Pavel Sheremet’s Mother: My Son Called Himself A Partisan Not For Nothing

Liudmila Sheremet worried about her son all of her life.

Famous journalist Pavel Sheremet died in Kyiv on July 20, 2016.

On the eve of the anniversary, Pavel’s mother Liudmila Sheremet told belaruspartisan.org, what he was like in childhood, where he got his faith that the truth was power, why he called himself a partisan and a great-grandson of a partisan, and also whether he could get a foot in the door in Ukraine and why he secretly visited Belarus despite his relatives’ prohibitions.

"Pavel showed me the newly created website “Belarusian Partisan” one of the first. It was in Moscow. He told me: “Memorize the address and tell all your friends that there is such a website.” I thought then, how interesting. I returned to Minsk and told everyone I knew about this website. I read it every day,” – Mrs. Luidmila is saying, pouring fragrant coffee in a cup.

We are sitting in a small kitchen. Mrs. Liudmila is telling what Pavel was like as a child, smiling, having recalled funny stories. She refers to her son in the present tense. They used to sit like this in the kitchen, talking about everything in the world.

"When he was little, we liked to go to the Botanical Garden a lot, when lilac was in bloom, and then I passed this love to my grandchildren. Pavel was born near the Botanical Garden, and I used to take him there in a stroller, so that he could get some fresh air,” – Mrs. Liudmila says.

The neighbouring bedroom is full of Pavel’s photos, with smiling eyes looking down from them. It turns out, when Pavel was in kindergarten, his family moved to Mongolia for five years. He went to school there, and then, already an adult, he recalled and told about the start of his conscious life with pleasure.

Since early childhood, Pavel believed that the truth was power. The struggle for justice was natural in their big and friendly family. He called himself a partisan, a grandson and great –grandson of a partisan not for nothing: his great-grandmother was hanged in the square in Asipovichy with a sign plate “Partisan’s Mother” on her chest .

When Pavel went in conflict with the Belarusian authorities, Mrs. Liudmila was very concerned but she always took her son’s side and supported him.

"It was a very hard period in our life. I told him, Pavel, I can feel you by my every cell, and although you smile and say everything is normal, I feel how it’s complicated for you. It was not easy for me either. And for the whole our family ", - Mrs. Luidmila is saying in a trembling voice.

She worried about her son all of her life, but she calmed down in the recent years, when he started living and working in Ukraine. She couldn’t even imagine that someone had been so scared of Pavel and hated him so much as to kill him.

"I don’t need somebody else’s life. I don’t have a son. And to investigate this case is indeed a matter of honor for the authorities of Ukraine. Because if they fail, they are just non-competent. They need to prove to their people that they are a law-based state, that any evil in this country will be punished. How they do it is a matter of their professionalism. But I want them not to disappoint the Ukrainian people,” – Mrs. Liudmila Sheremet says.