The environment of good deeds. Olga Pavlova

During the election campaign in 2020, Olga Pavlova became an activist of "A Country to Live in" project, founded by Sergei Tikhanovsky, was a member of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's initiative group and collected signatures for her nomination. She took part in protests. After being detained at the "Square of Changes," a criminal case was opened against Olga. In December, she spent 17 days in a punishment cell, 10 of them starving. Olga Pavlova was sentenced to three years of "home chemistry."

- How did you get into the election campaign? Was there any trigger?

- There were a huge number of triggers. One of the main ones was an excruciating personal question. We do not have a law in our country that would protect women from domestic violence. Although the legislation was developed, the president could only approve it, but he considered it unnecessary. As a result, thousands of women in Belarus (and men) continue to suffer from this problem.

The second point is an epidemic. I am a doctor of the preventive profile; epidemiology is one of the branches of my education. We all know perfectly well what preventive measures should have been taken to maximize the population's safety or at least reduce the load on the bed. So that people do not die at home but end up in hospitals, and each person could be provided with assistance in the amount that he needed.

And because this was not done, many people died at home - there were no places in hospitals. They did not take the necessary preventive measures before the epidemic, although it was clear what would catch us.

And third, this is a great injustice against Sergey Tikhanovsky. This was the last straw. He was imprisoned for a day when he sent an application to the CEC for registration, and he was not registered. The act of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who went and submitted the documents ...

After that, I decided for myself that such a person needs help. We must go. We must change something.

- Have you considered that Lukashenko is personally responsible for all this?

- He is responsible for creating a system in which everyone is afraid to anger the king. And because of this, there is a large number of human victims. Simply because someone is afraid to convey the truth, whoever brought the bad news is executed.

- Since when did you start following Sergey Tikhanovsky's YouTube channel?

- In general, I am an extremely apolitical person, and I was like that until the spring of 2020. I have a small child. This August, he will be only 7 years old. I unlearned, gave birth, worked (I was the leading cosmetologist of the Bpelita company). I had a good salary, dacha.

I did not break the law, and I did not have moments of contact with the system. I graduated, received a diploma, and practiced. And my job is related to checks. Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology. This is when the doctor of the sanitary station comes and starts checking everyone where what is signed and marked.

And I was like this after visiting a couple of schools, when the headteacher pulls me into the dining room with the words: "Everything is already waiting for you there, everything is ready." It all jarred me. Because your desks and chairs do not fit in size - children develop scoliosis, and you will put bags of meat for me here. Give the children normal chairs - why do I need your bags (laughs).

I realized that in this system, I am not viable. In medicine, you spend a lot of time learning to understand everything and comprehend how everything works. And then they tell you: “Well done, I made a diagnosis, but there are very few coupons to register this disease (and it attracts some payments). Here, we have three coupons for six months. "

And ten people turned to you. And out of ten, you choose these three, which are really bad, so that they receive at least some funding. And all other people have to lie, and I just can't.

I had no options to stay logged in. I understood that they would either set me up and jail sooner or later because they, too, did not need such workers who would defend the truth to the end. Therefore, I am not in the system.

My child and I were on self-isolation in the country - early spring, there is nothing to do. And so I saw a video of Sergey with pigs. It was so sarcastic, clear, funny, right in the bull's eye. I subscribed to the YouTube channel and started following new videos.

- What were your expectations from the election campaign?

- I understood that everything would be difficult, that we had few resources, both human and material. But what is so difficult ... I read all the legislative acts, the electoral code, etc., called the hotline, recorded conversations to transfer them to a general chat, and people in the deepest village knew how to collect signatures. But that it will be so illegal that they will reduce the initiative group (supposedly there are fake people) that they will be chasing us in Horky.

- And why bother with this pressure? You did everything according to the law.

- That we could not collect the required number of signatures. 

Seeing this whole horror, I found a hole in the legislation, consulted with lawyers. I had an idea to prove that Lukashenka is not the guarantor of the constitution, which means that he is not the president. We need to call on the army and create a petition from the population. Considering that I am liable for military service (all our doctors are liable for military service) and based on this, it is necessary to call upon the army to protect the population from occupation.

I spoke about this in the program at Belsat, and the guys immediately told me: “Get out of the team, because as soon as they find out that a person from Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s team makes such statements, she can be disqualified.”

