Resistance Is the Absolute Method

There are no half-tones.

On Wednesday, Igor Afnagel was buried in Minsk. He was an encyclopedist and marathon runner who had covered the distance equal to four equators. His son Jauhen was not present at the funeral. He was not allowed out of the pre-trial detention facility (TDF). Jauhen's wife Katya spent two days rushing from pillar to post of Volodarka and the Investigative Committee but got no permission.

I remember how it was before. In 1998, Pavel Seviarynets was in the Volodarskogo TDF for the first time in his life. His nephew died at that time. Pavel was released without any escort. He went to Vitsebsk and returned to Minsk prison after the funeral. Sevyarynets had no intention to escape or hide.

In 2008, Alexander Kozulin, who was serving a sentence at Vitsba, lost his wife, Irina. Kozulin was released for three days. The colony administration even provided a car for him to get to Minsk as soon as possible. Kozulin buried his wife and went back to serve the rest of his term. Fortunately, he did not serve the sententence till the end. The regime needed money and exchanged Kozulin for a loan.

In 2011, when Zmitser Dashkevich's mother died, he was brought to Slutsk with a convoy. He had half an hour and then was taken back to prison. It's 2021 now, but political prisoners can't have a convoy or half an hour to view their relatives. Is it a wonderful new world? Were the old times vegetarian?

That's where the mistake lies. The first thing I did was to start comparing and saying "well, this is the divide." Well, there's nothing of the kind. We used to believe the transition from vegetarian times to cannibal ones happened on December 19, 2010. In August, it turned out that compared to the current wave of repressions, the year of 2010 was quite favourable: people were not jailed by the thousands, and prisoners were allowed to view their deceased relatives.

In 1998, Pavel Seviarynets, released from prison on his recognizance, even managed to drop into the BPF office and talk to Young Front members before leaving for Vitsebsk. No one obliged him in any way to go immediately to Vitsebsk. Freeman, isn't he? A year later, Yury Zakharenka, Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski were kidnapped and murdered. A year later, it happened to Dzmitry Zavadski. So there was no hint of vegetarianism in Belarus at that time. For some reason, we used to consider them almost democratic in the light of current events. It still smelled of blood and lawlessness as it does now.

One cannot take the dictatorship as something fractional. It has comparative or superlative degrees, let alone the first, second and third degree. It cannot be bigger or smaller, lighter or heavier. Dictatorship is a total value. It is even quite material. The law of conservation of mass applies to it: just as the mass remains constant under all conditions, the dictatorship remains unchanged no matter how many people are repressed at any given moment. If opposition members feel relaxed today, it means that businessmen are being pressed. If journalists are at large, the authorities repress students at the moment. If no rally is dispersed, it means the special services receive instructions on how to make a mess post factum. However, the mass of the dictatorship in the country remains unchanged.

Since the dictatorship is a total value, it requires resistance with absolute, not relative methods. Resistance is the absolute method. Compromise is a relative one. Dictators do not change and do not resign with words of apology. Any attempt to pave the way to the dictatorial agenda is useless. It's stupid to "mirror" its actions with your own. To bureaucratize and obfuscate the resistance is despicable.

We face a brilliant situation: no half-shadows, half-tones or half-meanings. There is a clear picture with no signs of blurring. The division of good and evil is so clear that one can't be wrong. We all know exactly what to do. We should do it not only for ourselves and our children but also for the memory of those who passed away. Especially for the memory of Igor Afnagel, who did not manage to finish his last marathon.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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