{"id":24058,"date":"2026-09-16T19:35:05","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=24058"},"modified":"2026-09-20T20:08:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:08:51","slug":"alescumakou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2026\/09\/16\/alescumakou.html","title":{"rendered":"Ale\u015b \u010cumako\u016d (released on September 16, 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5>Political persecution:<\/h5>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Ale\u015b \u010cumako\u016d was detained on 8 December 2025. He was held in Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1. He was designated as a member of the \u201cextremist formation\u201d \u00abDa Zora\u016d\u00bb (a Belarusian cultural initiative). He was also named as a member of Bie\u0142aruskaja rada kultury (Belarusian Council of Culture), although he had never had any affiliation with it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">In August 2026, a trial in the criminal case took place. The charges were based on the allegation that Ale\u015b \u010cumako\u016d \u201cplayed Belarusian folk music and thereby brought together a core group of protesters.\u201d The case materials referred to \u201can album of Belarusian folk songs, comprising no fewer than 11 works,\u201d which were even played during the court hearing. Under Article 361-1 of the Criminal Code (participation in an extremist formation), he was sentenced to two years of imprisonment in a general-regime penal colony. After the verdict, he filed an appeal and was awaiting its outcome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">On 16 September 2026, before being transferred to a penal colony, Ale\u015b \u010cumako\u016d was released under a pardon as a result of negotiations and forcibly relocated to Lithuania.<\/p>\n<h5>Creative work:<\/h5>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Since 2002, as a vocalist and instrumentalist with the band \u00abStary Olsa\u00bb, he has recorded eight studio albums and three live albums. He works on translations of bard songs. He participated in the project \u00abSto barda\u016d Svabody\u00bb[One Hundred Bards of Freedom]. A website featuring his solo projects and albums: <a href=\"https:\/\/gusliby.bandcamp.com\/\" data-rich-text-autolink=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noindex noopener\">https:\/\/gusliby.bandcamp.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Translations and music projects:<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">He translates Irish folk songs into Belarusian. These include \u00abBard-zmahar\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[The Bard-Fighter]<\/span>, \u00abU Rudnickaj pu\u0161\u010dy\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[In the Rudnicka Forest]<\/span>, \u00abBar biez piva\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[A Bar Without Beer]<\/span>, \u00abSkarb\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[Treasure]<\/span>, and \u00abStary i s\u0142a\u016dny \u010das\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[The Old and Glorious Time]<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">He is a co-author of the Belarusian translation from Latin of the song \u00abU kar\u010dmie\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[In the Tavern]<\/span>, performed by the band \u00abStary Olsa\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">He translated Uiljam Batler Jejts\u2019s poem \u00abVierby\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[The Willows]<\/span>, which he performs to folk music.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">He translates and performs songs by Bu\u0142at Akud\u017eava. He performs 48 of Akud\u017eava\u2019s songs in Belarusian accompanied by the gusli, using both his own translations and translations by R. Baradulin, \u0141. Bar\u0161\u010de\u016dski, S. Soka\u0142a\u016d-Voiu\u0161, M. \u0160\u010dur, A. Chadanovi\u010d, and others.<\/p>\n<p>He is the author of the solo album \u00abPra\u016dda \u016d vinie\u00bb <span class=\"text-token-text-primary cursor-text rounded-sm\" data-placeholder-token=\"true\">[Truth in Wine]<\/span> (2019), which includes 14 songs translated by him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u0411\u0430\u0440\u0434, \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0430\u043a\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0447\u044b\u043a, \u0430\u045e\u0442\u0430\u0440 \u0442\u044d\u043a\u0441\u0442\u0430\u045e \u043f\u0435\u0441\u0435\u043d\u044c, \u0432\u0430\u043a\u0430\u043b\u0456\u0441\u0442 \u0456 \u043c\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442\u044b\u0456\u043d\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0443\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0442\u0430\u043b\u0456\u0441\u0442.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":24059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4310],"class_list":["post-24058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bylyya_lyudzi_slova_u_nyavoli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24058","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\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24058"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24064,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24058\/revisions\/24064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}