At the beginning of September, Belsat journalist Darya Chultsova was released after two years from Lukashenka’s regime prison. She was arrested for reporting on protests. We met Darya in Warsaw to talk about Belarusian people considered enemies of the regime. She also told us how it is to be free in Belarus now.
– You were 23 years old when you got arrested during protests after rigged elections. Now you are 25, and your country is helping Russia to fight against Ukraine. Tell us about your life before and after two years in prison.
Lukashenka’s regime made me suffer. My life has completely changed. First, I was forced to immigrate with no possibility of staying in Belarus. After rigged elections, I decided to report protests, so I used to work too much, and I was exhausted. It was my intentional decision, but I did not plan to be arrested.
– So why do you have to leave your homeland by being arrested and staying in prison for two years?
People of the regime like criminal cases, and living in Belarus, I would have no possibility to continue my work, so immigrating to Warsaw, I can do my work as a journalist. No independent media exist in my country; even if they were, I would be arrested again. I am not going to work for state media. That is why already in prison, I decided to leave. If you are a political prisoner, there is no possibility of living safely in Belarus.
– There are two thousand political prisoners now. Are they all going to leave their homeland?
Some are free nowadays and know how to live without being unnoticed. It is easier if you have your usual work but being a journalist is not safe. It refers to teachers too. They will not be employed in schools or universities again, even if they are the intellectual elite of Belarus.
– What kind of people, not political prisoners, are staying in prisons in Belarus?
In the detention center, there were women convicted of drugs, child support, and theft, and they were very different in prison. From 6 to 12 people stayed in one cell and the prison ward was huge. There were 15 wards, and more than 2000 women were imprisoned. But it was before we were there with another Belsat journalist, Katsyaryna Andreyeva. In the meantime, there was amnesty, and many prisoners got released.
– How is it in a penal colony? Are buildings wooden or bricked?
Two or three floors building is like a hostel for students. Each floor is divided into parts with cells. For my part, there were almost 100 women. In front of buildings, there are yards you can use but are fenced, so there is no possibility of leaving.
– You were guarded all time. Were you able to act freely?
Yes, we were observed not only by officers but also by other prisoners, and they knew very well what we were doing, so we did everything openly. There are also 6 women visiting and controlling prison parts all the time. For example, they keep an eye on dress regulations and quiet.
– You told me about women sentenced to drugs staying in prison with you. Were they in the penal colony? A few years ago, Lukashenka announced easing draconian penalties for drug addicts.
I was in prison with a young, 18-23 years old women. Lukashenka announced easing penalties, but it was very beneficial to keep them in jail because they are young, cheap workers. They will stay there for 15 years sewing uniforms for soldiers, police officers, firefighters, doctors, and prisoners themselves, and because women are paid about $ 0.33 per month, the regime will earn more.
– Is it possible to deny working?
Yes, you can do it, but you will be in a penitentiary cell, which is a terrible place. It is always cold, in winter and summertime. And in summer, a penitentiary colony is hot like in hell because of the asphalt, so I was almost drooped already waking up. Prison patrols treat prisoners not like a human, forcing them to work without a salary. We were told that this was our duty to work, but we had no rights.
– Tell me more about the daily schedule, please.
The day started at 6 am, and we had 20 minutes to prepare for going to have breakfast. One hundred women have only 20 minutes to use 8-10 sinks and 8 toilets. There was no possibility of doing it for everyone. We had 20 minutes to eat breakfast, and at 6.50 were back in the cells to prepare for work, drink coffee, and smoke cigarettes. At 7 am we went to work and at 7.30 we were already in the factory. At 8 am, the machines were ready, and we started our work. At 12, we had our lunchtime, and at 2.30, our work was finished. At 3 am, we were back in prison and had 60 minutes to rest. Then we had something like 20 minutes of standing roll call, and after all of the women had to spend time watching regime or prison TV programs for cultural and educational activities. At 5.30 pm we have 30 minutes of free time and then again 1 hour of watching. Finally, at 7 pm, it was supper time, and after, we had some time until 10 pm. This was the plan of the day without duties. If I had household duties, I had to clean my sector: toilets, washrooms, corridors, court, and factory square.
– What about cooking?
Prisoners of the housekeeping ward prepare meals. They work in the dining room, mothers’ and children’s homes, and clean administrative buildings.
– What is a mother and children’s home?
This is the place of children born in the colony. Mothers may give them out to husbands or grandmothers, but some young mothers prefer to keep their children. I had an impression that they were ready to get rid of their babies soon after leaving the colony. Young moms can visit their children in their free time, feed or play with them. They have different schedules with time for a walk but live in another place. There are only two or three mothers who deserve to be with children, Do they really have to deserve to spend time with their children?
– You told me about more than 1000 prisoners. How many of them were doomed for political views?
Before I was free, 5 to 8 new women were sent to prison daily. We even tried to count political prisoners in the begging, but more and more were convicted of comments and likes on social media. In my opinion, we had about 4 women for 15 prison wards, so it gives 60 women.
– Were you, as political prisoners keeping together?
Yes, we tried too. I was one of the first; we were two or three in the beginning, but finally, there were more than twenty. Women sentenced in 2021 were students, lecturers, participants of marches, and activists. And the last girls prisoned for likes were not contacting us. They were convinced not to meet other political prisoners.
– Was there any difference between those two groups?
I have not heard that those convicted of likes were particularly persecuted, and the administration understood it was too much. But they were cruel to us.
– How are political prisoners persecuted in penal colonies?
