Today marks two years since the death of the remarkable Belarusian writer Vasil Bykau. Today’s Belarus needs him very much. “In a non-free, totalitarian time many people think that to stoop to conformism, to compromise with one’s conscience it’s not for long, and that everything could be corrected later. It’s a great delusion. A person, who has bartered away his freedom once, becomes a prisoner forever”. These words were said by Vasil Bykau shortly before his death in exile. Today many people will come to the grave of the great writer in Uskhodniya cemetery in Minsk.
His last years the writer lived abroad because of the disagreement with the policy of the head of state A. Lukashenka. First in Finland, then in Germany, and later in the Czech Republic, on personal invitation of the colleague playwright and president Havel.
The regime is taking revenge on Bykau even after his death. Books by Bykau are not republished in Belarus, films about his life and creative works are banned. The Belarusian authorities ignore proposals of the public commission, created for commemoration of the people’s writer. In different cities of Belarus there have been many proposals to pay tribute to writer and give his name to streets or institutions. Minsk authorities refused to rename Dzerzhinsky Avenue as Vasil Bykau Avenue. In December, 2003, Hrodna city council refused to meet with the proposal of city dwellers and give the name of the writer to Lenin Komsomol Boulevard and Sverdlov Street.
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