GERALDINE FAGAN

A Pentecostal, Zmitser Dashkevich (b. 1981) came to prominence with the Young Front [Belarusian: Malady Front], a youth opposition movement with a Christian ethos. He served as its leader from 2004 until 2017 except for two lengthy periods of imprisonment: September 2006 to January 2008 (for “representing an unregistered organization” as well as refusing to testify against another Young Front member), and March 2011 to August 2013 (for “malicious hooliganism”— Dashkevich maintains that in fact he was physically attacked in the relevant incident—and “deliberate insubordination” to the prison authorities).1 He has been recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. 

Dashkevich has additionally been placed in administrative detention— typically lasting 15 days—on multiple occasions. These include several such terms for participation in unsanctioned protests in the wake of the disputed presidential election of August 2020. In court prior to one of these on 27 October 2020, Dashkevich told the judge:

It does not matter what sentence you give me today. I have spent a long time in prison and in different times— the darkest ones. Now I will be serving time when rays of sun are already on the horizon. So 15 days or 15 times 15—it means nothing to me. You judge as if the Lord sees nothing… I know that I will complete my sentence and obtain what I am fighting for… but what will happen to you and your colleagues? Think about that.2

A major aspect of Dashkevich’s activism has been preservation of Kurapaty, a site on the outskirts of Minsk where Soviet secret police executed an estimated 200,000 people between 1937 and 1941. Evidence of the mass shootings was first uncovered and publicized in 1988 by Zianon Pazniak, a leading pro-democracy activist of the time and a devout Catholic. Kurapaty has been a contentious issue since Aleksandr Lukashenko first became president in 1994, however; as he has resisted its investigation and commemoration as a symbol of Stalinist repression. KGB officers continue regular monitoring of visitors to the site’s cross-marked graves. (In Belarus, the KGB retains its title and has made no attempt to distance itself from its Soviet past.) Only stubborn popular protests at Kurapaty by the Young Front and others prevented the state authorities from bulldozing the site in construction projects in 2001 and 2017. Following their 2017 efforts, Dashkevich and his friends introduced the Night of Executed Poets, an annual commemoration of Belarusian writers who were among those murdered at Kurapaty.3 

Amid the wave of post-election public protest in 2020—since suppressed by the authorities—Dashkevich promoted Chain of Repentance from Kurapaty to Akrestsina: Never Again on 21 August. For two hours, participants in this event stood in a human chain from Kurapaty to Akrestsina, a pre-trial detention center which has housed hundreds of protesters since the disputed 9 August election, some of whom have reported torture.4 Those forming the chain began their demonstration by singing the alternative Belarusian anthem, Mahutny Bozhe [Almighty God], and concluded by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.5

In February 2021 a variety of prominent Belarusian Christians—including Dashkevich at Kurapaty—produced a short video calling for prayers for Belarus every evening at 9 p.m. (EST + 8 hours).6

Notes:

1. [In Russian] “Dashkevichu—2 goda obshchego rezhima, Lobovu—4 goda usilennogo (Video),” Charter ’97, 24 March 2011, http://www.charter97.org/ru/news/2011/3/24/37065; “Provokatsiiu protiv Dashkevicha ustroili militseiskie seksoty,” Charter ’97, 3 June 2011, http://charter97.org/ru/news/2011/6/13/39549.
2.  [In Belarusian] “Dashkevich u sudze pra svaio zatrymanne: Liudzi u balaklavakh pazvanili palkouniku i skazali ‘zadacha vykanana’,” Tsarkva i palitychny kryzis u Belarusi, 27 October 2020, https://belarus2020.churchby.info/dashkevich-usudze-pra-svayo-zatrymanne-lyudzi-ў-balaklavax-pazvanilipalkoўniku-i-skazali-zadacha-vykanana/.
3.  Geraldine Fagan, “BELARUS: KGB pressure Orthodox not to venerate Soviet-era martyrs,” Forum 18, 12 May 2008, https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1127. 
4. Tanya Lokshina, “Witness: Tortured in Belarus,” Human Rights Watch, 15 September 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/15/witness-tortured-belarus.
5. [In Belarusian/Russian] “Lantsuh Kurapaty – Akrestsina. UZHYVUIU | Tsep’ pokaianiia Kuropaty – Okrestina. PRIAMOI EFIR,” Radyio Svaboda, 21 August 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2_xujktJlk.
6. https://www.facebook.com/vola.sieviaryniec/videos/3501110183332770/. Dashkevich appears at 1.01; Pavel Seviarynets’ wife Volha at 1.36

Geraldine Fagan is editor of the East-West Church Report.