Pavel Seviarynets: If Russia Attempts To Capture Belarus, It Will Fall Apart

• 28.01.2019, 15:46

We should be ready to return our people their power, at which the Kremlin has already opened its chaps.

Pavel Seviarynets plans to participate in the primaries, where the candidate for the upcoming presidential election will be defined. He represents Christian Democrats. Seviarynets has told nn.by about his program, family and son Francishak, and shared his opinion with regard to the possible actions of the opposition in case of annexation of our country by Russia.

- Pavel, the last year has passed under the sign of Kurapaty for you, right? Which lessons have you learnt from this confrontation?

- Lesson one. Belarusians proved themselves a nation in Kurapaty: the absolute majority do not consider a restaurant in Kurapaty acceptable and continues the silent boycott of Bulbash Hall. Despite the avalanche of publications (it would seem, extra advertising!), discounts, free pilaf and other lures like pop “stars”, we see only a few visitors per day near the barrelhouse. Mostly, these are people who come there on purpose, with a challenge: “Russian world” guys, Stalinists, cynics, “masters of life”.

Lesson two. A small number of decisive defenders forced the whole society to make their decision, and the authorities — to publicly take the position of “neutrality”, install a monument to the victims of repressions of 1930-40 in the stove, decorate the tracks, organize community clean-up days. It would not be if it were not for the watch. Organized and committed people are in favor of Belarus - and they are changing a lot here and now.

Lesson three. The regime remains mentally Soviet. The authorities identify themselves not with those who were shot, but with those who shot. Hence fines and arrests for the participants in the pickets, hence the penalties for installing the crosses, hence the silence about the closed archives of the KGB.

Lesson four. The restaurant visitors database, which we launched after the announcement of a public boycott at the initiative of Dzianis Ivashyn, gave us a cross-section of people and organizations who are ready to join the hybrid war against Belarus. Many do not go to this barrelhouse, fearing that decent people will no longer greet them.

Lesson five. Consolidation of representatives of various parties and movements, as well as non-party people of goodwill will occur around boiling points - such as Kurapaty, or the protests against the Brest battery plant, the “parasitic” decree or the impaction in Minsk.

- Has Kurapaty opened the eyes of the country to new heroes? What about antiheroes?

- The heroes of Kurapaty are the defenders, who, for the eighth month, regardless of the heat, heavy rain or frost, are standing there in the stove, handing out booklets, record the “Russian world” adherents who visit the restaurant on principle and make it clear to the Kremlin: if you ever try to come here, there are the people ready to defend the country.

The heroes are Hanna Shaputska and Zmitser Dashkevich, Viachaslau Siuchyk and Ales Chakholski, Dzianis Urbanovich and Dzmitry Kazakevich, Volha Nikalaichyk and Leanid Kulakou, Aliaksei Turovich and Nina Bahinskaya, Maya Navumava and Maxim Viniarski, Valer Rabtsau and Vintsuk Piatrouski, Dzianis Ivashyn and Alena Talstaya, Ihar Shchamialiou and Vasil Ban, Natallia Samatyja and Natallia Harachka, Vital Paulau and Arsen Dziadok, Yury Paleyka and Siarhei Aniankou, Nadzeya Batura and Anatol Naumovich, Piotr Rabushka and Bazyl Hushcha, Philip Shaurou and Natallia Ilynich and many, many others… For the seven and a half months, over 500 people have gone through the Kurapaty watch, and in the whole Belarus, I believe, there are dozens of thousands people ready to defend their country.

What to do with the antiheroes? Let God judge them. The people who build a barrelhouse, desecrate the memory of the dead and make fireworks near the place of mass executions, are digging a pit to the hell right under their feet.

- What does Kurapaty mean for you?

- Kurapaty is a place where the blood of dozens of thousands of innocent victims still cries to the sky. Stand still, close your eyes - and in the noise of the Kurapaty pines you will hear hum. The current regime does not open the archives - and we do not even know the names of the executed. Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians still do not know how and where their ancestors were killed. In spiritual terms, this is a huge gaping wound, and it will not heal without truth and repentance. There are dozens and hundreds of such wounds in Belarus, but Kurapaty is the most impressive.

Therefore, Kurapaty since the time of Zianon Pazniak is a place where more and more new waves of the Belarusian public movement are born. So it was in 1988-89 with the creation of the Belarusian Popular Front, so it was in 2001-02, when the Young Front with the Zubr and Svaboda activists carried a round-the-clock watch, so it was in the winter of 2017: protest broke out in Kurapaty and echoed in many thousands protests of the “non-parasites”. The Kurapaty cross is the coordinate system of the Belarusian national idea.

- Why did you decide to participate in the primaries, and, probably, in the presidential election in the future?

- You know, I travel a lot in Belarus, over the past year I’ve been to more than one hundred and twenty cities, townships and villages ... Now for a great number of Belarusians, the alternative to Lukashenka is not the opposition leaders, but Putin. “We are sick and tired of Lukashenka, Russia will come and restore order,” - that's what, after watching TV, people say. The controversial voices of a dozen leaders of disparate opposition are perceived as a side noise.

