Stas Karpau: Kalesnikava is no obstacle for anyone to be angrier and more uncompromising

Maria Kalesnikava. Photo: Lookby.media

I also watched that very interview. I approached it with some internal fear, and the fear didn't subside until the very end of the viewing. Frankly, I didn't notice anything scary.

I noticed three Marias. The first spoke with the intonation of a person who had lived in Poland for a year and intoned in such a way that it was noticeable that she supposedly lived in Poland. These currently fashionable stresses on the penultimate syllable — it's kind of ridiculous, actually. But okay.

The second Maria purred like Renata Litvinova or, if you like, like Nasta Roud. At this moment, the Polish accent, by the way, disappeared. I can't say I'm a big fan of purring — because then I understand that I'm witnessing some self-presentation, and not, strictly speaking, an expression — but let it be.

The third Maria spoke as nature intended. And at that moment, she was sincere. I was also surprised by her readiness to be as close as possible to the best Russian from the farthest Russian backwater. That is, to say "shawarma" and then repeat "shaverma" after Dud. Shaverma, f***ing hell…

Or how she readily metaphorically chose between "Danone" yogurt and some other bullshit — considering that no normal Belarusian would eat Danone (that crap that came to Belarus from a Russian shit-factory).

But.

What is important in this interview and what neither Ukrainians, nor Russians, nor Belarusian patriots can understand and forgive? Kalesnikava's non-radicalism.

So let's say a few words about this. What is the difference between Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Russians? Not in a historical context, but at the present moment.

Russians (good Russians) have their protected and even hyperbolized ethnicity and fight for the external appearance of a political nation. They share one language, one culture with their opponents. Different views on today and tomorrow.

Ukrainians, having their rather homogeneous political nation and common ethnicity, with the help of their state, fight for the survival of this very state and nation.

Belarusians — people with an ethnicity that both the Belarusian quasi-state and Russia fight against — try to assert their ethnicity and form a political nation, either being directly separated from the country with which this nation correlates, or being unable to influence the political process in that state in any way. That is, the very concept of a political nation applied to Belarusians does not seem very adequate.

In Russia, politics is formed by Russians. Good or bad — it doesn't matter. In Ukraine — by Ukrainians. In Belarus, both politics and culture are formed in such a way as to replace Belarusian interests with corporate ones. For a Belarusian, there is nowhere and nothing to cling to.

Note, Kalesnikava admits who is to blame for the war. She knows who is good and who is bad. She cannot be called a person without moral guidelines. True, she says it too cautiously to appear as a moral guideline herself.

But is it worth the hatred? If she led us to the barricades — perhaps it would be worth it. But her desires and aspirations are narrowly Belarusian. She simply wants to be with Belarusians in Belarus and tend to her little garden plot.

Ukrainians, who are concerned with the physical survival of their people, are not bothered by Belarusian problems or Belarusian archetypes. They want to be either unequivocally supported or shut the f*** up.

Russians, in general, have never been able to perceive their country as a collection of people with regulated qualities. It was always easier for them to look at themselves. And to hate their people and forgive the degradation of their people: one will consecrate automatic weapons, another, getting up from an under-f***ed mattress, will blubber something about "our boys" and (with a living wife) apologize for corporate parties with Epstein.

But Belarusians are not obliged (hear me out) to think in the categories of their neighbors. Because our situation is not even close to the situation of either Ukrainians or Russians.

Belarusians have never been as "self-aware" as Ukrainians or Russians, but they have never been so divided. In this regard, a person's desire to live among their own, even very different and even unpleasant people — this is the result of a very Belarusian view of the process we are in.

Do I think Kalesnikava doesn't call things by their names? I do.

Do I think that during such tragedies, hiding the names for savagery under rhetorical sauces is annoying? I do.

Do I think that the position where "I just want to talk about my feelings and my all-encompassing humanism" is a form of self-expression for a 12-year-old schoolgirl, not for an adult? I think so too.

But do I think that Kalesnikava or for Kalesnikava should be ashamed — I don't think so. She is Belarusian. Just as she is. No one's leader. No one's torch. No one's enemy. No one's obstacle to being angrier and more uncompromising.

Especially since, to be honest, no one offers us compromises either.

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