Yauheni Zhurauski

My great-grandfather spent 15 years in prison during the Polish occupation of Western Belarus. He participated in the Civil War and led a partisan detachment during World War II. I read his memoirs and thought, “How cool!” Now all I think is, “When will this ‘coolness’ end? I don’t want this.” Every generation of men in my family has fought.

Anarchism gave me answers to questions about how we can live together without oppressing each other, without starting wars, and without letting the authorities control our lives. Then they start all sorts of senselessness- either war with neighbors, banning abortions, or some other nonsense.

In Baranavichi I was involved in activism and organizing punk concerts. We had a project called “Baranki Punk.” We watched movies on social topics and discussed them afterward.

In 2017, Belarusian authorities tried to pass an “idleness” act taxing unemployed people. A group of anarchists organized a march of several thousand to protest the bill. The Anarchist movement was able to mobilize people. Out of fear of the anarchists’ influence on the people, the authorities started to persecute them. Anarchists in Belarus became public enemy number one. The anarchists were essentially the only ones who gave armed resistance to the police during the protests in 2020.

Two weeks after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I went there as a military volunteer. My call sign is “Salam.” I’m a mortar-man. I fight in the Kalinouski Regiment with other Belarusians. Most of them believe that to free Belarus from dictatorship, it is necessary to liberate Ukraine. This will lead to the weakening of the Putin regime, and in turn, Lukashenka’s regime in Belarus.

Yauheni arrived in Poland in 2020.