So I immediately shifted my responsibilities to other people and went out and launched the call. Lukashenka never answered me. We had a collective appeal, he was obliged to respond within a month, but he did not.

8 thousand people signed the petition. I sent it to the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, called hotlines. I was wildly scared. Although I did not break the law, there was still a possibility of arrest. Moreover, people in civilian clothes constantly came to me. They wanted to "talk."

- You were detained four times, and only in November, a criminal case was opened against you. Why?

- I associate this with KOTOS. Gorgeous initiative. Self-government is what our society needs - to learn to do everything on our own to not depend on anyone. I started to promote this in my KOTOS actively, and I created an initiative group. And, naturally, all letters went from my name, my address, including to the administration.

I prescribed that “we are notifying you that we are going to re-elect the chairman of KOTOS within three months.” And literally, three days later, a meeting was convened with the chairman of the district and all the chairmen of KOTOS, and it was said: "Do not go to meetings with citizens, no matter how they want."

- So you were taken because of this?

- I think yes. Because I went to all the districts. We had a cake initiative then. We came to the district, brought the cake to all districts. From time to time, we streamed with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. After that, I told all the courtyard assets what CATOS were and passed on the necessary information.

Then they took 300 people and opened criminal cases against 230. And only those who interfered were imprisoned.

- How can you characterize the conditions of detention in Belarusian pre-trial detention centers?

- There is a violent breaking of will. You are not angry - and we will break you.

- And what do they want to achieve by this?

- A person with a broken will not fight. He has apathy and unwillingness to fight for anything. This is what is done for this.

- Is this tactic successful?

- It depends on the person. A huge number of political prisoners went through the punishment cell. So that you understand, a punishment cell is a limb. When you get there, it's almost impossible to get out of there. They will figure out what to hang up the report for.

I was given seven days, then five, then another five. At that moment, when, after seven days, I was given five for dust, I realized that the only option was a hunger strike because they would not let me out. Because I don't break. I have an option to start greeting them {for the first time, Olga was put in a punishment cell for not wanting to greet the staff and the administration of the colony}, but I will not do that.

- And after the announcement of the hunger strike, does the attitude towards the prisoner change? Has it changed for you specifically?

- They laughed a lot. They all had a lot of fun. The first few days. And then, what saved me - firstly, that I am a girl, because at that moment there were only men in the punishment cell, and they also began to starve. The entire punishment cell was starving with me for five days. They did not write a statement {about the hunger strike}.

They just knew about me; there, you can easily hear what is happening in the punishment cell. They understood that I was behaving normally. Yes, I didn’t say hello, but I didn’t break anything. And when they gave me another five days and was not released, the men stopped eating - and I am very grateful to them for that. One of them went on a hunger strike with me for ten days - day in and day out until I was transferred to the medical unit.

The rest held out for five days until the head of the prison went to negotiate with me. He said that he could release me in five days, and for that, I must end the hunger strike. I disagreed because they kept me in a punishment cell for nothing.

Plus, a lawyer came. And I had the third or fourth day of the hunger strike - the most difficult. And a household worker brought me to a meeting with a lawyer in his arms. I couldn't even stand. And my lawyer, Ivan Chizhik, also grateful to him, wrote a statement to explain why I was in the punishment cell. He also notified the UK and DIN that I was on a hunger strike for the fifth day.

All together and played a role. They realized that I would not say hello. Plus, I constantly reminded the head of the prison that driving to suicide is a criminal offense. The chief of the operas is still frightened that they would put me on record as prone to suicide and if such a mark in my personal file, then a special attitude from the jailers.

- Three years of "home chemistry." In today's realities, a rather mild sentence - did it surprise you?

- I have a spotless reputation. I have always worked officially and in highly paid positions. I paid a huge amount of taxes. Plus, I had no felonies. I had a young child, a residence permit, and a permanent place of residence. These four factors coincided. If at least one were not there, I would sit with everyone exactly for three years.

Although, on the other hand, given the degree of lawlessness in our country, I would not be surprised (that I will sit for a long time). By the way, when I said my last word, I thought that I would sit for a long time and stubbornly.

The last word of Olga Pavlova:

“According to Art. 53 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, each person is obliged to respect the honor, dignity, and rights of another person. Therefore, interrupting my last word is disrespectful and a violation of the Constitution.

As an epigraph for my last ... final word, I took a line from the divine comedy of Dante Alighieri: "For now, at least a leaf of hope beats."