Therefore, now we, the democrats, need to hold fair, free, transparent and fair internal elections - and define a single leader who can become the voice of the Belarusian people. In my opinion, this could be the leader of the protests, the leader of the boycott, and the leader of the winning campaign in the event of a looming force majeure. There are no elections, total fraud. But in the case of external or internal pressure, mass disturbances or surprises with Lukashenka’s health, the system may fail — and we must be ready to return the power to the people, to which the Kremlin has already opened its chaps. Therefore, I made this decision. The time to get determined is coming.

- Is Belarus prepared for a Christian president? What is the potential of the Christian-oriented politics?

- Belarus was a country led by Christian politicians for the biggest part of its history. Iziaslau, Usiaslau, Alherd, Vitaut, Zhyhimont Augustus (Sigismund Augustus), the Sapiehas, Radziwills, Astrozhskis ... The Polatsk principality was a veche Christian democracy. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in its heyday was a gentry Christian democracy. In general, Christian democracy is the political backbone of the Belarusian nation.

Look, the Communists ruled in Belarus for 70 years, killed millions of Belarusians and built hundreds of pig farms. An Orthodox atheist, Lukashenka, ruled Belarus for 25 years, threw thousands of the country's best people behind bars and built fifty ice hockey palaces. And Christian politicians ruled in Belarus for six hundred years, and this was the golden age of the state. Christian politicians won the first election to the Russian State Duma in the region and represented Belarus in the Second Sejm of the Rzeczpospolita. If it were not for the wars and the Soviet power, today the Christian Democrats would also lead Belarus.

The trouble is that Lukashenka is a reflection of the moods of a significant part of society, crippled by godlessness and Communism, devoid of faith, deceived, confused. But I believe that in two decades, many Belarusians would look into this mirror and become horrified.

Is Belarus prepared for a Christian president? …. Are you still asking? Yes, we occupy one of the first places in the world - in the world! - on the level of suicides, abortions, divorces, women in prisons, alcohol consumption ... The country simply moans in oblivion. The country is asking for hope! Belarus needs people who believe in God and love their homeland as air. But do not wait for the hero, who will come and arrange heaven on earth. Only if we start with ourselves, with our hearts, if we act together - we will not allow hell to be here.

And what is the potential of the Christian-oriented politics in the world - let's ask Americans about George Washington and Ronald Reagan or Germans about Konrad Adenauer, Helmut Kohl or Angela Merkel.

- Will Belarus be occupied by Russia?

- The threat is great. But the day when Moscow decides to turn Belarus into a part of the empire by force will be the beginning of the end of the empire. If the Kremlin seizes Belarus according to the Crimean or Donetsk scenario, Russia will fall apart.

From the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the secret of life and death of the Russian Empire pulsed here: the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in Minsk, the royal headquarters in the First World War in Mahiliou and the Bielavezha Forest became the twists and turns of the geopolitical key inherent in Belarus.

Belarus sacrificed its best geniuses to transform, change, enlighten Russia. Simeon Polotsky, Dostoevsky, Vysotsky, Novodvorskaya, Makarevich, Aleksievich ... For five hundred years, Russia has wanted to devour a partisan Belarus, but it gets stuck as a bone in the throat. They come to us with MiGs, we come to them with books.

We pray and do what we can so that they do not get here. But we must be ready to defend independence - then the empire will fall apart.

- What to do with Lukashenka, who seems to be pro-independent now? Should we believe him?

- Is Lukashenka a guarantor of the Belarusian independence? He has been a guarantor of his personal power for 25 years. If he had become pro-independent, Dzianis Urbanovich and Volha Nikalaichyk would not have been arrested for the action in memory of Mikhail Zhyzneuski, and Hrodna residents would not be fined for the day in memory of Kastus Kalinouski. If Lukashenka had become pro-independent, we would have seen the elimination of unconstitutional “unions”, stupid decrees, the contract system and lawlessness in the courts, the restoration of retirement experience and the closure of harmful industries: people will not protect the state that strangulates them.

Do you want Belarusians to support you? Give the people the loot, return freedom, repent, release political prisoners and those unjustly convicted, raise the white-red-white flag and hold free elections. If Lukashenka does not do this, he will sign a sentence for himself, and the story will be inexorable to him.

- Do you have a vision of how to build the relations with Russia after Lukashenka?

- Just as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia built relations with Russia after the Communists. Honestly, calmly, firmly and with dignity.

Without falsehood, flattery, wheeling-dealing, “oil for kisses” and night ghosts like the Union State. From the standpoint of independence. To be ready, if anything, to fight back. With full payment for gas, across a civilized border - normal good-neighborly relations. Carefully, politely, but consistently. I think the US, the EU, especially Lithuania and the Visegrad countries, and Ukraine will help us in this.

