‘Kurapaty-Akrestsin prison: Never again’. Repentance Chain in Minsk (photo report)

On August 21, about 10,000 residents of the Belarusian capital formed the 13-kilometre Repentance Chain.

It started at the walls of the notoriuos detention centre in Akrestsin street (where many detained protesters are still being held) and ended in Kurapaty Forest, a Stalin-era mass grave site near Minsk.

73-year-old Uladzimir is a religious person. Like many people who gathered in the forest, he took part in a mass prayer offered up on Friday evening.

“Our authorities have broken all important commandments, i.e. ‘do not give false testimony’, ‘do not kill’, ‘do not steal’,” says Uladzimir.

Alesya holds a portrait of a young man. She says it was created on the basis of a small photo – the only one left as the tribute to her relative Vasil Makovich who was executed by Stalin secret police NKVD in 1938.

“According to the official version, he was a ‘Polish spy’. But it is quite a big assumption, because my great-grandfather was an ordinary peasant and he did not even finish school. Nevertheless, he was killed here. As far as I know, he was not even a Pole,” Alesya stressed.

See our photo report:

Belsat.eu