"Natalia Radina's Belarus" Is About Everyone.
"Natalia Radina's Belarus" Is About Everyone.31.10.2025, 9:44 Irina KhalipFelshtinsky's book is a ready-made history textbook.Yesterday I finally picked up my copy of Yuri Felshtinsky's "Natalia Radina's Belarus". Like any thoughtful reader, the first thing I did, of course, was to start looking at the pictures. In the pictures are still alive: Yuri Zakharenko, Oleg Bebenin, Anatoliy Maysenya, Hennady Karpenko, Veronika Cherkasova, Pavel Sheremet, Stanislav Shushkevich. The hardest thing is to add "and others". Because there are already too many of them - those whom we have managed to bury over the years. Those who did not live to see freedom. Those who have been killed in cold blood or indifferently taken away the opportunity to live on.Afterwards, I decided to read the introduction and maybe the beginning of the first chapter - and I couldn't tear myself away until deep into the night. It would seem, well, why should I read about my friend - I already know everything about her. But this book is not about Natasha. This book is about you and me, about our history of the last decades, about our losses and hopes, about the country we are painfully trying to get back.I remember the journalist's march in prison robes. It's 1997, Pavel Sheremet is arrested for a story about holes in the state border. We all put on prison robes and went out to demand his release. And before that we come out in a spontaneous procession to the Foreign Ministry, KGB, Border Troops Committee, Lukashenka's administration. Natasha Radina is 18 years old, she is an intern at the newspaper "Name".I remember a hundred-thousand circulation of the newspaper "Nasha Svaboda" in 2001, dedicated to the victims of political murders. This special issue was distributed in mailboxes by volunteers: the Belarusians, who are used to watching TV, should know that Lukashenko's opponents are killed in their country. The special issue contains hard and bitter interviews with the wives of the murdered oppositionists. The author of all these interviews is Natasha Radina. She is 22 years old and works at the newspaper Nasha Svaboda.I remember the prison cell of the KGB detention center. The charge of organizing mass riots has already been brought, the article is especially grave, and there is no hope for a quick release. We're smoking through a grated window and whispering. "If only the site would be updated, if only the site would be updated, I'll survive the rest somehow" - Natasha Radina is 31 years old, she is a prisoner in cell number 10.I remember the summer of 2011. Every night on Skype we discuss the sentences of our friends and relatives, stages and transfers, sanctions and repression. On skype a completely foreign contact, an unfamiliar avatar. Behind that unfamiliar avatar is Natasha Radina. She is 32 years old, wanted, hiding in Moscow without documents, almost crawling, so as not to be seen from the street, going out on the balcony to breathe fresh air.I remember many other things. And how hundreds of people all over the world tried to help Natasha get to Europe, and her dangerous journey from the Netherlands to Lithuania - still illegally, without documents. And the blocking of Charter'97 in 2018, when everyone still thought that nothing terrible had happened: so what if a radical website was blocked, but all the others were doing fine, no one blocked them, they were accredited to press conferences and gave official comments. Natasha then said to her colleagues, journalists of the media working in Belarus: do you even realize that you are next? They didn't realize. Meanwhile, the total cleansing was less than three years away. Who knows, if the entire professional community had stood up for the "Charter" then, maybe 2020 would have ended differently, and journalists would not be in jail today.History, of course, is not good with the subjunctive mood, and the expression "if only" is probably the most useless in the world. But I can say with absolute certainty that Felshtinsky's book is actually a ready-made history textbook. The history of the last three decades, the history of Belarusians' struggle against the dictatorship, the history of repressions and confrontation. A generation has already grown up that doesn't know who Pavel Sheremet was and what his role in the independent journalism of Belarus was. The generation that went to kindergarten during the protests in 2010 has grown up. A generation that was born later than Yuri Zakharanka and Viktor Gonchar was killed has grown up.And very soon a generation will grow up that will not remember what such an incomprehensible thing happened there in 2020.The book "Belarus by Natalia Radina" contains all this. Natasha herself is there too, of course. With all her criminal cases, flight, homelessness - like all of us. And with unbreakable faith that everything will change - like all of us.Irina Khalip, specially for Charter97.orgYou can buy the book "Natalia Radina's Belarus: Journalist vs. Dictator" on the following sites:Through the website of the publishing house "ISIA Media".In the Ukrainian language you can through the website of the publishing house "Drukarskiy Dvir Oleg Fedorov".In the near future the book will be published in Belarusian and English.PATREONSupport the website Write your comment You can support the website Charter97.orgMULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, WarszawaIBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123SWIFT: BIGBPLPWName of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aimsYou can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.comFollow Charter97.org social media accountsFacebookYouTubeX.comvkontakteok.ruInstagramRSSTelegram
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