For more than four months, people in Belarus have been taking to the streets against dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Pensioners and students come;
Journalists and doctors openly oppose state authority, workers booing Lukashenko.
Anyone who looks to Minsk during these weeks and months will recognize the courage of the people.
And their spirit of resistance.
But even if the protests continue, there is little to suggest that the security apparatus will turn against Lukashenko and that there will be a political turnaround.
Instead, violence against opponents of the regime continues to increase.
The opposition believes that more than 25,000 people have been captured since the highly controversial parliamentary election on August 9;
A few weeks ago in Minsk, in the middle of Europe, a 31-year-old was so injured by masked men that he succumbed to his injuries a little later.
Hundreds of them fled into exile fearing for their lives.
Lukashenko is now severely restricting trips out of the country.
Wladislaw Sokolowskij, 30, and Kirill Galanow, 27, sound engineers
The two work colleagues have become icons of resistance in their homeland. Wlad has the floor.
Icon: enlarge
Sound engineers Wladislaw Sokolowskij and Kirill Galanow (r.) In the Lithuanian capital Vilnius
Photo: Dmitrij Leltschuk / DER SPIEGEL
»
We worked as sound directors at the so-called› Palace of Children and Youth ‹in Minsk - not a highly qualified job and the place is quite dusty.
But we had a regular income in which we played children's songs at government events, for example.
The relationship to our job changed when our boss summoned us to a spontaneous event shortly before the election.
This was to take place on the same day as a large demo for the opposition candidate Svetlana Tichanowskaya.
It should be our job to disrupt the event by putting on a counter-event with music.
Exactly where the opposition wanted to meet.
"Leaving the country was the only option."
Vlad
Neither of us were very political before the election.
But a lot has bothered us in everyday life.
For example, that people in Belarus hardly know any Western music.
That you have to order spare parts for cars abroad.
That PayPal doesn't work.
That we do not have a functioning constitutional state.
If you want to open a business, you need so many papers that you can forget about it right away.
When we were on stage that day, we realized that we had gotten into an unfortunate situation: there were a lot of opposition members in front of us whose event we blocked on behalf of the state.
We felt bad.
Thought about it, and then made a momentous decision.
We played the freedom hymn Peremen, held out our hands in a gesture of resistance.
"Freedom, freedom," some began to shout.
It was amazing.
Until someone pulled the plug out of the speakers.
A little later, when we were about to leave the place, security forces dragged us into a minibus.
We were detained in the Okrestina Prison for ten days, separated from each other.
I, Wlad, was in a solitary cell for five days.
I was interrogated and beaten.
They cooled my cell down with ice cold air.
It was her great wish that I burden Kirill.
I spent five more days in a small cell with 32 men.
The security guards beat most of them half-dead. There was constant shouting everywhere.
When we were outside, we spoke to journalists about what had happened to us.
Since we had the impression that many people were much braver than we were, we weren't afraid to express ourselves openly.
Shortly afterwards, however, a call came from the Ministry of the Interior.
I, Wlad, had to come in person and apologize in front of the camera.
That's when I understood that they wouldn't leave us alone.
Leaving the country was the only option.
«
Yevgeny S., 35, construction worker
A slim, quiet man who was wrongly considered to be the first official fatality in the protests in Belarus.
Icon: enlarge
Evgeny, a refugee in Lithuania
Photo: Dmitrij Leltschuk / DER SPIEGEL
“
When I left after the election that August evening, I felt safe.
It wasn't my first protest and I knew that Lukashenko was after us.
He came to power when I was a school kid.
It has always bothered me about the system in Belarus that we have beautiful facades, but no development whatsoever.
What was new about the situation this year was that crowds took to the streets.
I saw oppositionists everywhere with white ribbons around their wrists.
I moved to the city center with a crowd.
500 meters from our destination, we came across a wall of box vans.
Then I don't know exactly what happened.
I was on the phone with a friend when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a horde of black-clad men running towards me.
I told my friend that I was about to be arrested.
Then I knelt down and raised my hands to show that I was unarmed.
The first blow with the baton hit me with full force in the face.
My next memory is lying on the floor of a van.
Blood flows from my mouth.
My next memory is lying on the ground and one of Lukashenko's henchmen yelling at the doctors in their red vests that they should take me away so no one sees me.
"That's when I realized that I had to leave Belarus."
Yevgeny
Next time I'll wake up in the hospital with special police officers sitting by my bed to question me.
Because I could stand on my feet, the doctors soon let me go.
At a friend's house, I first lay down on the sofa and slept.
Then the phone rang and it was my sister's turn.
She cried and told me: You are considered the first person to be killed in the protests.
The state had pronounced me dead.
Articles and photos appeared everywhere.
To show people that I am still alive, I spoke to opposition journalists on the same day.
That made waves and the situation became more and more dangerous for me.
The Minister of the Interior took a position on my case: It was my own fault for my condition because I jumped on a van.
That's when I realized that I had to leave Belarus.
«
Lyubov Schalajewa, 45, an insurance clerk, with her son Bogdan, 9
The mother fled with her son because the youth welfare office threatened to take the child away from her.
Icon: enlarge
Lyubov Shalayeva with her son:
"
The situation was very serious for us
"
Photo: Dmitrij Leltschuk / DER SPIEGEL
“
We weren't interested in politics until this summer.
Our president's policy was not understandable to us, but we weren't angry with him either.
We had an ordinary life.
Then the elections came and we saw Lukashenko put his opponents in prison.
It was clear to us that these elections would not be fair, so we decided not to support Lukashenko.
After voting for the opposition myself, I walked through our town with my son.
Suddenly we got caught in a demonstration.
The people were full of energy and I was carried away and applauded.
We stayed at this demonstration for about ten to 15 minutes until the special police came and beat the protesters at random.
Fortunately we were able to escape.
“My son is afraid I will put him in jail.
He says: Mom, I'm a child.
Please do not leave me alone."
Lyubov Shalayeva
My son is actually a brave young man, but these black-clad men, never before in our lives, terrified him very much.
Since then he has been afraid that I will put him in jail.
He says: Mom, I'm a child.
Please do not leave me alone.
During the night he no longer dares to go to the toilet alone.
He needs my hand.
We lived in Belarus with my mother, who is an active supporter of Lukashenko.
When my son told his grandmother about the demo, she threatened to call the youth welfare office.
A few days after the demo I received threatening phone calls from strangers.
I am a single mother and should stop being active.
They threatened to take my child away from me.
When the youth welfare office and the school finally called, I turned to a human rights organization in Belarus.
The situation was very serious.
I told my son that we were going to a better life.
«
Icon: The mirror