29 March 2024, Friday, 8:52
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Andrei Kureichyk: I Shouldn’t Be Surprised If Alexievich Counted In “Social Parasites” List As Well

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How the Belarusian state turns creative people into “parasites.”

A young artist, Viachaslau Klimenka, has written to the editorial office of charter97.org.

Viachaslau had not received a field-specific education, but he had been painting in oil for a long time, and he participates in exhibitions. In the age of 13 he already was given a special grant, and in the age of 16 he was included in the miscellany of Belarusian cartoons, Belarusians Are Lauging, published by Mastatskaya Litaratra in 2006.

But despite all these achievements, the young man can join the ranks of “social parasites” and pay the tax of 20 basic units, imposed according to the Decree №3 of Aliaksandr Lukashenka. This is because under Lukashenka’s Decree №251, a creative worker can be relieved from the status of a “parasite”, only after “an expert commission” issues “a certificate of a creative worker at the Ministry of Culture of Belarus.” As it is written in the decree, the certificate should be issued for free for a term of 5 years, not later than a month after an application was submitted.

Viachaslau addressed a commission like that, he offered recommendations of renowned Belarusian cultural figures: a well-known fine art expert, an art critic and gallery dealer Tatsiana Bembel, and Aleh Kastsiuchenka, a member of the Union of Artists of Belarus, a son of a well-known artist Vasily Kastsiuchenka.

But neither recommendations, nor the fact that he has his works and an exhibition is being prepared, have not become convincing arguments for the commission. “Half of the members of the commission were sitting their back to me, they didn’t even read out recommendations, and I was constantly interrupted at that “session,” – the young artist writes.

The commission hasn’t come to any decision, and after a while Viachaslau received a letter with a denial to issue a certificate of “a creative worker” for him. The level of the “expert commission” could be demonstrated even by the fact that “in the letter I was called Vasily Vasilievich, though my first name and patronymic name are Viachaslau Vasilievcih.”

“I could say that instead of helping those who are creating works of art, the state screws the last penny, not even out of me, but my son, whom I support,” – the artist has written to the editorial office of charter97.org.

The situation with issuing certificates of “a creative worker” in Belarus has been commented by a well-known Belarusian screenwriter and filmmaker Andrei Kureichyk:

“In this respect, we are a country unique by its stupidity: all over the world spectators are the people who determine whether this or that artist are cultural professionals or not. They determine that by going to his or her concerts, watching their films or viewing pictures.

I could never understood what’s the use of all this absurd Soviet “know-how” for us. It means making a show of oneself to the whole world, like Iosif Brodsky’s imprisonment term for “social parasitism.” And it returns to our life in the 21st century. I would not participate in such “commissions” ever: I know whether I am a creative worker or not myself, and what is my contribution to the national art.

I would not be surprised at anything. I would not be surprised if they called Svetlana Alexievich “a social parasite.” I strongly believe that the cost of this tax’s collection would be 10 times higher than budget revenues. It is already obvious: so much time and efforts of tax agencies and officials have been invested for it, that no revenues would cover that.

It is a symbolic action deprived of economic rationale, it’s a return to the Soviet Union. By this action we are demonstrated: we are returning in the Soviet times, Soviet style of administration. These things are emblematic for the state – “social parasites,” the way the national holidays are marked, the state symbols. They all belong to the same scheme. They do not have and have never had an economic effect.”

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