It Was The Month Of May

Memory is a weapon that cannot be let loose.

And at the time, it seemed to us that nothing could be scarier after November. The murder of Roman Bondarenko in November 2020 - that, we thought, was the most heinous date, which in our martyrologist will forever be marked in the boldest black font. But then came May.

The month when, in the halo of universal blooming and in thoughts of the coming summer, there can be no bad premonitions. Much less tragedy. But on May 21, 2021, Witold Ashurok - an activist with the face of a musketeer, a man who put crosses at the burial site of the rebels of 1863, a patriot and a daredevil - died in Shklou colony. Now every anniversary of his death is Political Prisoner's Day. A day of remembrance, a day of solidarity, a day of sorrow and hope.

And on May 26, five days after Witold's death, another tragedy occurred in that bitter year that many people don't remember (I'm not judging anyone - try to remember everything and everyone when there are more names of repressed people than any phone book can hold). This week is five years since 18-year-old Dmitry Stakhovsky committed suicide by throwing himself from the 16th floor.

18 years old he turned on January 31, 2021. And he went to the August protests as a minor. Dmitry had no relatives: he was an orphan, lived in a dormitory, and studied at a light industry college. I don't know with whom he went to the marches - with his friends, with his dormitory neighbors or alone. But, as human rights activists later found out, it was the staff of the dormitory where Dima lived who reported to "the proper authorities" that he was an active participant in the protests. So the young man became a suspect in the case of mass riots.

May 25, 2021 he was summoned for questioning by the Investigative Committee. That same night he threw himself from the 16th floor. One can only guess what was said and what Dima was frightened with at the interrogation. We know how it happens. We know what the misunderstandings in the uniforms say in such cases. We know how defenseless people are, for whom there is no one not only to intercede, but also simply to worry, to worry, to write messages "where are you? I'm worried." Each of us can simulate the course of the interrogation: we will break your life, bitch, you will not get out of prison, and if you do, then under the fence, there will be no place for you anywhere else.

Maybe if this criminal case, involvement as a suspect, interrogation and threats had happened earlier, in August or September, Dmitry would be alive. Back then, the salvation for every threatened person was another march - thousands of like-minded people, the feeling of shoulder and elbow next to each other, a reliable hitch. No one felt alone there. And in May everything became different. It was in May - not in April, not in June, not in any other month.

Remember that May. The Belarusian repressions began to be compared to the "Great Terror" of 1937. All over the country, in all city and district courts there were political trials. Nobody left the courtroom - everyone was given terms. On May 18, the popular portal tut.by was smashed, on May 21, Vitold Ashurok died in a colony, and on May 24, the regime was not lazy to intercept an entire Ryanair plane with the help of fighter jets in order to arrest two people. It seemed that not just a black streak was coming, but an apocalypse in a single country. And against this background, Dima Stakhovsky is declared a suspect in a riot case and threatened. He didn't have a mom who could hug him and say, "My golden one, everything will be fine." He had no support. I don't know what he was thinking before his last jump, standing on the 16th floor balcony. But in the social network before this jump Dima left a post, which ended with the words: "Be a little kinder and in general. Live a positive life."

Five years have passed, Dima. And we're trying. All these years we've been trying to "live on the positive". It doesn't work. Because every day we get angrier and more desperate. Positive is later, it's in the future. Hopefully soon. But don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you, just as we haven't forgotten about all those who were killed by the regime. And if there is someone to avenge the others - parents, wives, brothers and sisters - then we will avenge you together. Or rather, not revenge, just justice. We remember. And memory is a weapon that should never be let out of our hands, so that no one goes unpunished.

Irina Khalip, especially for Charter97.org.

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