{"id":112034,"date":"2024-06-07T17:38:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T14:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theukrainians.org\/iryna-danylovych-liudyna-kotra-ne-terpyt-brekhni\/"},"modified":"2024-11-22T13:51:01","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T10:51:01","slug":"iryna-danylovych-a-person-who-does-not-tolerate-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/iryna-danylovych-a-person-who-does-not-tolerate-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"Iryna Danylovych: A Person Who Does Not Tolerate Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Iryna Danylovych was born in 1979 in the Vitebsk region in Belarus. In 1982, her family moved to Crimea.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Working as a nurse, after the occupation of Crimea, she started to cover rigged, politically motivated trials as a citizen journalist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she reported on corruption in healthcare, in particular, the non-transparent use of funds allocated to fight the disease. Danylovych initiated the project \u201cCrimean Medicine Without a Cover.\u201d She collaborated with independent media, including <\/em>Crimean Process<em>, and was actively involved in the trade union movement.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>On April 29, 2022, she went missing for two weeks. Later, her family was informed that Danylovych had been arrested and was being held at the pre-trial detention center in Simferopol. She was sentenced to seven years in prison, charged with the \u201cillegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation, shipment, or bearing of explosives or explosive devices\u201d under Part 1 of Article 222.1 of the Russian Criminal Code.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Danylovych is now held at the colony in the city of Zelenokumsk in Stavropol Krai, Russia. She has reported beatings and other forms of torture and has not received proper medical care for the past two years, risking losing her hearing completely.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\">\u00a7\u00a7\u00a7<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\"><em>With this narrative portrait, we launch a special project dedicated to the free voices of Crimea. This series of stories about journalists, now political prisoners, is a joint initiative of PEN Ukraine, The Ukrainians Media, ZMINA, and Vivat, supported by NED<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-white-background-color has-text-color has-background\">\u00a7\u00a7\u00a7<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She dreamed of becoming a journalist but was also interested in medicine. She was gentle when giving injections and harsh when exposing corruption in Crimean hospitals. The FSB attempted to recruit her as an informant, but she refused to talk to them. She continued to report on the occupiers\u2019 rigged trials against Crimean Tatars. She was kidnapped at a bus stop in Koktebel and sentenced to almost seven years in prison. This is the story of a citizen journalist whose case contains zero details about explosive devices allegedly found in her eyeglass case\u2014and a whole volume of references to her interviews in the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>A simple, ordinary family<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iryna<strong> <\/strong>Danylovych\u2019s father, Bronislav, says their family is simple, ordinary. They settled in Crimea in 1982. \u201cWe moved here from Belarus,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore that, we often vacationed here, staying with my wife\u2019s sister who lived nearby. We liked it in Crimea and decided to stay for good. On our first few visits to Crimea, we were impressed by the weather and climate. We loved the sea and the air, but that\u2019s obvious; I shouldn\u2019t even mention that. Another important factor was that, in those days, the quality of life in Crimea was much higher than in Belarus. I\u2019m talking mainly about access to food. In Belarus, we lived close to the border with Lithuania and bought food and other necessities for children and adults there. Lithuania had a much better supply than Belarus or Crimea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, his family lives in the village of Vladyslavivka just outside Feodosia, while Olha, their elder daughter, lives in Belarus with her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We talk about Ukraine\u2019s independence and how it transformed Crimea. Bronislav recalls quite difficult circumstances: \u201cWhen it comes to Crimea of 1991, right after Ukraine proclaimed independence, my first thought is of chaos. In Crimea, people\u2019s financial situations quickly worsened. Agriculture began to decline, and people were losing their jobs. That period was quite unpredictable and tough. The quality of life was very low until the 2000s. Sometimes, even buying a loaf of bread was a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>A gentle touch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav mentions his daughter\u2019s leadership qualities, saying she was a leader in her class at school. \u201cThis was also the case after she finished school,\u201d he adds. \u201cShe was a leader at the vocational school and university.\u201d He says that Iryna has been passionate about the truth since she was a little girl: \u201cDeception was the worst sin in her eyes. She couldn\u2019t stand it when people lied. We always knew it was best to be honest with her, even when the truth was hard and unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych had two passions: journalism and medicine. Her family was not happy about one of them. \u201cWe really tried to talk her out of pursuing journalism,\u201d Bronislav admits. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t believe it could become a serious career. Medicine seemed like a more substantial occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He mentions that Iryna was initially afraid of blood, but her fear gradually faded: \u201cWe didn\u2019t even notice when that happened. Maybe it was exaggerated. Before committing to medical school, she even went to a morgue to see how she would react and observed a surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych applied to the medical academy in Dnipro but wasn\u2019t accepted. Instead, she pursued environmental studies at a college in Crimea, qualifying for free tuition. Later, she enrolled in nursing school full-time, completing her environmental studies through distance learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav says that medicine was Iryna\u2019s true calling. \u201cShe worked as a nurse practitioner,\u201d he says. \u201cQuite a few doctors work here, but people always came to her when they needed an injection or an IV drip. I think she has a gentle touch. And she\u2019s very kind, too\u2014never showing any contempt or hostility. She\u2019s always treated people well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He adds that both of her passions were still close to her heart: \u201cOne is journalism, which we managed to steer her away from. The other is medicine. It just worked out this way that she pursued medicine and never got involved professionally in journalism. Though, I remember she wrote great essays back in school,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>Citizen journalist<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych engaged in citizen journalism soon after the temporary occupation of Crimea. How did it happen? Bronislav recalls this was in 2014 or 2015. \u201cIryna didn\u2019t share much with us,\u201d he says. \u201cShe would only tell us about some episodes, such as stories of Crimean Tatars who were unjustly harassed and sentenced to seven or eight years in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Around the 2020s, Danylovych started sharing more details with her parents. \u201cThe FSB detained her several times,\u201d her father says. \u201cI think they tried to recruit her as an informant, but Iryna didn\u2019t buy into that. I don\u2019t know any more details. I remember this happened during her work shift in Koktebel. They approached her and wanted to have a conversation with her. She told us later that they attempted to pressure her into cooperating with them, but she refused to talk to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed the situation as the nurses found themselves in especially challenging conditions. In November 2020, in her<a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiosvoboda.org\/a\/video-druha-hvylya-koronavirusu-v-krymu\/30953287.html\"> <\/a>comment for Radio Liberty, Danylovych described the Crimean reality like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHealthcare workers started getting sick, both in outpatient hospitals and in-patient facilities. There was a shortage of space in hospitals to treat the sick. The authorities claimed that COVID-19 hospitals were only eighty percent full, but that simply wasn\u2019t true. Our COVID-19 patients were stuck at home, waiting for a hospital bed to open up.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Describing those days, Danylovych\u2019s father recalls: \u201cJust like other nurses, she was among the first to care for the sick. Nurses were the first point of contact, and they were supposed to get gloves, masks, and protective gear. Yet, they didn\u2019t. Iryna raised the alarm with the hospital\u2019s chief physician. The administration didn\u2019t take it well. They were resentful but had to fix the situation somehow. However, later a scandal erupted over a COVID-19 inspection, and they bluntly told her they wouldn\u2019t listen to her concerns and would find it much easier to just fire her. And that\u2019s exactly what happened. She was dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen it comes to corruption, people just don\u2019t want to get involved and leave the person to deal with it alone. That\u2019s what happened to Iryna,\u201d sums up Danylovych\u2019s father. However, the Russian independent labor union, The Alliance of Doctors, was active in Crimea, advocating for the rights of healthcare workers. Its directors were detained and put on trial. Danylovych became the head of the Crimean chapter of this organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her father recalls how the case gained momentum. \u201cIt implicated not only the hospital where Iryna worked but the entire district healthcare department in Feodosia. Things started moving forward; an investigator got involved, and some people found themselves facing criminal proceedings. I think it was at that point that they turned to the FSB for help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>Going missing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On April 29, 2022, Danylovych was kidnapped at a bus stop in Koktebel. \u201cFor a long time, we had no idea about her whereabouts,\u201d her father says. \u201cWe spent two weeks searching for her. It turned out that she had been kidnapped by FSB officers.\u201d&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>Yes, later they did plant an explosive device on her, but the actual reasons behind her abduction and further persecution were these: legal trials, which Iryna covered fairly, and her fight with corruption in healthcare.