarus!". The authorities know that organizer of the march, unlike the authorities, keep their word. On this day nothing threatens the authorities. And arrests are not preventive, but just a part of the organizational work: to play so that after arrests one could say "I wanted to go to the concert, but now I go to the march in solidarity", others - "now I stay at home, God only know what the regime can invent", and the rest "good job, we are bored with these protests." Everything goes as the authorities planned. It is precisely like the authorities want. Because they can't stand even the word "freedom". "Freedom Day" make them have an episode. The history of BPR is the history of dangerous renegades, conspirators who, for some reason, did not want to become a part of the Bolshevik power. If the state had had a desire to support the initiative, it would have not been capable of doing it. And this is the matter of physiology, not ideology. Man can't fly because he is not designed to do it. And for the same reason the Belarusian regime cannot recognize the day of proclamation BPR as holiday.

And the woman did not lie when she said the holiday was alien to the state. It has no sense of independence and freedom. Let's imagine that tomorrow everything will be different, and this teacher will hear: here is your freedom, teach students the way you want. Do you think anything will change? No way. Serf peasants did not know what to do with freedom after the abolition of serfdom. And those who have voluntarily stepped into serfdom today cannot be free by definition. So they do not understand the very sense of that BPR. And they have no reason to celebrate.

And we do have. And let one celebrates as one wants. After all, founders of BPR often had different opinions. The main thing is to resist tricks of the authorities. March 25 is only our holiday. And we are richer.

Iryna Khalip, specially for Charter97.org