Ljawon, two years ago you supported your country's awakening with your music.

What's left of it?

It will not be demonstrated.

This is too dangerous.

Because of the protests, the Belarusian authorities have passed many new laws to punish demonstrators more severely.

Ten years ago you got fifteen days detention under more or less reasonable conditions.

Now demonstrations are a crime, criminal.

Many got two or three years imprisonment for some nonsense.

And you're lying in a cold cell with no normal clothes because what friends deliver for you doesn't get passed on.

Then you'll get sick.

It's just stupid to go out.

It could be comedy if it wasn't so tragic.

Are people tired?

Nobody in Belarus is exhausted.

The Belarusians have partisan roots, which have been cultivated for centuries.

War was repeatedly waged on this territory, first against the Moscow Principality, then against Russia, then against Sweden.

We were part of the Lithuanian Union, then the Union with Poland, so it's normal for Belarusians to do things in silence.

The dissatisfaction does not go away.

The anger and hatred of the people are not gone.

People are ready, they're just waiting.

You yourself have been subjected to reprisals for years.

My band Krambambulya and I have been blacklisted for about ten years.

Since we've been banned, we've been playing underground concerts.

When we weren't banned, we played semi-banned concerts.

We weren't "recommended artists" by the state, we weren't played on TV or radio, and the state press ignored us.

Open-air performances in the center of Minsk were excluded.

When the Swedish embassy wanted to invite us to a project, the city administration said that projects with us were not allowed.

How is the culture in Belarus?

Cultural life has been in a bad state for 28 years.

It is controlled by culture-agnostic state officials.

Of course, there is traditional Belarusian culture: classic plays by Belarusian authors that are a hundred years old.

But they don't understand contemporary art or rock music.

They want a Slavic bazaar with primitive folk and Soviet and post-Soviet pop culture.

Over the years, however, there has also been a counterculture that has existed at the same time, but whose possibilities for expression are limited.

Therefore, many of us can only realize ourselves abroad, some in Russia, others in Ukraine, still others in the West.

Most counterculture representatives live abroad.

The protests showed that art that contradicts state doctrine is dangerous.

Many musicians, including myself, played in the courtyards.

This generated attention and a sense of togetherness.

Therefore, many artists were imprisoned.

Almost all of my friends were in custody.

Many went abroad.

Even before the protests, there was anger in the art scene at the government.

We got together and made anti-government music together.

The government uses fascist, including Stalinist, methods to oppress the people.

Even if someone plays music on a loudspeaker in the courtyard, this is prevented.

For a long time, people in Belarus spoke almost exclusively Russian.

Since the protests, more and more people are speaking Belarusian.

How do you feel about the language question?

When the uprising started, many musicians singing in Belarusian got a large audience.

At that time, many wanted to hear Belarusian music in the Belarusian language.

It's my language, I speak it, I sing and write in it.

In Minsk, many speak Belarusian.

The language used to be less popular, Belarusian is the language of rural people and creative intelligentsia.

City kids weren't interested in that, it didn't correspond to the reality of their lives.

Today it is the language of the educated masses.