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych was abducted in broad daylight. The same day, the house where she lived with her parents was searched. \u201cIt was a day like any other,\u201d her father remembers. \u201cIryna was supposed to finish her shift and come home. About an hour before she was due, two cars pulled up to our house. A district police officer got out and informed us they had come to search our house. They read some sort of court ruling aloud but didn\u2019t give me a copy when I asked for one. Then, they proceeded with the search. I was surprised but not afraid\u2014I had no reason to be. We didn\u2019t have anything; they could only plant things on us, but that would\u2019ve been a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav calls the house search \u201cobnoxious.\u201d \u201cThey confiscated a pile of books,\u201d he says, \u201calong with Iryna\u2019s laptop. They took all our phones away, leaving us, old and sick, without any means of communication. We couldn\u2019t call anyone to let them know.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Realizing that Iryna would not return home soon, her parents reported her missing to the police three days later. \u201cThey accepted our report but didn\u2019t initiate a search,\u201d Bronislav remarks. \u201cThat\u2019s when I turned to my friends for help. We watched CCTV footage together. The footage from the camera at the bus station showed two men grabbing Iryna, shoving her into the car, and driving away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav returned to the police station. \u201cI filed another report, urging them to start criminal proceedings for kidnapping and assist with the search. No one helped us with the search, though,\u201d he recalls. \u201cSo, we started calling local morgues and hospitals. They all confirmed Iryna wasn\u2019t there. Then we contacted the pre-trial detention center, but they also said she was not there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-horizontal alignfull size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837-1440x810.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-95991\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837-1440x810.png 1440w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym3-4-e1717770830837.png 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thirteen days later, they did locate their daughter at the pre-trial detention center. \u201cThe attorney was informed that Iryna was being held there,\u201d Bronislav says. \u201cBy then, they\u2019d stopped beating and torturing her in that FSB basement. We still have no idea where she was from April 29 to May 7. We don\u2019t know what they were doing to her. In court, Iryna simply stated that they beat her, that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>Rigged trial<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Danylovych\u2019s testimony during the rigged trial in November 2022, later published in full by <em>Graty<\/em>, revealed that she was not only beaten but also strangled, held in a cold cell, and denied bathroom access for long periods. They also threatened to take her to the forest and kill her and do harm to her parents. Iryna said she was never interrogated about explosive devices, for which she was eventually convicted, but instead, about why she \u201cgot involved with that story with the COVID-19 funds,\u201d her connections with Ukrainian security services, and independent journalists working in Crimea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alim Aliev, deputy director general at the Ukrainian Institute, advocates for Danylovych in the #SolidarityWords project. He describes her case as a clear example of injustice.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIryna\u2019s case proves that the occupiers can and will persecute any independent public voice in Crimea,\u201d he asserts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>Her conviction marks a new wave of repression in Crimea, as Iryna was charged in the early months of the full-scale invasion in 2022.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis case is particularly significant to me because it\u2019s not just about an activist being targeted but also a woman. Like Halyna Dovhopola before her, Iryna became one of the few women Russia targeted in Crimea with criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What provoked such an intense reaction from the authorities in Crimea towards Danylovych? According to Aliev, her focus on healthcare seems apolitical at first glance. \u201cIt actually exposes systemic failures,\u201d he explains. \u201cHow the system deceives people and fails to provide proper medical care. This became especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, Iryna had been outspoken in her pro-Ukrainian stance and never came to terms with the temporary occupation in 2014. That\u2019s why her case serves as a stark illustration that you can express your views in public only within certain permitted limits. And if you cross these limits, they will come after you, too, plant an explosive device on you, and send you to prison in Stavropol Krai or elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case of Iryna Danylovych also raises the issue of the appalling reality of inadequate medical care for prisoners. Aliev stresses that people held in Crimean or Russian prisons do not get proper medical care. \u201cThey\u2019re simply being tortured,\u201d he says. \u201cIryna has serious trouble with her ears. She has lost hearing in her left ear and constantly hears noises. They refuse to treat her, and one doctor even said they won\u2019t intervene until she goes deaf. It\u2019s a form of outright torture in Russian prisons against those with dissenting political views. The system cripples them, and they return from prison with a bunch of health issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIryna\u2019s case is about