Exiled activist optimistic about Belarusian culture despite reprisals

November 11, Pozirk. The crackdown on culture in Belarus cannot exterminate creativity and arts as long as people follow their calling and realize themselves, Siarhiej Budkin, head of the Belarusian Culture Council, has told Pozirk.

Cultural activities in Belarus continue even if they were pushed into the underground with live concerts and new album releases, said the activist, who is in charge of TuzinFM.by and Nerasstralanyja project commemorating victims of Josef Stalin’s Great Terror.

Current political circumstances generate various forms and formats of artistic expression in Belarus, including closed private events, underground gigs and unpublished pieces, he noted.

“Yesterday you played in a big hall, you could gather it in any city, and today [you play] at a bar for five people,” Budkin said. “This situation is very disappointing, but at the same time it encourages the search for new formats of existence both inside and outside Belarus.”

Many Belarusians inside the country who developed a taste for the arts are likely to preserve it, he noted.

“I am an optimist here. I would not say that the situation has regressed somewhere decades ago, although censorship is, of course, a throwback to the Middle Ages. In 2021, we witnessed a complete collapse of the cultural sector, the destruction of the national theater, the suspension of all creative processes and the closures of cultural organizations. But a year or two later, Belarusians revived [them] in new places abroad,” Budkin said.

This ability to rebuild is inherent in Belarusians and is very inspiring, the activist said, citing the revival of Belarusian publisher and festival brands in Poland, which became the top destinations for Belarusians fleeing politically-motivated reprisals at home.

Read the interview in Belarusian