Photo Fact: Ales Pushkin On Freedom Day In 1989

The artist who died at the hands of the Lukashists was one of the originators of this holiday.

The first public street action on the occasion of the day of the proclamation of independence of the BPR took place in Minsk in 1989. It was held at the entrance to the Theatre and Art Institute (now the Belarusian State Academy of Arts) by then student of this institution and future famous artist Ales Pushkin.

On March 25, 1989, the artist walked along Independence Avenue. On his back and chest hung posters reminding him of the BNR, proclaimed on this day exactly 71 years ago, and about a hundred of Pushkin's supporters followed him with a paper stork and 71 white balloons in their hands.

The aspiring performer and 35 other people were detained. The artist was given a suspended sentence of two years, but was not expelled from the theater and art institute. He continued his studies and graduated in 1990.

On July 11, 2023, Ales Pushkin died of a perforated ulcer in intensive care, where he was taken from a Hrodna prison. He did not receive medical care in time.

Ales Pushkin was arrested in 2021 when he was returning from Ukraine to Belarus for his exhibition. The Belarusian artist was sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony for a series of portraits of participants in the Belarusian anti-Soviet resistance.

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