Belarusian Girl From Alternative Vogue Cover: I Decided to Fight Back and Stand Till the End

Angelina Akunevich told how she fought back the riot police at the "brilliant" march.

Angelina Akunevich is 26 years old and a historian by education. Angelina is also a person with an active civic position. In September, she was detained during the women's march. Her photo became viral on the web, and she became one of the heroes of the alternative covers of Vogue. (Journalists have already told the story of the girl with the rose full of dignity).

I found the photo of Angelina who resisted the enforcers only now tut.by.

Before entering university, the girl admits that she used to be a "lukashist" and supported the current authorities.

- At the university, I got into the "Belarusian language sphere" - all the subjects were in Belarusian. Then, my political views changed drastically. I used to work in a village school. I taught the children history. After my students' answers, the committee cried.

Closer to May 2020, she started wondering about alternative candidates.

- I realized that Babaryka was my candidate. My husband and I went out for the first time (the chain of solidarity) when rumours about Viktar Dzmitryevich's detention spread.

Angelina and her husband were going to stand in line to file a statement with the CEC.

We did not even discuss it: we came home, took a shower in silence, and left in silence. It was something so obvious that we didn't even think about it.

Since then, the girl went out every time she had a chance.

- On the nineteenth of September, women should wear glittering clothes at the march. I complained to my husband all morning that I had nothing to wear. I decided to wear green boots and a dress I made.

We gathered at the Komarovski market, marched to Yakub Kolas. There we saw paddy wagons and buses. When the riot police attacked us, there was a great outcry: several thousand women were scared as the riot police grabbed women and took them away in an unknown direction. No one, as you know, introduced themselves. They acted like bandits. There was no feeling that these were the power structures that were supposed to protect us.

The women built a coupling; Angelina was in the front row. According to the girl, one of the riot policemen said women would have a passageway as the main thing was for the women to disperse. They agreed, began to move in the same line. However, riot policemen grabbed women out of the coupling and threw them into the paddy wagon.

- Five riot policemen pulled me out of the coupling. I decided to resist and fight till the end. At first, I tried to lie on the asphalt, then I got a radio from one of the five policemen. They burst into a panic. They started yelling at each other to get it away from me. To the paddy wagon, I tried to cling to something. There was a tree near the reporters. I decided to get there quickly and grab hold of it. That's how I appeared on all those numerous photos.

Then I dropped my bag and started yelling that I wasn't going anywhere without my bag. One of the riot policemen went to look for it, found it. They put me in the paddy wagon.

The girl also wasn't confused inside the van: she asked questions or expressed her discontent. She managed to keep her phone with her, informed her husband, and even took selfies. They spent eight hours in the Savetski police department.

- At first, we stood facing the wall for about an hour, then we were allowed to lie on the concrete floor. We lay down our scarves and outer clothing and talked about life.

Eventually, my phone was taken away. There was no password, and the officers of the police department immediately started looking at all my photos. When I asked: "What right do you have to use my phone?" the female officer smiled and said: "We have the right to do everything."

Angelina and her friend were the last to leave the police department. The girl admits that she didn't expect her relatives and volunteers to wait for her at all.

- I found out later that my photographs were covered by all the news. My parents and my husband's grandparents cried for an hour or two when they saw them as they believed something awful was about to happen to me.

Angelina's trial was postponed three times. The summons either came the day before the trial or didn't come at all. The girl was tried almost two months after the detention. Angelina said she had seen the witness in the case for the first time so did he. According to the girl, the wording of the charges deserves special attention. For "creating a mass", Angelina's judge sentenced her to the maximum penalty for an administrative offence of 30 basic units.

- When the judge asked me what I was doing at the march, I said I just loved women in every way. At solidarity events and women's marches, I never saw weak girls. There were always beautiful, strong women around, able to stand up for their opinions.

Until the fall, I planned to enter the postgraduate school in Germany and stay there forever. However, after August, I realized that I wanted to stay here: finish my graduate studies and come back. Of course, everyone has moments when they want to leave this place. I have a feeling that I'll leave and come back to the new Belarus. I do hope that I will leave when the new Belarus comes.