As of 15 October 2025, at least 153 cultural figures, including 33 writers, were not free \u2013 either imprisoned or in home confinement.<\/b><\/p>\n
Local historian <\/span>Ja\u016dhien Staravojta\u016d <\/b>was convicted in a politically motivated criminal case.<\/span><\/p>\n Former political prisoner and Belarusian linguist, <\/span>Natalla Dulina<\/b>, a specialist in Italian language studies, described being tortured by cold while in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n Political prisoner, journalist and essayist <\/span>Andrzej Poczobut<\/b> is reported to be experiencing serious health problems.<\/span><\/p>\n Former political prisoner <\/span>Maksim Viniarski<\/b> revealed that he was persecuted in prison for writing poetry.<\/span><\/p>\n Social media pages of the music group <\/span>Naviband<\/b> were declared \u201cextremist\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n A court in Belarus ruled that the social media pages of <\/span>Bel.Read<\/b>, a project promoting Belarusian-language audiobooks, are \u201cextremist materials\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n On 12 October, it became known that local historian and creator of the video blog \u201cMahilo\u016d Chronicles\u201d <\/span>Ja\u016dhien Staravojta\u016d <\/b>was convicted by the Mahilo\u016d Regional Court under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 361-4 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to home confinement.<\/span> On 1 October, An\u017ealika Borys, Chair of the unofficial Union of Poles in Belarus, reported that political prisoner, journalist and essayist <\/span>Andrzej Poczobut<\/b> is suffering from serious health problems, including hypertension and arrhythmia.<\/span><\/p>\n Former political prisoner <\/span>Maksim Viniarski<\/b>, who was released and expelled from Belarus on 11 September, said on 2 October that he had been persecuted in the penal colony for writing poetry:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was transferred to a cell-type facility so that I would have less contact and interaction with other people. So that I would not \u201cinfect them with extremism\u201d, I would not show that one can speak and write the truth, nor demonstrate a political stance. One possible reason was that I wrote poems, and their content displeased the prison administration.<\/span> Former political prisoner <\/span>Natalla Dulina<\/b>, a Belarusian linguist and specialist in Italian language studies, described being tortured by cold:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe most difficult thing for me was the punishment isolation cell. It was truly torture, even though it wasn\u2019t the first time I had been held in such conditions. <\/span>Miko\u0142a Dziadok<\/b> [former political prisoner, writer and anarchist activist] said that grown men howled from the cold. Our girls didn\u2019t howl, but they also complained about how freezing it was. I had already gone through something like this once, during administrative detention. They put me and another political prisoner in an icy cell. Then, as in the punishment isolation cell in the colony, they took away all our warm outer clothes. The cold was unbearable \u2013 it was impossible to stand still. I ran, jumped, and did physical exercises just to stop the suffering from the cold. In the punishment isolation cell, everything was according to schedule: three meals a day, eight hours of sleep. But forgive me \u2013 what kind of sleep can there be when you are shivering from the cold?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On 9 October, the Dok\u0161ycy District Court designated the social media pages of the music band <\/span>Naviband<\/b> as \u201cextremist\u201d. The ruling covered the Facebook page \u201cNaviband \u2013 Belarus\u201d, as well as the Instagram accounts \u201cnaviband\u201d and \u201cksunaviband\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n On 9 October, the \u010cyhuna\u010dny District Court of Viciebsk declared the social media pages of the Belarusian-language audiobook enthusiasts\u2019 project <\/span>Bel.Read<\/b> to be \u201cextremist\u201d. The ruling covered the project\u2019s accounts on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.<\/span><\/p>\n On 14 October, it became known that the state enterprise \u201cNetwork of Public Libraries of the City of Homiel\u201d allocated more than 16,500 Belarusian roubles for the purchase of new books. The procurement list includes over 1,000 titles in Russian, while <\/span>no Belarusian-language books<\/b> are included. A similar situation has been observed in other cities. In Raha\u010do<\/span>\u016d<\/span>, in the spring of 2025, all 3,475 new books acquired for the library named after the classic of Belarusian literature U\u0142adzimir Karatkievi\u010d were also in Russian.<\/span><\/p>\n On 6 October, it was reported that the Prosecutor of Minsk\u2019s Saviecki District issued formal orders to the owners of two online marketplaces, demanding that they remove <\/span>\u201cprohibited printed publications\u201d<\/span><\/i> from their listings.<\/span><\/p>\n During monitoring of e-commerce platforms, the prosecutor\u2019s office identified books included in the official \u201cList of Printed Publications Containing Information and\/or Materials Whose Distribution May Harm the National Interests of the Republic of Belarus\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Among the banned titles were the novels <\/span>Summer in a Pioneer Tie<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>What the Swallow Is Silent About<\/i><\/b> by <\/span>Elena Malisova and Katerina Silvanova<\/b>, as well as <\/span>The Corrupted King<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>The Steel Princess<\/i><\/b> by <\/span>Rina Kent<\/b>, and <\/span>Hunting Adeline<\/i><\/b> by <\/span>H. D. Carlton<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As of 15 October 2025, at least 153 cultural figures, including 33 writers, were not free \u2013 either imprisoned or in home confinement. Local historian Ja\u016dhien Staravojta\u016d was convicted in a politically motivated criminal case. Former political prisoner and Belarusian linguist, Natalla Dulina, a specialist in Italian language studies, described being tortured by cold while<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":20620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-20617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right","tag-chronicle","tag-hronika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20617"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20622,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20617\/revisions\/20622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI. Criminal prosecution of cultural figures, authors, and performers<\/b><\/h5>\n
\n<\/span>Ja\u016dhien Staravojta\u016d<\/span> was arrested in May 2025 and held in a pre-trial detention centre for more than three months. On 3 October 2025, he was added to the official list of Belarusian citizens, foreign nationals and stateless persons allegedly involved in \u201cextremist activities\u201d.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Staravojta\u016d<\/span> graduated from the Faculty of History of Mahilo\u016d State University, specialising in Iron Age archaeology in Belarus, and previously worked at the Kli\u010da\u016d Local History Museum.<\/span><\/p>\nII. Loss of health in places of incarceration\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n
III. Persecution for literary activity in places of incarceration<\/b><\/h5>\n
\n<\/span>The cell-type facility, in essence, differs from a punishment isolation cell only in that it has bedding (issued for the night), books, and the theoretical possibility to send and receive letters. In all other respects, it is the same as a solitary confinement cell: a sealed window, no natural light, no fresh air or space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIV. Tortures in places of incarceration<\/b><\/h5>\n
V. Repression in the music sphere<\/b><\/h5>\n
V\u0406. Repression in the book sector\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n
VII. Russification in libraries\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n
VIII. Banned books\u00a0<\/b><\/h5>\n