Poems by Pushkin and Chukovski about “sly ruler” and a cockroach handed out to Minsk dwellers

Activists of European Belarus civil campaign held a performance on Minsk streets.

The young people were reading loud lines from Alexander Pushkin and Korney Chukovsky that can be applied to a well-known man (A weak-kneed, but sly ruler, A bald dandy, the foe of toil, Unexpectedly crowned by Glory; To the Cockroach they all yield, He's now lord o'er wood and field) and handed out leaflets with the poems among passers-by, ffight.org reports.

Leaflets with the poems were also posted on the walls around the city.

A policemen who came to the activists to figure out what they were doing did not find anything illegal in distributing poetry.

“People were reading leaflets with great interest. They understood what was meant in the poems and smiled. It seems Pushkin and Chukovsky knew what Belarus would face in the 21st century. Following the logic of our authorities, these authors should have been put on the so called blacklist long ago. It's strange enough they are not there yet,” a participant of the performance said.