As of 15 March 2025, at least 168 cultural figures, including not less than 36 writers, were not free – imprisoned or in home confinement.
The trial has begun in the criminal case of journalist and writer Palina Pitkievič.
The court has paused the criminal trial of journalist and non-fiction author Ihar Iljaš.
Political prisoner Ihar Iljaš cannot correspond with his wife, political prisoner Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvałava).
History books about World War II—Blood and Ashes of Dražna: Stories of a Partisan Crime, Partisans of the USSR: From Myths to Reality, and Soviet Partisans: Myths and Reality—have been declared “extremist”.
Prosecutors explain why the documentary film The Forest, dedicated to Stalinist repressions, was labelled “extremist”.
The Belarusian Bestiary exhibition in the Mastactva gallery in Minsk was closed after pro-government activists complained.
І. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers
1. On 7 March, the Minsk City Court launched the criminal trial of journalist and writer Palina Pitkievič on charges of participating in an extremist formation under Part 3 of Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code. The State Security Committee (KGB) considers her linked to the “extremist formation” MediaIQ, a Press Club Belarus project that promotes media literacy. Palina Pitkievič wrote journalistic articles on cultural topics and performed as an actress at the Social Theatre Laboratory in Minsk. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism, specializing in creative writing. In 2020, she took third place in the “Nieba z saboju” literary competition organized by PEN Belarus as part of the Uładzimir Karatkievič Traveling Festival.
2. On 12 March, it became known that the Minsk City Court had paused the criminal trial of journalist and non-fiction author Ihar Iljaš. Journalist Siarhiej Vahanaŭ, the grandfather of Iljaš’s wife, political prisoner Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvałava), wrote on Facebook: “A break has now been announced because, at the request of the state prosecutor, the court has sent Ihar’s analytical publications in the media to an expert from an extrajudicial expert organization, Professor, Doctor of Philology, and Head of the Department at the Faculty of Philology at BSU, S. I. Lebiadzinski. However, Ihar and his lawyer had petitioned for an expert review at the State Center for Forensic Examinations, but the court denied their request. As a result, the court and all of us are now awaiting the results of the expert review.” News of Ihar Iljaš’s arrest first surfaced on 22 October 2024. Ihar Iljaš is a journalist who, along with his wife, journalist Kaciaryna Andrejeva (Bachvałava) (currently a political prisoner), co-authored the book Belarusian Donbas (2020) about Belarusians’ participation in the war in eastern Ukraine. In March 2021, a court declared the book “extremist.”
ІІ. Conditions in the places of incarceration
Journalist Siarhiej Vahanaŭ, the grandfather of Ihar Iljaš’s wife, political prisoner, journalist, and writer Kaciaryna Andrejeva, wrote about Ihar Iljaš’s condition behind bars: “The only thing that upsets him is the inability to correspond directly with Kacia, who has already been held for five years in Homiel Penal Colony No. 4. His only attempt to send her a letter ended with its return, even though Ihar had been told beforehand that there was no official ban on correspondence between prisoners.”
III. Repressions in the book sector
On 6 March, Minsk’s Central District Court designated history books about World War II —Blood and Ashes of Dražna: Stories of a Partisan Crime, Partisans of the USSR: From Myths to Reality, and Soviet Partisans: Myths and Reality —as “extremist”.
IV. Censorship
1. On 5 March, representatives of the Homiel Regional Prosecutor’s Office explained why the documentary film The Forest, dedicated to Stalinist repressions, was declared “extremist”. The movie that ended up on the “extremist list” in January 2025 tells the story of Stalinist repressions in the Homiel region. Janka Kupała Theatre actor Aleh Harbuz played the role of a survivor of execution. According to prosecutors, the filmmakers “categorically denied the results of the criminal investigation into the genocide of the Belarusian people.” “In particular, they denied the fact that the human remains discovered by the investigative team of the General Prosecutor’s Office during fieldwork belonged to victims executed by the Nazis during the war. In the video, so-called ‘expert historians’ claimed that the remains found at the burial site belonged to people repressed by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s,” said the head of the General Prosecutor’s Office’s department.
2. On 13 March, the exhibition “Belarusian Bestiary” in the Mastactva gallery in Minsk was closed. “Friends! Due to reasons beyond our control, the ‘Belarusian Bestiary’ exhibition has been closed. There will be no more guided tours,” the exhibition organizers announced on Instagram. Belarusian Bestiary opened in the Mastactva gallery on 11 March and was initially planned to run until 22 March. The state newspaper Zviazda covered the exhibition’s opening. However, on the second day, criticism of the exhibition emerged from pro-government artists Sviatłana Žyhimont and Alaksandr Płavinski and pro-Russian activist Volha Bondarava.