History repeats itself—“first time as a tragedy, second time as farce.” Today, both happen simultaneously. Flowers against water cannons, women against tear gas and truncheons. Guards have a lot of work. Actors, students, sportspeople, and poets become dangerous to the state—especially the Nobel Prize winner. This is a long tradition going back to Pasternak, Brodsky, and Solzhenitsyn. 

This is why the oldest Belarusian theatre is closed. Authorities invite Russian experts to edit TV news instead of Belarusians, who have resigned from the job. No satire can match this, with the possible exception of the Russian classic: Saltykov–Shchedrin. According to official information, parents will be published for bad parenthood if they show up with children during mass protests. One smiles on the street, another cries at home; flutist Maria Kolesnikova cries in her prison cell. 

A musician accused of a coup attempt—a first ever? Or a second—after Wagner? Can someone resist bayonets for long? Yes: Stalin, Ceausescu, Hussein, Kaddafi… But no one can stop time forever.

Dmitry Lybin