The non-aligned status of Belarus and the Kremlin’s aggression in Ukraine require us to leave the CSTO and become a negotiating platform for the West and Russia. The fundamental neutrality, transit position and modernization of the infrastructure along with the development of the IT sphere will make us the economic and logistic center of Eastern Europe - such as the Benelux or Switzerland for Western Europe, and in whose inviolability both the West and the East are interested.

- Your offer to invite Belarusians who fought for Ukraine to heard the Armed froices has caused an ambigous reaction. Like, fighting is one thing, but managing an army is something quite different.

- Remember what happened in 2014 in the Crimea and the Donbas. How many colonels and generals with diplomas surrendered to the invaders bases and cities, went over to the side of the enemy? And who became a wall for their homeland and stopped saboteurs on their way to Kyiv? Volunteer battalions.

Will officers who were educated in Russian academies, who drink in tents with a likely adversary during joint exercises, who are jealous of the Russian security officials and ready to sell themselves for their salaries, like the infamous police officer from Pruzhany, defend Belarus?

I think there are professionals in today's Belarusian army who are ready to defend independence - but in key positions I see first of all people with the character of Kasciuszka,Khadkiewicz, or Kalinouski. Those with the “Pahonia” coat-of-arms in the heart. Those for whom “yes, sir!” means “yes”, and “no, sir!” means “no”. The officers, who in principle did not serve the regime, Belarusian volunteers, defendants in the “patriots case”.

- What is more in you – a politician, a writer, a believer? Imagine you need to describe yourself with one word…

- Believer. The core of any person is faith or no faith. From the answer to the question of faith, both conclusions and lifestyles arise. A politician or a writer is a derivative, their calling at one time or another. Still, “To My Brother”, “Letters from the Forest”, “I Love Belarus”, “The Depth”, “Belarusalim”, “Heart of Stone”, whatever one may say, remain the first, and the second, and the third.

It is very difficult, sometimes causes even physical pain, to combine faith, politics and creativity. I'm trying. But such prominent Belarusians as Adam Stankevich, Zianon Pazniak, Vasil Bykau, Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, and Dzmitry Dashkevich have succeeded.

- The last congress of the Young Front caused great controversy on Facebook. Many wrote that they were hurt by what the Young Front had come to. Like, Urbanovich is unable to write a word withoput spelling mistakes. And what a dispute was with Ivan Shyla about mopping! (Seviarynets reproached Ivan Shyla with the fact that he was engaged in the cleaning business - Ed.) Pavel, don’t you wash floors?

- Of course, I do wash the floor, but it’s not about that, for certain. This is about the former Young Front activist who lost the elections in the Young Front in 2013, and took offense.

I pity Ivan. Wonderful parents gave the guy a lot of abilities, and he was a youngster of high expectations, and then decided that it was better to spend his life on alcohol, drugs, nightclubs, it was better to mock former friends and switch back to speaking Russian. Undoubtedly, this is his choice.

Only this is not my choice and not the election in the Young Front. Young Front means the Belarusian form and Christian content, the optimal formula of the Belarusian patriotism. So it was and so it will be. The current leader of the Young Front, Dzianis Urbanovich, reminds me of the early Dashkevich (whom, you remember, they also reproached for the insufficient level of education, but then silenced) - an unusually strong and purposeful guy.

- Last year you had a son Francishak. Has the child changed Pavel Seviarynets in any way? What does being a father mean to you?

- Fatherhood is a breakthrough in self-awareness. Only at some month of your child’s life you realize how much your parents suffered and did for you. You understand how your wife is laid out. Fatherhood is a ministry that is no easier than politics and street fighting. Parents of many children are real heroes of Belarus for me. And at the same time, this is the greatest blessing and incomparable joy.

- What makes you happy today?

- It makes me happy that I was born and live in a mysterious and bright country, which is worth fighting for. My wonderful parents, sisters and relatives make me happy. Friends, which I have incredibly many, make me happy. What makes me happy is that I married the best girl in the world, and now I have a perfect wife. My vocation, ideas and books make me happy.

And I know that only God, who knows everything and loves us, Belarusians very much, can make a person so happy.

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Pavel Seviarynets. Born in 1976 in Vorsha in the family of a journalist and teacher of the Russian language. He lived in Vitsebsk. He graduated from the Faculty of Geography of the BSU in 2000. One of the founders of the Young Front and its first co-chairman. The organizer of numerous actions against the policy of Lukashenka. In 1998, he spent two months in the remand prison for attempting to disrupt the concert on the “Day of Unity of the Peoples of Belarus and Russia”. Being imprisoned, he came to faith in God. In 2005, he was sentenced to three years of liberty restriction at the specialized facility for a rally against a referendum on extending Lukashenka’s powers. He served punishment in the village of Maloye Sitna, Polatsk District. One of the founders of the Christian Democracy. He was the head of the election headquarters of Vital Rymasheuski. After Square 2010 he was sentenced to three years of liberty restriction. Pavel served punishment in Kuplin, Pruzhany District. Writer, author of books “Letters from the Forest”, “The Belarusian Depth”, “Belarusalim”, and others. Longtime author of “NN”.