"A Miracle Is Happening in Belarus, and the Muddy Water Will Subside"

The shaft of support and solidarity is creating a new reality in the country.

Director of the "Country of Castles" fund Aliaksandr Varikish told Salidarnasts about how to survive the checks of a dozen state services in six months and believe in miracles.

While the Belarusians demonstrate mutual assistance and support in defending their civic position, the regime is demonstrating its readiness to “squeeze out” disloyal people from all spheres of life.

Even domestic tourism has become unreliable from the point of view of the authorities. For example, in Navahrudak, at the end of March, they detained a group of people who had come on an excursion to the local museum of local lore. In the center of Minsk, the guide was “taken away” together with the group (the guide was sentenced to 15 days, the participants of the excursion were fined), in Polatsk - all male excursionists, in Kosava - in general, the whole group, about 40 people, including the bus driver...

The “Country of Castles” company, founded 15 years ago with the aim of restoring architectural monuments and reviving the historical heritage, was also among the “unwanted” ones. Its head Aliaksandr Varikish, for a second, became the best specialist in tourism in 2018, according to the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus - the winner of the republican competition of professional skills "Belarusian Master." But who cares about past achievements if you went against the system?

In September, the State Audit Office came to the fund with an unscheduled check - no significant violations were found, but a fine of 20 basic units was issued. They were followed by - “like geese to warmer climes” - tax inspection, labor committee, regional sanitary station, firefighters, land surveyors, RES, nature protection inspectors...

- In the farmstead, they mostly clung to trifles, looking for what to write out a fine for. And in Minsk, the check was total - right up to the point, as far as I understand, that they found out at the border committee who had traveled abroad how many times, called our tourists, raised checks for excursions 1.5 years ago, and checked on the printouts of mobile operators with whom negotiations were underway, - says Aliaksandr Varikish.

"Shaft of support and solidarity"

- I directly link these checks with my civil position. I don’t know whether the goal was to “close” or just to scare us properly, but they dug diligently, drew up endless protocols, and the penalties were very serious. I will not state the full amount but believe me, it is rather big.

The covid adds up to this because we could not organize tourist programs for most of the last year. I don’t know if we would have been able to get out in such a situation - probably we would have vegetated.

But what happened is some kind of miracle, - recalls the director of the fund, how the Belarusians responded to his desperate call for help in social networks. - Firstly, a lot of people supported with money, sent material assistance. Secondly, they began to actively sign up for excursions with the motive "we will go with this company, let good people earn money." (For example, the community of Belarusian reenactors approached with a “special order” for the excursion; People's Artist of Belarus, prima of the Kupala Theater Zoya Belakhvostik also came to one of the excursions, which spurred the activity of other tourists - “S.”).

As a result, we had sales in November like during the season, despite the "corona" and the situation in the country. Therefore, today I am convinced that the "Country of Castles" has earned the title of a national project; I will not tire of repeating this and thanking people, and I will not forget about who allowed us to survive.

There are actually a lot of people whom I would like to thank, I cannot single out any one person. It was just a wave of support and solidarity when people whom I had not seen for years called and came, transferred money, said kind words...

In general, at first, I thought for a long time how to address people because the situation was very serious, and it was impossible to make a mistake. To be honest, I just saw in a dream what I should write, literally point by point: one, two, three.

Of course, I hoped for some kind of response, but I did not try any special aspirations, and was simply shocked by the reaction - more than 200 thousand views of the publication, re-posts in the largest Belarusian telegram channels, which at that time were not yet recognized as extremist - this was, of course, impressive. I was endlessly receiving SMS notifications about the transfer to the card.

And this support has not ended, it goes on constantly - and now the people who go on excursions with us thank us and ask to inform them about new programs to go with us again.

Or here's another detail: last August, our Facebook group “Country of Castles. Together in Belarus” had 6 thousand subscribers. Now there are 15 thousand of them. Thank you all very much!

"Let everyone do their job"

- In general, it is clear about the checks in Minsk. And how did it happen in the Ashmyany district: then the local authorities in the 2000s almost prayed for you as the saviors of the gentry estates in Beniuny and Radzevichy, then in 2020 suddenly you became a malicious violator, a swarm," and a plunderer of socialist property?

