Solidarity campaign for Kaleśnikava launched in Poland

March 19, Pozirk. A solidarity campaign for Maryja Kaleśnikava, organized by Belarusian musician Nasta Niakrasava and Warsaw University lecturer Katarzyna Naliwajek, has begun in Poland.

The campaign’s Facebook page suggests sending sheet music to the library of Homiel’s Penal Colony No. 4, where the political prisoner is serving her sentence.

In a letter, Maryja wrote that she missed music and urged supporters to send her music scores so that she could visualize them in her head, the activists said.

“We know that Maryja is not allowed to play an instrument and cannot receive parcels or money transfers. This gesture of solidarity makes a difference!”

Kaleśnikava, spokeswoman for former presidential hopeful Viktar Babaryka, was arrested on September 7, 2020, and taken to the Ukrainian border the following night.

She refused to leave the country and tore up her passport. She was then placed in a detention center. On September 6, 2021, she was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the government.

In November 2022, Kaleśnikava underwent surgery at Homiel’s emergency hospital, where she was taken in serious condition. The political prisoner was diagnosed with peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum).

The colony administration keeps her incommunicado, so there is practically no information about her condition.

From the age of 17, Kaleśnikava taught flute at a gymnasium in Minsk. She played in the opera theater, Michaił Finbierh’s orchestra and the Presidential Orchestra. She often toured in Italy, Lithuania and Poland.

In 2007 she moved to Germany and entered the higher school of music in Stuttgart. She studied early and contemporary music at two faculties.

In the 2010s she gave concerts and organized international cultural projects in Germany and Belarus.