holding an undesirable alternative opinion, and the occupiers punish people for this if they demonstrate it systemically,\u201d Aliev continues. \u201cIt\u2019s important to note that Iryna reported on the illegal trials against Crimean Tatars. They\u2019re also political prisoners, and Russian occupiers consider these reports as a leak of information about the true state of affairs in Crimea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>Imprisonment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych\u2019s father describes an incident at the courthouse when an ambulance had to be called for his daughter. \u201cThe ambulance arrived, but the \u2018doctors\u2019 said the court session could continue. So, our daughter was locked back in that cage. She went to the medical unit at the pre-trial detention center, but they only laughed at her. They said the problem would resolve on its own. We found doctors for her in a civilian hospital and fought to have Iryna taken there for an exam. And not just us\u2014journalists and human rights advocates pressured them, too. In the end, Iryna was taken to the Semashko Regional Hospital, but it was all for show. No one even bothered to talk to her. They simply checked her over and did not prescribe any treatment. She\u2019s been suffering since the fall of 2022 without a diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav says that before her imprisonment, his daughter was in good health. \u201cShe might catch a cold sometimes, of course, like anyone else,\u201d he notes. \u201cBut otherwise, she was completely healthy. We suspect that she had a ministroke as a result of all those tortures. It\u2019s possible that blood started to press on her eardrum, causing that ringing and horrible pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych was sentenced to seven years in prison. Bronislav mentions that the judge who oversaw the rigged trial against Iryna now holds a position in the \u201csupreme court\u201d of occupied Crimea.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since August 2023, Danylovych has been imprisoned at a women\u2019s colony in Zelenokumsk in Stavropol Krai, Russia. Bronislav has pleaded for his daughter to be transferred closer to her homeland. \u201cI appealed to them,\u201d he says. \u201cI explained that my wife and I are old and won\u2019t be able to travel so far to visit her. But they ignored us. The colony she\u2019s been sent to doesn\u2019t seem to be that far, but we\u2019re too frail to make the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Danylovych and her parents rarely correspond. There are only a few brief letters. \u201cWe don\u2019t write to her,\u201d Bronislav says, \u201cbecause what I want to write to her will be censored anyway. And Iryna doesn\u2019t want to write what she truly wants to, either, because of the censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-horizontal alignfull size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916-1440x810.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-95992\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916-1440x810.png 1440w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/krym1-4-2-e1717771082916.png 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>They speak on the phone instead. \u201cWe send her money she can use to call us,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe manage to talk to her quite regularly, almost every day. There\u2019s no doubt they listen in on our conversations. But we\u2019ve become so lost to all feeling that we\u2019re no longer afraid and discuss all kinds of topics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav describes the terrible conditions in the colony. \u201cThe shop in this colony was closed down,\u201d he says. \u201cPrisoners can\u2019t even buy toilet paper now. They have to use newspapers\u2026 Those who are sick don\u2019t get any treatment. You can die if you wish, they\u2019re being told, there\u2019s no medicine. Access to water is also a problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>Women need more water for their hygiene needs, so in the winter, they had to crack and melt ice to wash up. <\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I feel like conditions in Auschwitz were better.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav says that Iryna was taken to the hospital from both the pre-trial detention center and the colony in December 2023. \u201cNo one asked her anything there or listened to her complaints,\u201d he remarks. He firmly believes that her pain stems from the beatings and torture. \u201cThey\u2019ll never tell the truth because it\u2019s actually from her being beaten in the basement. When she got moved to the colony, they told her to wait until the nerve died. Once it\u2019s dead, the pain will go away\u2026 along with her hearing. They also said it\u2019s too late for treatment because it would\u2019ve only worked in the first two weeks when the symptoms started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alevtyna Kakhidze sketched the scenes from the trial against Danylovych. Her works have been displayed at the exhibition \u201cLomykamin\u2019. Women\u2019s resistance in Crimea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why did this case grab the artist\u2019s attention? Kakhidze says that since 2017, she\u2019s been sketching scenes from the Maidan trial. \u201cI deeply care about this cause,\u201d she explains. \u201cI won\u2019t stop doing that until the statute of limitations expires. Once, I met Yevhen Bondarenko [Head of the Information Support Department of the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea], and he said that in Crimea, there was another person like me who attended court sessions. Her name was Iryna Danylovych, and she identified herself as a citizen journalist. While I simply sketched scenes and then gave my sketches to attorneys who posted them on social media, Iryna took notes during court sessions to later report on what was happening in Crimean courts where the cases against activists were considered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kakhidze learned about Danylovych and her activism long before her imprisonment. \u201cShe wasn\u2019t under arrest at the time,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I thought, \u2018How interesting. She\u2019s like my alter ego.