Parade of Plague in Minsk

The spectators at the "death parade" were sitting next to each other like sparrows on a branch.

"For many of us, May 9 and July 3 will be the last holidays", Basta telegram channel published this quote of Babruisk doctor when the parade began. Indeed, parades of May 9 were held rarely in Belarus. The main pompous toy of Aliaksandr Lukashenka is July 3, the day of the liberation of Minsk from German troops. He announced it as Independence Day instead of the adopted "under the Democrats" July 27.

On July 3, a large-scale parade is held in Minsk annually. Apart from the troops and armoured vehicles, Keramin toilet bowls, Horizont TV sets and Atlant refrigerators are demonstrated on the parade. Every year the commander-in-chief in a marshal's uniform and his son Kolya - also in a marshal's uniform - observe this glory.

Parades of May 9 were held only once in five years and could not be compared with those of July 3. May 9 has not much value for Aliaksandr Lukashenka, although during a meeting with veterans a few years ago he claimed that his father had died on the front (Lukashenka was born in 1954 - Ed.).

Nevertheless, the parade was held, although Lukashenka did not take his son Kolya with him. But the spectators standing with flags on the podiums and the roadsides were taken there using the good old methods - the state enterprises had orders with the exact figures of spectators required there. Teachers were offered a day off for participation; students were blackmailed with dormitories and enticed with advanced placement. They were asked to come without a mask, but with a flag.

At the same time, Lukashenka said that no one would be forced into the parade. He assured that should better stay at home: "We asked the veterans of the Great Patriotic War not to insist to take them to the parade, as usual". Instead of them, Lukashenka explained, the veterans of the Armed Forces would be on the stands. One could invite veterans of labour and CPSU, but they do not have uniforms. The military, neatly placed on the stands, will look great against fresh leaves.

On the stands, the spectators sat and stood side by side. Some of them took masks out of their pockets and put them on. That's a sign of civic courage to show - first come obediently, and then take out the mask like a bird out of one's pocket. These few rebels were mainly young. The absolute majority, including the elderly people, had no masks. Then Ambulances will stand in a row for hours to get to the hospital ERs.

There were three thousand participants in the parade. Three thousand cadets, pupils of Suvorov Military College, officers, rescuers, military musicians (there are 246 people in the orchestra of the Minsk garrison), a separate column of female soldiers. They marched, as in the pre-war years, neglecting distancing.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka said with satisfaction: "There will be people in this crazy world that has lost their reference points, who condemn us for the place and time of this sacred action... Do not hurry to conclude, especially to condemn us - heirs of the Victory, the Belarusians. We could not but do this; we had no other choice. If we had had, we would have done the same. Because Soviet soldiers who died for our freedom, partisans tortured to death in Gestapo, Khatyn's old men, women and children look at us. They wanted to live, but sacrificed their lives for us to live".

Was there no choice? Is he serious about this? There is no choice when a gun points at you.

When you decide whether the soldiers run down the avenue or sit in the barracks, there is a choice.

However, Aliaksandr Lukashenka made his choice back in the nineties, when he said in public: "I will not let my people follow the civilized world!" That is why today the civilized world stays at home, WHO begs the Belarusian authorities not to hold the parade, while Lukashenka takes the country farther away from civilization, referring to the wish of those killed in the war.

He hasn't taken a second to think that the dead Soviet soldiers and partisans would hardly like their descendants to die from an unexplored virus they contracted on Victory Day. Or rather, from idiocy and tyranny the whole Belarus contracted twenty six years ago.

There was a great festive concert on Victory Square in the evening. All the Belarusian pop stars along with choirs and corps-de-ballet sang and danced on a small square. This square, though with a symbolic name, is the smallest of all central squares in Minsk. There is very little space for performers. If spectators come, everyone will breathe in each other's faces. I do not feel sorry for them (after all, it's their choice), unlike for doctors, who have to save them later. And for soldiers who are the only ones who had no right to say "no" during this crazy event.

Iryna Khalip, Novaya Gazeta