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Dzmitry Drozd: Not To Flatter, Not To Bow, But To Hold Your Ground

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Dzmitry Drozd: Not To Flatter, Not To Bow, But To Hold Your Ground
DZMITRY DROZD
Photo: tut.by

The European Belarus activist has presented his book "Rebellion Of Wonks" in Minsk.

Presentation of the first books from the Belarusian Prison Literature series was held in the Press Club in Minsk on November 28.

The diaries of former political prisoners – Riot Of Nerds by the activist of the civil campaign European Belarus Dzmitry Drozd and I'm Going To Magadan by Ihar Alinevich,– were presented to the reader's approval.

During the presentation, former editor and curator of the project Alena Laptsianok, former political prisoner, chairman of the human rights center Viasna Ales Bialiatski, mother of political prisoner Ihar Alinevich Valiantsina, as well as the author of one of the books Dzmitry Drozd spoke.

After the presentation, Dzmitry Drozd shared his memories of the protests in 2010 with the BNK press service and told why Belarusians should read these books.

– I hope that the book is not boring. That it can be read in one breath. Actually, it was meant to be like that. Maybe I was somewhere too boring, maybe it was worth it to kick the editor and make my personality in the book more heroic, give myself a shine, but as written - so written. I am grateful to the fate that there was 2010, that I was in that team, almost everybody who were with us then, became my friends, wonderful people. We believed in victory, we did everything we could.

–- Judging from your today's speech, you do not regret about what happened?

–- When I was there, there were moments of mental anxiety and weakness, when I thought "why am I here?", maybe the diary has it, but at the end I can say that I was made a hero, where I could get away with just some days in prison. The state could avoid making so many heroes – 50 people, it could detain us all for some days and nobody would remember or knew about us. Indeed, the status of a political prisoner is a good capital, it has the weight in the society (at least in ours), it is the responsibility. It gives an opportunity to have your voice, to speak out, in this regard, I absolutely do not regret anything.

– Today there was a presentation of not only your book, but also of the book I'm Going To Magadan by Ihar Alinevich, can you say something about this book?

– I wrote in detail about this book on Charter97.org, the book is simply amazing, it is a moral way for every Belarusian, not to flatter, not to bow, but to hold your ground, to achieve one's goal, stand for one's principles, ideals. A wonderful book, I recommend it to everyone, because this person with his whole life proved that he remained true to his principles.

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