In my closing remarks, High Court would like to express my feelings for my country and for everything that happens in it. But the main character of the story "Resurrection" by the great Russian classic Tolstoy, written by him 120 years ago, reflects today's reality and the state of my soul best of all, but nothing has actually changed. So, I quote:

“The court is only an administrative tool for maintaining the existing order of things, beneficial to one of the estates. The thing is that this estate recognizes as the law that which is not a law and does not recognize that which is eternally a law by God Himself written in the hearts of people. That is why it is so hard with these people, and they are more terrible than robbers: a robber can still regret it.

These same cannot regret. They are insured against pity. If a psychological task was set on how to make sure that our time - Christians, humane, kind people - commit the most terrible atrocities without feeling guilty, then only one solution is possible: it must be what is: it is necessary that these people were governors, superintendents, officers, police officers...

Firstly, they were sure that there is such a thing called "public service" in which you can handle people, as with things: without a human, brotherly attitude to them. And secondly, so that people by this very public service are connected so that responsibility for the consequences of their actions with people does not fall on any one separately.

The thing is that people think that there are positions in which you can treat a person without love, as with a thing, but there are no such positions. You cannot treat people without love, and it cannot be otherwise, because mutual love between people is the basic law of human life ...

Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the rest will be added to you. And you are looking for the rest and, obviously, do not find it.

" I want you to think about the morality of even a cowardly class, obsessed with a thirst for power and its retention ... How lawlessly sentences are passed against people today, how constitutional rights were violated by fraud in the elections in August 2020, and what violence and genocide are now being committed against their own people. 

I was at Akrestsin Street from August 9 to 12, and I have every right to speak about it aloud and aloud, as I saw how men were beaten to death with my own eyes. And they beat me as well.

Head of CIP Akrestina Shapetko and Vrublevsky, CIP employee. Survived the gas chamber, which the employees of the CIP arranged for women. So, indifference is scary! The measure of good and evil is conscience. So, you have no conscience!

In Belarus, the highest legal law is the Constitution, not illegal orders from your superiors and your fear of losing your job. "


There could be different consequences after my last word. Well, you see, there was a signal from above.

- Who did you address in the first place in your address - to judges, civil society, maybe you did it for yourself?

- Judges are machines. I think people who could be reached left back in August. So I turned to society. I wanted to tell you what people are dealing with. Tolstoy described everything a hundred years ago.

- Will the unjust system disintegrate and end its existence with Lukashenko's departure? And what will happen to the people who are now in the system?

- They will sit. All of this was given to us with a lot of blood. First of all, of course, to people whose children and relatives were killed. Those who were left disabled after all this.

But this time allowed us to take the wheat from the chaff. This is not a cleanup of all completely - remove the old ones, but the new ones. We had a time when everyone dropped out. The law enforcement officers left, the judges did not take the case. Also with investigators, prosecutors.

Everyone had a choice. It is now clear who is who. Sooner or later, everyone will be found. Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.

- Can you explain the motivation of people in the system?

- Everyone has a different way, I guess. The so-called yabatski are not representatives of any party. These are representatives of a certain worldview system. This is very convenient when someone else can be blamed for everything.

To have something good, you need to take responsibility for yourself. Can you imagine how convenient it is when someone is to blame, not yourself. How will you build a country if you are not responsible for your life? What did we want: it lasted 26 years.

- Don't you think it started earlier: with collectivization, with repressions that were not worked out, and the executioners were convicted? And we have received such a wave of violence now.

- This is where the layering is. Children behave like their parents. And they say: "We must be silent." And then they grow into adults who carry the same message and fear to their children. And today, in the face of one person, we see the apogee of all this. This is the extreme point.

- For Belarusians, as a people and Belarus, as a country, will everything go for the better now?

- How people decide. Our generation was mainly brought up in the spirit of "initiative is punishable." Although, how will we develop without initiative?

Recent events, various initiatives have shown that not all are scored. People want to be proactive, not sit back and watch their lives go by.

With the departure of this person, we will receive a window of opportunity. And here, the question is whether there will be a critical mass of initiative people to change all this once and for all.

- How can people help you?

- I am framed as a craftsman. I am engaged in floristry, however, not with real flowers but with artificial ones. I have almost no orders. But if people show interest, I will complete the order.

You can help Olga by ordering flowers from her.

 

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