The Stolen Days (2014-2017) project deals with the things political prisoners have missed while being in jail. It focuses on representatives of various political and social movements of Belarus: nationalists, anarchists, environmentalists, social activists.

All these people were united by the fact that Lukashenko’s regime viewed each of them as dangerous; forces to be suppressed. At some point their daily routine, their friends and beloved ones, their plans and habitual customs, joys and grievances became unreachable, stored only in their memories. Their realities narrowed to a life inside a detention cell. After the liberation of my project’s heroes, I waited for them to do the things they had been missing. And at that time I was nearby.

The Belarusian special services have adopted the experience of the Soviet era: covert arrests at home and at work, harassment of relatives, pressure in the workplace and in universities, conversation tapping. All these things are becoming a new routine of those who are brave enough to be politically active. Around a half of asked detainees refused to participate in the project. This is an expected result for the situation where the focus of the media could provoke a new round of repression.

Most politically motivated arrests in Belarus are conducted according to a standardised scheme: activists are detained and charged with violation of the Administrative Code (petty hooliganism, Art.17.1 or resistance to police Art.23.4). The detention reports are set on carbon paper, where the police also act as witnesses. Then the case goes to the court, where the judge gives guilty records after 10-15 minutes, regardless evidence given by the defense.

Over the last 20 years, arrests, heavy fines and propaganda in pro-government media have become essential tools in the fight against all the forms of public protest in Belarus. This tactic has proved itself to be effective. Very few critically-minded Belarusians are willing to risk their work, education and sometimes even health. It seems that this fruitless and often painful experience is embedded in nation’s collective memory. A combination of fear and inactivity has become a pattern of behavior and a condition of survival.

When talking to dozens of adults and young people, who are extremely brave and love their country, I asked them one question to which I had no answer myself. I was wondering what was the way out of the state of stagnation Belarus finds itself at the moment. What each one of us could do?