Belarus Exils
10 Sep 2020
17
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Who knows Belarus, that small country wedged between Russia and Poland at the gates of Europe, often described as the "last Soviet dictatorship in Europe", but which has recently become the scene of unprecedented demonstrations.~Far from the media spotlight, this small republic has been under the unnamed dictatorship of President Lukashenko for 26 years, since the fall of the wall in 1991.~Hundreds of political prisoners, repeated electoral fraud, a gagged civil society and continuous violations of human rights: Belarus appears to be the only country in the former Soviet bloc that has completely missed the transition to democracy.~In order to consolidate his power, Lukashenko, a capricious president, has not hesitated to cherish nostalgia for the USSR, of which he claims to be the heir. In fact, Belarus is still living in Soviet times with its kolkhoz and state enterprises.~Time seems to stand still here: gigantic avenues, statues of Lenin or Stalin on every street corner, fervent patriots reenacting year after year the great battles of the Red Army in the "Stalin Line" complex, an open-air museum dedicated to the great hours of communism,~However, there are still pockets of resistance, especially in the young underground generation. Faced with the impossibility of overthrowing this tyrannical regime, confronted with the fear that dominates their lives, many young people have fled their country from neighboring Poland, such as Valentina, Julia, Hanna, Bohezina, alicia, microcobaque, alexandr, pavel, pamedor, alessia and others.~For Poland, Europe, democracy and especially freedom of speech is already a fact. Here, young Belarusians can finally breathe and free themselves from the sad and grey Soviet past, in which they have bathed all their lives, but which has no meaning for them. Born after the perestroika, they have never known the USSR and reject these values from the past.~This photo project therefore takes the form of diptychs that associate young underground Belarusians who fled their country to Poland with photos of symbols of communism taken in Belarus. This work thus wants to emphasize the gap between a generation and a regime that focuses on the past and the Soviet chimeras, and an anti-system, anarchist, punk or hippie youth who resolutely focus on the West and whose vision of the world is the opposite of that advocated in their country.~Many of his "exiles" are still afraid, especially to be seen from Belarus, but they all have faith in the future and many are trying to fight from outside. With the increase in the number of demonstrations against Lukashenko's regime, which has never been seen before in Belarus, which has always been a "wise" country, many are regaining courage and hope and are all convinced that recent events will somehow change things.
