The poet HANNA KOMAR was detained by the Belarusian dictator in 2020 and has now written about her experiences and those of her fellow prisoners
IN AUGUST 2020, Belarus went to the polls and the winner was announced as Alyaksandr Lukashenka for a sixth term in office, with 80% of the vote. His main opponent, Sviatlana Tikhanouskaya, had polled just 9.9%.
The opposition and international observers were quick to cry foul, saying the elections were neither free nor fair. Belarusians took to the streets in peaceful protest but Lukashenka quickly cracked down, jailing thousands.
Among those detained was Belarusian poet Hanna Komar. Here she speaks with Index about life since her detention.
index What happened to you in 2020?
komar On 8 September 2020, several hundred women and men gathered in the city centre, in Minsk, for a peaceful rally to support Maryja Kalesnikava, a professional flautist and head of opposition candidate Viktar Babaryka’s presidential campaign. I was one of those people. Just walking with the crowd.
Komar with her new book When I’m Out of Here
CREDIT: Hanna Komar archive
index Where were you detained?
komar First the notorious detention centre known as Akrescina. Then I was transferred to Žodzina prison. We were treated like criminals, being intimidated and humiliated, feeling constant threat of physical and sexual violence.
index How did you record the testimonies of the prisoners?
komar In prison, I was writing a diary to support myself psychologically, being a writer as a kind of a protective identity. I thought I would turn the diary into a book. When I was released, I realised I couldn’t because the experience was retraumatising. It was not just my experience; thousands of us went through arbitrary detentions that year. I interviewed cellmates, my friends and family outside the prison walls.
I felt privileged to find insight into the experiences of all those women. Each of them was strong and brave, each supported one another. Defending men? Sure. Resisting unlawful detention? Of course. Rushing after her loved one? Absolutely. Sharing food, hygienic products, clothes? Without question. Being kind, creative, thoughtful – yes, yes and yes. The other voices, whose experience is no less important, are the people outside the prison walls who were trying to help us.
index What story really moved you?
komar One story I always share is of a young woman who was surrounded in jail by intelligent, caring, like-minded women for the first time in her life, could not just understand rationally but feel women’s solidarity and sisterhood, and it was a huge change for her:
index Which piece of art has had the most impact on you and why?
komar Svetlana Alexievich’s Unwomanly Face of War. I was reading it in 2020 to process the women’s protest, and to find strength in the experiences of the Soviet women during WWII. I thought, if they went through the war and preserved themselves, I could handle the peaceful revolution.
index What book would you want to read in prison?
komar The Ears of Rye Under Thy Sickle (Kałasy pad siarpom tvajim) by the Belarusian writer Uladzimir Karatkievič. It is filled with love for Belarus, and it is love that helps one to survive and preserve themselves in prison.
index What news headline would you most like to read?
komar As Russia loses the war in Ukraine and the dictatorship falls in Belarus, tens of thousands of Belarusians are coming home.
Hanna Komar’s book, When I’m Out of Here: Staying Human in a Dictator’s Jail by Skaryna Press is available to buy at skarynapress.com/kniharnia/9781915601834.
