Culture management in Belarus style: Former KGB officer heads music theatre in Hrodna
Katsyaryna, a daughter of the leader of entrepreneurs Valery Levaneuski, and KGB officer Syarhei Sevyaryn during the search, Hrodna, 2004. Phot. by Andrzej Poczobut
Another Hrodna theatre has been headed by a former law enforcement officer: Syarhei Sevyaryn is now director of Rada music theatre.
His name appeared in media reports in 2004. Then the local KGB department conducted a search in the apartment of Valery Levaneuski, the head of the Hrodno National Strike Committee of entrepreneurs, who was later sentenced to two years in jail for distribution of reading materials that allegedly insulted the honor and dignity of Belarus president Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Syarhei Sevyaryn was the only officer who showed his ID.
Belsat.eu congratulated Mr Sevyaryn on his фыышптьуте and asked why he had suddenly changed the field of work. But the former KGB officer declined to comment on his previous career or his ‘creative plans’.
Getting in contact with the theatre, we learned that the change of leadership took place very quickly. A new director was introduced by Alyaksandr Vaytulyanis, a deputy head of the department of ideology, culture and youth affairs of Hrodna City Executive Committee.
An administrator of the theatre told belsat.eu that Syarhei Syaveryn is a man from ‘quite a different sphere’ but expressed hope that he would take root in the theatre as a director and business manager. It is very important for any manager to have legal education, the woman added.
During the talk, Mr Sevyaryn was familiarizing himself with documents in the accounts department. And we were told that the new director is ‘good, normal and cultural’ and used to work in law enforcement bodies.
‘Rada’ has acquired a name by performing Roma songs, althoug the theatre also has programs of Belarusian and Cossack songs on its repertoire.
It is not the first time when a former law enforcement officer has been appointed to a senior position in a cultural institution in Hrodna.
In 2012, retiree Colonel Ihar Hedzich became Director of the regional drama theater. Earlier he served in the headquarters of the Western Operational Command. Meeting the theatre team, the newly appointed director concluded: ‘There will be no revolution but evolution’.
belsat.eu
