It was the "Yanushkevich" publishing house that published the world bestseller "Harry Potter" and the famous "1984" by George Orwell in Belarusian.

Foreign books, as well as works by Belarusian authors, published by Andrei Yanushkevich, sold very well.

In May, Yanushkevich's bookstore "Knigavka" opened in Minsk.

On the very first day of work, GUBAZiK and propagandists became interested in her.

Andrey Yanushkevich was detained together with Nastya Karnatskaya, an employee of his bookstore, after a search of the store, which was never fully opened.

The court initially sentenced him to 10 days of administrative arrest, however, after that, the publisher was not released, but was re-detained and sentenced to another 10 days.

The third trial against Yanushkevich took place on June 6.

This time, the publisher and manager of the bookstore "Knigavka" was sentenced to 8 days of arrest.

Shortly after leaving 28 days in prison, Andrei Yanushkevich left Belarus and now lives in Warsaw.

In the first interview after moving from Belarus, Yanushkevich recalled those events.

"The bookstore is a public place.

The authorities did not want to allow the existence of a place where the Belarusian book could be distributed.

There was another reason.

We did not quite understand the signal of our sudden eviction from the office in March.

We wanted to open a new location for work, pickup of books, and a bookstore.

But we were not allowed to do that.

We didn't do anything subversive even for this government there.

But the authorities work according to a very simple rule - do not gather more than three.

When our publishing house began to have influence, books began to be distributed not in hundreds of copies, but in thousands, we were noticed.

This is recognition of our merits in the distribution of Belarusian-language books."

- says the book publisher.

Andrey Yanushkevich spent almost a month in the detention center on Akrestin.

During this time, he could not understand what they wanted from him.

For almost a month, no one talked to him about his books.

"Already later I realized that I was in prison for "educational purposes".

They decided to make me afraid.

But if there was any explanatory work with me, then there was nothing like that.

They wanted me to draw my own conclusions, to give up my activism, to stop making "wrong" books.

That's what one of the employees of GUBAZiK told me."

- explains Andrei Yanushkevich.

His publishing house in Belarus mainly published fiction, foreign authors, which can be bought in Belarusian in Minsk, or children's books.

"They heard that the Belarusian book is becoming popular.

And the same classic in the Belarusian language is a blow to the idea of ​​a "Russian world".

This is not a folklore shack into which the authorities are trying to push Belarusian culture.

What is it other than what they allow pro-government structures.

Free Belarusian culture is evil for our government.

This was demonstrated by my example," Yanushkevich believes.

In October, two of the books published by Yanushkevich were recognized by the authorities as extremist.

This is the Belarusian translation of the "Ballad of the Little Tugboat" by the Russian poet Yosif Brodsky, which was the first publication of the famous author in his homeland, in 1962.

In a poem for children, the tugboat tells about his life and purpose.

And also Svetlana Kozlova's historical monograph "Agrarian policy of the Nazis in Western Belarus: Planning.

Provision.

Implementation".

The work is based on the author's PhD thesis, prepared and defended in 2006 at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

The reasons for recognizing the book as extremist are not reported.

"The topic of war is the ideological territory on which the government wants to expand its monopoly.

It cannot be said, by the way, that Kozlova's book strongly criticizes the official vision of World War II.

It stands out from the rest by the fact that in a calm manner they try to analyze the agrarian policy of the German authorities on the territory of Western Belarus in 1941-1944.

And the second reason why it was recognized as extremist is that it was published in our publishing house.

It was the best product to recognize at least one of our publications as extremist.

Perhaps, if it had been published by another publishing house, it would not have been noticed."

- says Andrei Yanushkevich.

Nevertheless, Yanushkevich's publishing house still has an official license in Belarus.

Formally and actually it continues to work.

Books are available in bookstores and can be found online.

As for the publishing activity, Yanushkevich calls the publishing of new books in Belarus pointless.

"We can block their distribution at any moment.

Can be recognized as extremist.

The distribution market has become very narrow.

For many partners, not only in the printing industry, we have become toxic.

They are simply afraid to cooperate with us, because they are afraid of repression.

There are no facts about it yet, but this fear, often groundless, which is fueled by news and events, exists, and it is often regretted that nothing can be done about it."

Janushkevich has now resumed the activities of his publishing house in Poland.

He calls his position simple: it is better to do something abroad than to sit at home like a mouse under a broom.

In Belarus, the client base of "Yanushkevich" consisted of several tens of thousands of people.

In a new place, you have to start from scratch.

"The audience is still deeply moved.

But you can do a lot in emigration.

The publishing industry works here under different laws;

everything is simpler than in Belarus.

The only question is the means and desire to act.

We are now trying to convince Belarusians abroad that we will continue to publish books here," says Andrei Yanushkevich.

"Janushkevich" publishing house has already managed to publish several books abroad.

For example, Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalypse "The Road" and "The Christmas Book" by the Belarusian author Anton Frantishko Bryl.

"The Farm" and "1984" by Orwell were published with the help of the Prague publishing house "Viasna".

Many publishing houses in the world complain about the readership crisis and the forced reduction of print runs.

But Andrei Yanushkevich looks optimistically at the Belarusian market and is convinced that neither TikTok nor YouTube will kill it.

"The book is a different genre.

A well-published paper book has a claim to eternity.

It can be taken from the police more than once, unlike all the content we have on the Internet.

The Belarusian publishing space is an unplowed field.

We still have a lot to write, translate and publish to satisfy the Belarusian reader.

We have done very little so far," Yanushkevich believes.

He calls any cultural product important for today's Belarus, because Belarus and Belarusians were formed thanks to culture.

Yanushkevich calls culture a powerful weapon.

"Politically, we are still weak, economically as well.

Culture, including the book, can fulfill the role thanks to which the Belarusian identity will be strengthened.

The role of the book is also that the reading process is very intimate.

And if you are even a Russian speaker and want to join the Belarusian language, feel its flavor, a book is the easiest and most effective way to get in touch with the Belarusian language.

In this I see the secret of the popularity of Belarusian books in recent years."

  • Dmitry Gurnevich

    Journalist of Radio Svaboda

    hurnievicd@rferl.org

    FACEBOOKTWITTERSubscribe