29 March 2024, Friday, 16:16
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Letter To Jail

8
Letter To Jail
ANDREI SANNIKOV

They have only the malice of lackeys, you have a whole country and millions of friends.

They have finally arrived here: the Christmas and New Year holidays. It's time not only for congratulations and wishes, but also for reflections, and even decisions.

I am writing this letter to you when you are in prison and I am free, but you and I are not free, because our country is not free. Although your lack of freedom is incomparably worse than mine. I know it's hard for you, very hard. It's hard for me to even imagine how ... And I know that the inability to hug loved ones, parents, children, even grandchildren, makes this burden at times unbearable. But you can handle it.

You, like everyone thrown behind bars for trumped-up cases, are heroes. I know I've already told you this, but I want to say it over and over again: heroes! Moreover, you all are heroes twice, thrice! Those who participate in the Resistance go through agony and continue our struggle in captivity.

I am convinced that there is no life in captivity, especially among those who are behind bars without guilt.

This is my opinion, I do not impose it on anyone. Moreover, I admire if someone can feel free there. One thing is indisputable: innocent people, in my understanding, should not even think about the acceptability of life behind bars. Nevertheless, time cannot be stopped, history cannot be canceled. One has to accept the conditions imposed by force and live in this “non-life”.

And here, I know, the main thing is not to admit anyone to your "secret garden", to your jardin secret, as psychologists call it. This means carefully protecting what is dear to you. Protect and at the same time strengthen and diversify your inner space, occupying yourself with creation, even if it is mental.

The legendary Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, for example, who single-handedly hacked the system of punitive psychiatry in the USSR, defended himself from external abomination by mentally designing locks. He built and equipped them, carefully taking care of the smallest details of structures and interiors, and, having built, sat by the fireplace, invited guests and had a great time with them, not noticing the guard.

Majestic castles are just for us. There are so many of them on our land that have been destroyed that it is time to seriously start building them, even if only mentally. It will not be difficult for you to build such a defense of your inner freedom simply because you have much more "building material" than your jailers. They have only the malice of lackeys who see free people in front of them and envy this freedom with mortal anguish. You have a whole country and millions of friends.

Do not doubt it - there are millions! Therefore, never listen to the disgusting hissing of prison rats, that no one remembers about you, everyone has forgotten, renounced, adapted. They think about you, a huge number of people are worried about you, both at home and all over the world. Your fate worries so many, even countless.

I think of you every day and try to do something to help. This is negligible compared to what you are doing for me, for all of us. People of your courage, consciously and uncompromisingly opposing this regime, denying compromise - this is the most solid foundation of our future, our life in free Belarus. It is even difficult to express the gratitude that I have for you.

On these cold days, I want to collect all the warmth of the world to warm you. I want luck, joy, fate to smile at you. I want adversity to just glance over you without noticing. Trust me, I can't live on my full sigh while you're behind bars. On New Year's Eve, it is customary to believe in miracles, to wait for the fulfillment of desires. I believe in miracles these days. And I know for sure that there is nothing supernatural about miracles.

Often - more often than we think - miracles happened when everyone believed in goodness, in freedom, in justice and did what they could in order for them to be in our life. And miracles happened. In 2020, such a miracle happened in Belarus. Because each of us did not just believe, but did what we should. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need another miracle next year. We just need to complete the one that is already happening, bring it to its logical conclusion! And then we will be able to open for everyone our wonderful "secret gardens", our dreams, and in reality build beautiful castles and much more for our children, who these days are waiting for magic just as we expected it in childhood, unconditionally trusting our beloved adults ...

Look! They froze, looking at us with huge eyes full of delight, anticipating the New Year's Miracle ...

Happy New Year!

From the heart!

Andrei Sannikov, Facebook,

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