Mom Will Come Back Soon

• IRYNA KHALIP
• 16.06.2023, 11:15

Executioners expand the scope of lawlessness.

There are no more quiet days when you may not think about anything other than a future vacation or a trip to the country house. Fear, hatred and disgust crawl under the skin every damn day, paralyzing the reflexes of a sober life. There are no more Mondays or Saturdays. It merges into one hell day that will never end.

It would seem that it was a free day, and you can relax and go shopping, but you learn about the death of Mikalai Klimovich in the colony and rush around the room, swallowing tears. Or you read the news that Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk was sent to a psychiatric hospital for an application to renounce Belarusian citizenship, and you immediately imagine what they did to her, a brave rebel, in a punishment cell, since she renounced her citizenship. Or you see Maryna Adamovich's social media post where she said that there had been no news from Mikalai Statkevich for four months, and you freeze with horror. What is happening makes it impossible to live an ordinary life. More and more news every day, worse and worse. It's impossible to get used to it.

In recent days, all my thoughts are about the one-year-old daughter of Viachaslau Lazarau, a camera operator from Vitebsk, and his wife Tatsiana Pytsko. Viachaslau was detained in early February and charged with facilitating extremist activities, most likely for cooperating with independent media, which the regime calls extremist groups. All the equipment was taken out of their house, but they did not touch Tatsiana at least. However, she did not remain at large for long.

Considering that Tatsiana Pytsko was fined in 2020 for participating in protest marches and for the same reason she lost her job, she was a teacher. So, the special services had her “on notice” since then. Or maybe even earlier - Viachaslau was also tried on administrative charges for cooperation with independent media even before 2020. They are an "unreliable family" in general, as most Belarusian families. And a baby child in the family is a great opportunity to expand the scope a little more and make a 'litmus test" of the Belarusians: “So, will you endure even this?”

Initially, they were imprisoning both parents, leaving children in the care of grandmothers, as they did in the 2020 summer. Antanina Kanavalava's and Siarhei Yarashevich's case is an example. Then they began to sentence mothers of many children - for example, Volha Zalatar, who has five children, and all her fault was organizing "unauthorized tea parties". Then they started to deprive parents of parental rights, like Alena Maushuk, who managed to participate in only one protest action. They were also taking children to orphan asylums, like the son of Larysa Shchyriakova. And finally, the culmination: a one-year-old baby is deprived of her mother, who, perhaps, was still even breastfed.

One-year-old babies are wonderful. They take their first steps. Their world has no place for evil. They are boundlessly courageous with exploration just because the world is kind and beautiful. A sandbox with a bucket and a shovel, lullabies and bedtime stories and happiness to wake up every morning, because a new day brings new adventures. They are still far from school obligations with its rulers and system and even further to a system that is designed to break a person - as well as before school. This is a short period of perfect happiness. But all this works well and makes up a good world picture only in one case: if mom is near. It is she who gives a sense of security, blows on a broken knee, calms if it suddenly becomes scary in the dark, and holds out her hand, helping not to fall. Without a mother, the world immediately becomes scary, alien and hostile. This little girl was taken to the children's hospital. Do you think they will take her out in a stroller for fresh air walks, calm her down, whisper kind words to her, sing songs and play? No. Real hell begins in the life of a baby child. Well-fed, vile uncles and aunts made it, although they have no memories, no history and even ordinary human reactions.

But in the nineties (and even in the late eighties) they began to publish previously banned books. Then we began to learn the monstrous testimonies of Stalin's time. It seemed to us that there was no return to this and could not be any more. Really everyone, regardless of education, occupation and mindset, read Journey into the Whirlwind, Kolyma Tales, Children of the Arbat and Black Stones. We were reading like a thirsty in a desert drinks water. It seemed obvious to us that the Stalinist horrors would never be repeated again. "What a blessing!" we all thought, "This would never happen again. What a blessing that now we are all free. What a blessing that we now know how it should not be, and we will not allow a repetition."

Executioners come up with new perverted reprisals every day. They look at us with curiosity: can you bear it? But they do not understand that the more they expand the boundaries of lawlessness, the narrower their own living space becomes. This is shagreen skin: one day it will shrink to a size that they can no longer fit. And it turns out that there is no more place on the planet for them.

Hold on baby! Mom will come back soon.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org