"There Will Be No More Flowers"

Iryna Khalip
11.08.2023, 13:53
33,818

The bitterest lesson of 9 August.

On 9 August, it was easy to see who left and who stayed. All you had to do was scroll through social media feeds. The posts of those who stayed were neutral - "we remember" or "three years have passed, but it seems like yesterday". Those who left had white-red-white flags on their pages, memories of the horrors and the names of the dead. And in the evening, photos of marches in different countries and cities.

One of the participants in the Vilnius action had a poster with the words "There will be no more flowers". This sentence contains all our three years of experience, the recognition of our biggest mistake and the bitterest lesson of 2020. And, of course, shame on those sweet idiots hugging the riot police and holding flowers, and on ourselves - for not calling them idiots in time and washing off the pink drool. Now they've washed it off. It didn't even take three years.

By the way, even those who called the resistance veterans extremists in August 2020 (now this word has completely disappeared from the state lexicon). Belarusians themselves, fortunately, do not use it) and claimed that only peaceful actions could change the situation and destroy the regime, finally understood everything. But the price was high - imprisonment, flight, confiscation of property, ruined lives and the need to start from scratch. There will be no more flowers.

Now everyone is living an imitation life. Those who stayed in Belarus are trying to live as if nothing had happened - going to parties and restaurants, going on holidays, clearing social networks of memories. They still have August 9 in their hearts, remember every minute of it, and writhe in pain when they think of the dead and the imprisoned. But one should imitate a normal life - donate money to repair classrooms in schools, go shopping and to the cinema, go on business trips and submit quarterly reports. The main thing is not to stop, not to pause, not to be tormented by memories, questions and guilt over those stupid flowers.

Those who have left, learn the languages of the new countries, get a job, enrol their children in schools and kindergartens and desperately convince themselves that the present life is not forever and not real at all, that it is an imitation of a long business trip and the rented flat is just a hotel room, as always on a business trip, and the return ticket home is already there with an open date. Those who have left and integrated themselves into the numerous structures abroad that will emerge after 2020 are simply busy imitating an activity.

The regime is imitating the fight against conspirators by arresting random passers-by. Whereas in the past the combination of white and red in clothing was grounds for a criminal case and several years in prison, now orange, brown and purple are also acceptable as red. Meanwhile, the regime imitates social unity and popular contentment. Theatres imitate cultural life, factories - great industrial achievements, agriculture - unprecedented harvests, sports - records that no one sees, and schools - patriotic education. And, of course, the West imitates sanctions and deep concern.

It turns out that only political prisoners live a real life. They resist the lawlessness of the prison with all their might, support each other, go on hunger strike, wait for letters, refuse to cooperate with the administration, which would guarantee a quiet time in prison. They imitate nothing. They fight every day for their dignity, for their lives, for the right to breathe.

We will greet them with flowers. By the way, we will greet each other with flowers, but only later, when we win. Winners are always greeted with flowers. But one greets tanks with something completely different.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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"There Will Be No More Flowers"

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