Hrodna/Minsk - "Zhivye Byelarus, zhivye Byelarus," chants a group of young people holding hands and running joyously in circles around a burning pyre.
A young man at the front ecstatically waves a pole with flag on top. It´s the unmistakable flag of "the free Bealarus" a red stripe running across a white field which used to be the national flag of Belarus until president Lukashenko had it changed in mid-90s for the "harmless" red-green combination.
From the perspective of his authorities the boisterous youth is committing the punishable crime of state subversion right now, at this idyllic meadow just outside Hrodna in northwest Belarus.
But it is already past midnight and the group of policemen who were standing behind a bush nearby throughout the afternoon filming everything and everybody has long disappeared.
At least until the dawn this place is a liberated zone.
Anti-regime folklore
The summer folk festival Kupalye with roots reaching deep into pagan times offers a rare opportunity to the free-minded Belarussians to publicly celebrate national traditions which are either ignored or even actively suppressed by the current regime.
This year´s Kupalye had people not just singing the Belarussian folk songs, dancing and weaving the wild flower wreaths but also remembering Zmitser Dashkevich who is serving an 18-month sentence for "organizing activities of a non-registered group".
There were plenty of sympathizers of Malady Front (The Young Front) whose leader the 25-year old had been until his incarceration. But in the entire population of almost 10 million they are just a droplet in the ocean.
It is very difficult to imagine anything could upset this vast ocean of apathy and fear, which has captain Lukashenko firmly at the helm steering the Belarussian nation ever so precisely under the Soviet course he himself has set.
Waiting and faithing
It has been more than thirteen years now since he came to power and having managed to remove the article from the constitution limitting the presidential time in office, he looks set to rule forever.
"All we are waiting for is a coronation," jokes a young Belarussian girl who gave her name as Ludmila. She sits chatting with a friend at a bench on the Minsk riverfont and sips beer from a bottle.
She says she would like to see a change, but doesn´t believe it can happen.
"Belarussian people are very patient. Too much, I would say. They are waiting and waiting but there will sooner be the end of the world than the proverbial last drop."
The reactions her peers give in a nearby park where they are standing in a huddle next to a fountain carry a similar tone.
"I don´t care about politics. I have a job in Moscow, so why bother?" says one young man.
"And what politics are we talking about anyway? We only have one politician, don´t we?" quips another.
Rebels from G.U.L.A.G.
There are people who actively strive for a change though, people who don´t mind fighting an uphill battle. Their struggle has various forms.
The opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich who challenged the obviously invincible incumbent in last year´s presidential election drives around the country and meets people to give them courage and help awaken their sense of active citizenship.
The founder and former leader of Malady Front Pavel Sevyarynets, fresh from the penal colony, threw himself immediately into organizing a new political party of Christian Democratic tack with which he wants to challenge the current regulations barring people from praying anywhere outside of church or cemetery.
One of the youngest perscecuted activists, 16-year old Ivan from Salihorsk, doesn´t give a damn about the authorities´ dislike of his graffitti and continues to spray "Svabodu Dashkevichu" (Freedom to Dashkevich) in big red letters across the walls of this soulless mining city south of Minsk.
"So what if they arrest me again? That´s the way it should be," he says while his younger brother looks for the best shots of the said artwork in their own "guerrilla catalogue".
And while all of this is taking place, a group of independent Belarussian film-makers keeps on hoping to put together enough funding to shoot a piece with a glorious title G.U.L.A.G. - The Government Under (the Leadership of ) Lukashenko Alexander Grigorievich.
One thing is quite clear. They better not rely on the help from the State Film Fund with this one.
The article first appeared in Czech. You can see it here.