- To be fair, “prayed” is too much. But the fact is that we had excellent relations with the Ashmyany administration. I have always cited the Ashmyany administration as an example as adequate, ready for dialogue.

And now, first of all, a new chairman has come, who really wanted to show himself. And secondly, unfortunately, the political situation as a whole does not "help."

The local authorities, as far as I understand, got involved in the checks when the paper came from Minsk, like, look and check what kind of agriturismo is there in the Ashmyany region.

- They got “involved” - and the village council recognized it as an unauthorized building and decided to demolish a century-old barn and a pre-war hut in the “Halshanski Folvark” on the Radzevichy farm…

- They have already been demolished, - Aliaksandr sighs bitterly, - although we were ready to pay a fine and legalize the buildings (neither appeal to the district and regional executive committee, nor a reception at the minister of culture - "S.") helped to resolve the situation. We finished the analysis a couple of days ago, and I don’t know yet whether they will look for something new to cling to. The chairman of the district executive committee can boldly indulge his sense of self-importance that he is the first person “in the district” and that he had the last word, and not for some upstart Minsk.

Well, let everyone do their job. He will report to his management, how clever and businesslike he is, I - to society, what we have done and continue to do and how much it is necessary, since people are active, sign up to groups and go on excursions with us.

- By the way, about excursions. Is it true that over the past year the program "Paths of smugglers" in Rakau has become the most popular?

- Yes, it so happened that this "illegal" topic has become very popular. I will not dare to link this directly with the events of 2020 in the country, but there is a certain symbolism.

"Spring is near»

- I was also lucky that my family, close people supported me very much - we look in the same direction and stand together like a monolith. Even those who are far away and seemed rather indifferent to me have now taken a very active position, and this is amazing.

How do I cope when depression hits? Good question... Last year, I had very big troubles in my life, to be honest, almost the edge.

Believe it or not, a miracle happened in my life. I was invited to go to a Protestant church, and I quietly sat in a corner for the entire service. Nearby sat a girl whom I saw for the first time in my life - and now she turns and says: "I want to bless you." And he hands me a bookmark, and on it was written "Failure is an opportunity to start all over again, only with greater wisdom."

At that moment, I was just shocked. I did not doubt that it was God himself who touched me in that difficult situation. I have completely revised my life, and now I am convinced that if God leads you through life, then no matter what difficulties and difficulties you expect, this is still a temporary phenomenon. I started taking off last summer. Therefore, even knowing what awaits me and the company, I would still repeat it - this is my path, it must be passed.

So there is absolutely no depression now, there is courage, a feeling of inner protection and determination to go forward. I believe that we all need to go forward, supporting each other - the madhouse will not be eternal, and spring is real, with the awakening of nature and all vital forces - it is not far off.

Aliaksandr knows exactly what he says: last fall, he bought and planted more than 4,000 tulips on the Radzevichy farm, and the flowers, albeit slowly and reluctantly, are already beginning to make their way to please the guests by May.

- What's next? I am not a politician to talk about the prospects, I am, how to put it, a public and tourist leader. But what I see is that the process is going on and is going rapidly. Remember how we were last March and how we have changed over the year. But a year is a very short period.

Take into account that if we take from the first section of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, from 1772, then we, Belarusians, were under different occupations for 250 years. Therefore, if you are waiting for grandiose changes in several months - this will not happen. But the process is going on, everything is fine.

I think that it is very important to look to the future - this especially concerns those who are involved in culture and the protection of monuments, including my fellow tour guides. All that is happening now is muddy water, and it will subside. And there are important, strategic things.

For example, I have been guiding excursions for about 20 years, and I remember very well the time when I was just starting - when we talked about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the minds of the older generation were a little "skidded" because there was little information about it.

But we all sowed, sowed, sowed - and today the majority of Belarusians already know that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is our history, that Belarus is not only about partisans, but also about princes, about tycoons, these are all our traditions and history.

The restructuring of consciousness is underway, and I really like the direction in which we are moving because when people know their history, opponents cannot manipulate it.