Children's Health Camp ‘The Gulag Archipelago’

Apparently, Lukashenka’s got a face for radio, and he’s too great in being an abomination.

“Leo Tolstoy was very fond of children, and couldn’t get enough of them. He would bring a full room of them, with nowhere to step, and he would keep shouting: “More! More!” Daniil Kharms is known for writing such literary anecdotes. Sometimes Lukashenka also seems like a Kharmsian caricature character to me.

Children from Syria have been coming to the Belarusian “Zubrenok” for six years now. Moreover, propaganda media like to emphasize that they are coming at the invitation of Lukashenka. Syrian shifts in the camp are called “From Heart to Heart”. One and a half thousand Syrian schoolchildren have already had a rest in “Zubrenok”, traveled around Belarus, and some of them even visited the meeting with Lukashenka in TsAL DIR BIE. I remember TV stories telling with delight about how lucky Syrian children are to be in Belarus, where nothing threatens them, where life is peaceful and calm, where parents are not killed and children are not made orphans. Already almost one and a half thousand Syrian children have had a rest in “Zubrenok”.

Children from the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions who were brought to Belarus “for rehabilitation” already number in the thousands. They are transported by train from Adler, they are met at the station by the “Night Wolves” from Zaldostanov's company, Paralympic celebrity Talai and correspondents of propaganda publications. Then these publications give out reports about how poor kids, whose lives were almost destroyed by the evil Kyiv ghouls, thaw, eat, start smiling and enthusiastically talk about a trip to Belarus as the best thing that ever happened in their life. They also live in “Zubrenok”, in other camps and sanatoriums in Belarus. Then they record a video thanking Lukashenka, and their parents say: “Thank you, Aliaksandr Ryhoravich, for everything and special thanks to you for Talai!” And so that no one forgets the source of generosity, all propagandists in every message about the next group of Donbas children who came to rest in Belarus always add: on the personal instructions of Aliaksandr Lukashenka. You never know — they could suddenly turn out to be ungrateful creatures and will not thank you publicly, so at least the propagandists will remind the local population who is the kindest guy here.

Not just Syria and Donetsk. Remember the story of the Latvian boy Ilya Karoza, who came with his grandmother to the Slavonic Bazaar and interviewed Lukashenka? Do you remember how the grandmother started to complain about the persecution by the Latvian authorities for an interview with this outstanding person? Then Lukashenka waved his sleeve and moved everyone to Belarus at once — the boy, and the grandmother, and the mother, and the brother, and the sister, and a large amount of equipment that was stored in the grandmother's children's television academy. And he promised that now there will be branches of the grandmother's studio in every regional city of Belarus. The whole family received citizenship of Belarus exactly two days after the submission of documents. Because Lukashenka does not sleep at night — he takes care of the children.

A week ago was the birthday of political prisoner Kim Samusenka. His daughter Lada was born in April 2020. The last time she saw her dad was at six months old. Kim's term is six and a half years. When he goes free (unless, of course, we release the political prisoners earlier), his daughter will go to school, and her father will be a stranger to her. Snail Josip, which Kim draws, will be a more familiar and beloved creature for Lada than dad.

Vanya and Nastsia, children of Antanina Kanavalava and Siarhei Yarashevich, live in Warsaw with their grandmother after the arrest of their mother and father. Stakh and Slavamir Sharenda are waiting for their mother from prison, but the younger Stakh, who was four when they took his mother, gradually forgets what she looks like. I assure you, they do not need “Zubrenok”, country tours and quests. They just need their parents to come home. Paulina Losik was one and a half years old when her dad was arrested. When Paulina turned three and a half, they also came for her mother. According to the Belarusian court and Aliaksandr Lukashenka personally, Paulina's dad should be released exactly by the time his daughter receives a diploma of higher education. But even this was not enough for him, a lover of children, so he also ordered to take her mother away for several years. I wonder how long a child's memory will last? What a fascinating experiment.

No, after all, Lukashenka, as a lover of children, is not at all a Kharms character, even if he “brings a full room of them, with nowhere to step”. In Kharms’ works, all the characters, whether Leo Tolstoy or Pakin and Rakukin, are equally harmless. They are absurd, stupid, meaningless, but cause laughter without a sense of physiological disgust. Lukashenka, with all his caricature nature, causes precisely disgust. So Lukashenka would not have had a chance to get into Kharms' book, even if Daniil Ivanovich was alive: he’s got a face for radio, but he’s too great in being an abomination.

Iryna Khalip, exclusively for Charter97.org

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