How will we live with “babies”? – asked Eva Vezhnavets

In Warsaw, on November 29, within the framework of the exhibition “Middle East, Far West – Kyiv Biennale 2025” at the Museum of Modern Art, a meeting was held with the Belarusian writer, winner of the Gedroyt Prize, Eva Vezhnavets (real name – Sviatlana Kurs). The author of the book “What are you going for, wolf?”, translated into several European languages, reflected on the place of Belarusians in the world, our literature, talked about her attitude to the Russian language and culture and supporters of “Lukashism”. “Belsat” collected the most important and interesting things from the meeting.

“Belarusians are like a compressed spring”

“Belarusians have been rolled with a roller, and they are all lying down and holding the earth above them so as not to die and one day rise from their graves and captivity. I feel it. But on the other hand, I feel that soon our freedom will shine, our miseries will end. It will be like a bulge, like an explosion.

The young generation in Belarus and abroad is like a compressed spring. And I imagine when it will be possible to protest against the regime, with what power this spring will expand and how relentless the protest will be.

We have a lot of happiness in misfortune, because we were like hobbits, tied to our land, and thought only about Belarus, and now we are in all countries of the world, starting from America – A, and ending with Japan – Z. The nation is gaining experience there.

And internally, as soon as Russian imperialism weakens and, of course, Lukashenka’s regime along with it, the springs will expand – and there will be many of them. One of the signs of this was the very strong resistance against the opening of a hijab shop in Minsk. Because it was possible to protest against it on the Internet. There was no persecution from the state for this. And this energy of resistance rushed there.

The generations that grew up there and abroad are very promising generations.”

** “People really want theirs”**

“This compressed spring is waiting. Now is not the time for us to act, to do something. Once unexpectedly for the state, representatives of all sections of the population came out against the regime. And now they are imprisoning hairdressers, beauticians, salesmen, tractor drivers. The state is terrified to get every person, to mark territories with red and green flags, because it knows that under all this layer of fear, under this war (and we also have a war in society, it’s just not hot), bubbling water and it will surely break through. And the authorities are terribly afraid of this.

People say: what are they afraid of, they live wonderfully. And I, on the contrary, see the same acute frustration from that side as from ours, only it is of a different nature. I am sure that good changes will come tomorrow. On the one hand, Belarusians, who want Belarusian, are doing well, on the other hand, “Yabatki” who want some kind of stability. Everyone wants normalization, a normal life, an end to repression, fear and restrictions. People really want their own, not what comes from Russia. And this is very low-quality content, because after losing all their republics, Russians have become a very untalented people and create low-quality content. And we finally have a great historical chance, and I really want to live to see it.”

** Between generations in Belarus – chasm or unity?**

“Age criteria have changed significantly in Belarusian society. We actually don’t have old people. Before, a 60- and 70-year-old person was deeply irrelevant, with outdated views. Now everything has changed and looks different. There are 70-year-olds with sharp thinking, a broad outlook, and there are young people, like the Belarusian officials, who do not change at all, they look as if they were born in 1960. It’s a broad, round face, sitting at a desk, holding a pen, writing nonsense and preaching a red-green ideology that hasn’t changed since the 1950s.

Our division is not between generations, but between the archaic and the modern. Some people are archaic fans. All their lives they watched Soviet films, read Russian literature, watched Russian television, did not develop, then received their pension and lived wonderfully, quietly, quietly, in fact in the last century. They have a life. And those who wanted development have no life. The first ones live in Soviet Belarus. Here is the seed of conflict, not in generations as such.”

About Aleksievich and the Russian language

“I deeply respect Ms. Svetlana, because I owe her wisdom and perseverance. This is an example for me. She is my literary patron, but I will not hide the fact that I have a completely opposite attitude towards Russian culture and language. I believe that they did not happen. They have one and a half good writers. And for these writers, all of us around the perimeter have to pay with blood.

This cultural project did not happen. And the language is a medium of national character. The Russian language and literature carry the character of imperialism and the destruction of everything that is not Russian. We in Belarus know this very well. Until that changes, I want nothing to do with them.

Russia is even more difficult for God than old age. At the same time, I follow Russia very closely, the trends that are going on there. And I don’t see anything healthy there. Maybe one in ten healthy people there. And I feel very sorry for them, because they are strangers in their society and in the world, where they are looked at as Germans after the Second World War.

I resented the Russians for what they did to us and still continue to do. They are destroying hundreds of nations and nationalities inside Russia, sending them to war. My heart will be in the shadows for the rest of my life, I don’t want to have anything to do with them.”

How will we live with “babies”?

“I will quote Sergey Davlatov, who said: “I have no antagonism towards you, not even towards you, motherfucker.” I have a strong antagonism towards GUBAZiK, but I don’t have any against “Yabats”, because we live with them, and it seems to me that there won’t be any big problems, because ordinary people are not to blame. And we know who is to blame.”

Source: https://belsat.eu/90297993/eva-veznaviec-warszawa
Photo: Raul Duke / Belsat