\u2019 And then she was arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She sketched scenes from Danylovych\u2019s trial as reconstruction. \u201cI can spend days scouring the Internet for the information I need,\u201d she explains. \u201cMy sketches were based on whatever I could find online and the materials Iryna\u2019s family sent me. This is exactly how I worked on my mother\u2019s story, recreating her life in occupied Zhdanivka. It\u2019s called reconstruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>Community<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Communities often rally to support families facing such unjust persecution. How have the neighbors of the Danylovych family reacted to this injustice? Bronislav Danylovych acknowledges that reactions among their fellow villagers are mixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome of them support us, others don\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cA few have even stopped greeting us. But overall, I don\u2019t care. Instead, we receive lots of letters from strangers\u2014from Georgia, Lithuania, Germany, and Canada. Recently, we even received a parcel from a woman in Novosibirsk. This support from the outside of our community is significant and helps ease our nerves. We truly appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav mentions that he can only rely on himself and his wife, as their elder daughter lives in Belarus, and his wife\u2019s sister, despite living nearby, can\u2019t help them much due to her advanced age. \u201cWe rely on ourselves and on God,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:24px\"><strong>Lessons of history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bronislav Danylovych was born in 1947. Talking about his homeland\u2014western Belarus bordering with Lithuania\u2014he says that this territory regularly changed hands: \u201cTsar, then Soviets, then Poland, then Soviets again\u2026 like a kaleidoscope.\u201d He adds that persecuting nonconformists is a long-lasting tradition of the Russian state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The evolution of his values did not happen fast. \u201cIn the past, I believed their claims about the USSR,\u201d he admits. \u201cI was a pioneer and later a diligent member of the Komsomol. Yet, I began to notice stark discrepancies between what adults discussed privately and what we were taught in school. They portrayed our people as kind but never mentioned what they did in Berlin. Rape, killing\u2026 It still feels terrible to say this, but I heard adults say they lived their best years under German occupation\u2014they even praised Poland less.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He used to believe in the communist ideology, but things have shifted. \u201cMy opinion now is 180 degrees different from what it was in my forties and fifties,\u201d he says. \u201cI once believed we were building a better society. But later, I realized we\u2019d been building precisely what Mussolini built. This realization came too late. I woke up to the scale of our problems\u2014it was a deliberate, consistent state policy. As I was leaving the Communist Party, I stated in my petition that I could not remain in a party that orchestrated genocide against its own people.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This text was written in March\u2013April 2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Translated by Hanna Leliv<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-luminous-vivid-orange-background-color has-background\"><em>\u041a\u043e\u043b\u0430\u0436\u0456 \u0410\u043d\u0430\u0441\u0442\u0430\u0441\u0456\u0457 \u0421\u0442\u0440\u0443\u043a. \u0423 \u0437\u043e\u0431\u0440\u0430\u0436\u0435\u043d\u043d\u044f\u0445 \u0432\u0438\u043a\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0441\u0442\u0430\u043d\u043e \u0456\u043b\u044e\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430\u0446\u0456\u044e \u041c\u0430\u0440\u0456\u0457 \u0413\u043b\u0443\u0448\u043a\u043e \u0442\u0430 \u0444\u043e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0444\u0456\u0457 \u0437\u0456 \u0441\u0456\u043c\u0435\u0439\u043d\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0430\u0440\u0445\u0456\u0432\u0443.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She was kidnapped at a bus stop in Koktebel and sentenced to almost seven years in prison. This is the story of a citizen journalist whose case contains zero details about explosive devices allegedly found in her eyeglass case\u2014and a whole volume of references to her interviews in the media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2320,2244],"tags":[2264,2322,2266,2233],"class_list":["post-112034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free-crimea-en","category-interview-en","tag-kul-tura-en","tag-politviazni-en","tag-ukrainskyj-pen-en","tag-vijna-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112034"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112037,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112034\/revisions\/112037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.theukrainians.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}