I will tell you about it by giving one example. There was a prisoner in one ward with good fellow inmates; no one moved her, and she spent seven months there. She was followed by fellow inmates who cut off her buttons (the prisoner must wear fastened clothes) and gave her needles (the prisoner are not allowed to have sharp objects). The administration was instructed to transfer her to the worst ward in a colony, where inmates reported on each other daily, and the operative one was a sadist. In addition to her daily work, this girl also had a regular duty, i.e., after work, she had to clean the toilet, wash the floor in the corridor, clean the canteen, or shovel the factory yard. This was a moral and physical pressure because she slept poorly from overwork and ate little because she had no time. In one and a half months, she lost 10 kg. She was dying in front of my eyes, disappearing. I saw her crying every day because she could not take the pressure. It does not seem so scary in the story, but I cannot imagine how the girls who are so bullied can survive it.
– Are officers successful in doing this?
In some cases, yes, but we, political prisoners, are close to each other like family. The administrator knew it and blackmailed one of the prisoners; that’s how they usually achieved something.
– Tell me, why did the administration force you to plead guilty and appeal for clemency to Lukashenka? Being sentenced for years, you had no chance to get out.
They want to show us that we, betrayers, are weak and ask them for mercy. And again, He could show His goodness [Lukashenka’s]. Some prisoners could not manage the pressure or did not see the sense of further suffering. Having parents or children, they were trying to do anything to leave prison. Nobody was calling them traitors too. Therefore, I have never condemned anyone for such a choice.
– These methods are nothing new; in similar situations, we read books about Russian or German concentration camps.
In the Zhodino detention center, the patrols came up with a new name for punishment – a gas chamber punishment. Twelve women were in a small cell, including eleven smokers, and they closed all our windows. We lived like this for several days.
– Why?
They were closed for secret messages. Two girls from the cell wanted to write to others. There was a window with a metal shutter, so no light was coming in. You could not see anything outside, yet you could communicate.
– During our conversation, I experience a dissonance. Throughout your imprisonment, we published excerpts and entire letters to your mother. But reading them, I saw a completely different picture of the arrest and penal colony.
I could not write: ‘Mom, today they came for me and took all my things for search’. But of course, they could! After all, such things could not be written to my mother. I wrote: ‘Mom, I’m fine. When they let me go, I read books, write letters, go to work and the gym.’ Because I did not want my mom to worry, and if you wrote anything terrible about the administration, the letter would not get to mom. And because I wanted my mother to get letters, I wrote that it was not so bad in prison.
– Tell me anything more about letters. We know that some prisoners do not get letters or only from their families. Is it different in arrest and the penal colony?
It is not about the place you are prisoned but time. In 2021 we got letters, but only some were sent to us. Penal colony prisoners got less. The more politics there were in the colony, the fewer letters we received. They couldn’t bear censoring them. During the new 2022 year, we got fewer and fewer letters. When the war started, we got letters only from our families. They were afraid people would start writing to us about war. They were terrified of that.
– When and how did you know about the war in Ukraine?
It was February 24th. One of us met with a lawyer and found out from him. After lunch, when we returned to the factory and gathered for a cigarette before work, girls told me. At first, we did not believe it was possible. Then we watched the news and talked with our relatives. After the war broke out, our phone calls were again tapped. Once, I only managed to say hello to my mother, and then they turned on the wiretap, and the connection was so weak that I could not hear anything.
– Did the prisoners take sides with any sides fighting in Ukraine?
The colony got divided. Political prisoners were against the war and criminal prisoners differently. People are imprisoned for years with no information, except for state television, and they have to believe it. They have already lost their ability to think critically. Then a herd leaves the prison, which is easy to steer. These are the people the state needs. They don’t need rational people, only obedient ones.
– Has the administration changed towards you after the outbreak of the war, or did they change the protection of the colonies?
There were exercises in the colony, and I think they feared that we would rebel, or they were exercising for another reason. At the beginning of the protests in 2020, there were hopes that inmates would revolt in the colonies and help overthrow the regime. Inmates told me: ‘we were watching TV, and we did not understand anything’. There was a different reality on state television, and the first political prisoners appeared in the colonies and began to tell how it was. Some have turned on critical thinking and started understanding that they were not being told the truth.
But some female prisoners said we were lying, and the TV was telling the truth that we were paid for by foreign puppet rulers from Poland, Lithuania, and America.
– Have they changed their mind?
We are called extremists, so they make fun of it because we also make fun of it with them. It was normal.
– Political prisoners often have a good education. Have they become the elite of the colony?
No, they did not want to talk to us, and we were treated worse, but in a sense, something good happened for the colony because people with higher education started coming. They were very creative people, able to please the whole community with poems, songs, or simple conversation.
– What was the approach to the Belarusian language? Was it different for prisoners and guards?
It was the same. There were 2-3 people in detention who spoke Belarusian all the time, political, of course. It was a slight shock for the administration and inmates. At first, they looked with huge eyes and wondered why they decided to speak Belarusian. Did they want to stand out and show how wise they were?
– So Belarusian is no longer the language of the countryside but of the intellectuals?
Because that is what it is. In the countryside, it is called ‘trass’ (mixture). You can speak Belarusian, mainly in Minsk. It was possible because now everyone has gone to Warsaw, Vilnius.
I even heard something that said to girls speaking Belarusian: speak normally. So Belarusian is abnormal for them. They associated the national language with the white, red, and white flags. It was a symbol of protest for them.
– Pure extremism!
Yes, speaking Belarusian was equal to extremism for them. However, with time everyone got used to the fact that they spoke Belarusian, understood that they would not stop, and got used to it. Someone from the administration even began to answer in Belarusian. It’s even a positive development.
– Finally, what is the main difference between living in freedom and prison?
I have been free for a month and a half, and sometimes it seems to me that I am not quite out yet. I have left and am free now, but these thoughts and pictures are still with me.
Piotr Jaworski, belsat.eu
There are currently 1,335 political prisoners of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime in Belarus’ detention centers and penal colonies.
