Writer Sasha Filipenka: Protest Is Very Strong in Society

It just hangs in the air.

Reflecting on the comparison of the Belarusian reality and the books of Orwell and Kafka, the famous Belarusian writer Sasha Filipenka noted that the line between the real and the unreal has long been erased in Belarus.

- Life in the Republic of Belarus every time shows the impotence of the authors of dystopias. It shows that you can write even more accurately and fall lower and lower. the line between the real and the unreal has long been erased,” Filipenka said on the air of Euroradio.

The writer noted that, in connection with the approaching anniversary of the Belarusian events, he would like to sum up everything that's happened to us this year. He disagrees with the statement that all Belarusians understand the situation in the same way.

- When we talk about Belarusians, after all, these are people who work in the AMAP and those who are trying to retain power - these are all Belarusians too. Obviously, we and these people have different conclusions about what happened this year.

But I think that the most important thing that happened was that people felt solidarity, felt community, and, for me, one of the most important results of this year was house chats, when people self-organized, when they helped each other and did not wait for some person to come and tell them what to do. When they took the initiative, and they still do. Still, people help each other, - the writer said.

He disagrees with the statement that the protest has been suppressed:

- The protest is very strong in society. It seems to me that now there is no need even to go somewhere because the protest hangs in the air. We see how the state is constantly trying to tell that everything is fine, constantly trying to tell that there is no protest movement in Belarus, and constantly fails to cope with it. We see how the police have now gone door-to-door to prevent the August 9 protests.

And, in this sense, the most important thing is that Belarusians began to accept themselves, began to understand what they can, that they have a voice, and, most importantly, they began to understand that some institutions, not people, should work. And, in general, we should live in a country where officials work for people and not vice versa, concluded Filipenka.