Former political prisoner Siarhei Ivantsou: I woke up to the clattering of my own bones
In the mid-1990s, Zianon Pazniak called him, then an 11-year-old boy, the future of Belarus. Thirty years later, Siarhei Ivantsou woke up in the frozen punishment cell (SHIZA) of the Shklov colony to the clattering of his own bones. The former political prisoner told "Belsat" what character trait unites all prisoners and why the zone is a cosmos for a psychologist-researcher.
The conversation begins with a prison dessert — sticky Babruisk marshmallows, which Siarhei Ivantsou treats us to. White, pink, and red — peppered. In one lump. Break off and sip with a hot chicory drink. Absolute delicacy.
"It's sticky, take it with one hand. And here's some prison hazelnuts. I received a parcel with these marshmallows about 4 weeks before my release, 60 kilograms, there was a lot there. It's a whole story how I dragged this 'keshar' (package) around Ukraine after 'release,' and then went to Poland with it. Help yourselves. Real prison marshmallows," the former political prisoner smiles.
The trait that unites all prisoners
Siarhei Ivantsou is 41 years old. A permanent smile, graying hair ("Don't look at that — I already had gray hair in my student years, it just got more in prison"). Three higher education degrees ("...and, probably, that's not the end"): biologist, research psychologist (BSU), and marketer (English Institute of Marketing). In addition, since 2015 — a certified Enneagram trainer (personality typology).
Siarhei spent 1149 days in captivity — from October 21, 2022, to December 13, 2025, when he was deported from Belarus to Ukraine as one of 123 political prisoners. Akrestsina, Valadarka, Shklov colony, penal colony No. 15 in Mahiliou. As he himself calculated, he did not serve "only" half a year — 180 days — until the full term (4 years) expired.
"But listen, I wasn't even planning to be free until the summer of 2025! Because I understood that in prison I was gaining so much life and psychological experience that one could only dream of being free. The psychological practice is cosmic! Where else would I gather 100 people in freedom and observe them 24/7? Participant observation. Psychology, marketing, sociology. There were so many observations, several detachments — wow, cosmos!" Siarhei Ivantsou recounts.
Siarhei observed and noted. He observed both convicts and prison guards. Notes made in 2023 and 2024 were preserved and await publication (it could be a bombshell), but the last ones, from 2025, could not be taken out.
"Types are a separate and long conversation. But I analyzed the character traits of prisoners. Prisoners are different, but there is one trait that unites them. All of them — both criminals and 'BChB-ers.' Should I tell you what it is?... Stubbornness. It's in 99% of convicts. You know what my grandfather used to say? The law, he said, is like a thread stretched across a doorway: you can step over it, crawl under it, or — get caught. So, the stubborn ones get caught. And even if they could still back away — they refuse to retreat, they go further and — end up in prison. I observed this among the 123 released. Especially among the girls. Such fighters, we are not even worthy of their bootlaces," Siarhei says.
"Pazniak pointed at me: 'Here it is, the future of Belarus!'"
His personal "stubbornness" manifested itself, if only in the fact that until his arrest in October 2022, he did not clear his phone, even though he knew that since January 2021 he had been wanted for an innocent comment in the chat of "Belarus of the Brain":
"How predictable you are, comrade Major" (there really was a Major sitting there who absolutely did not want to be "predictable").
Siarhei did not delete his correspondence with "ByPol", which had helped him identify fake housing office employees (in reality — Ministry of Internal Affairs officers), nor did he delete photos from protest marches in which he participated. For contact with ByPol members, he was charged under Art. 361-4 of the Criminal Code; for photos with the BChB flag — Art. 342 of the Criminal Code. In total — 4 years in a colony (judge Liubou Simakhina).
There is also a story related to another well-known leader of the Belarusian opposition and former political prisoner Pavel Seviarynets. In June 2023, he was transferred from the Shklov colony to a prison regime. On November 29 of the same year, Siarhei Ivantsou, in the company of prisoners from penal colony No. 17, among whom, as he recounts, were both "yellow-taggers" and prisoners with white tags, voiced the thought that, "maybe it's good that Seviarynets went to prison, because it will be easier there."
"Maybe you want to go after Seviarynets too?" someone asked. "Who knows..." Ivantsou replied. Ivantsou was reported instantly. The next morning, he stood before colony head Karnienka and received 10 days in the punishment cell (SHIZA) (then another 10 were added) and 4 months in the cell-type room (PKT) (served already in Mahiliou). For what? For "expressing support for BChB actions and considering Pavel Seviarynets his idol" in conversation.
"Idol! That stuck with me. I, a person who goes to church, and whose idol is Jesus Christ, just like for Seviarynets, by the way. And they write me here..." Siarhei Ivantsou laughs.
"I had been pulling that thread, which my grandfather spoke of, for a long time. You could say I found myself in the opposition even as a schoolboy. Do you want a funny story about me and Pazniak?... Sometime in the mid-1990s, my father took me with him to one of the meetings with Zianon Pazniak, which activist Ales Chaholski organized at the time. I was about 10 years old. Well, Pazniak spoke, said something, and towards the end, he looked at me and said: 'Here it is, the future of Belarus!' Well, and... he wasn't mistaken (laughs).
My dad told me this story. And as an adult, I first met Pazniak here, in Warsaw, quite recently. I also told him about that speech. Pazniak thought for a moment, and then said: I don't remember that exact meeting, but I remember something like that happening in Sukharava in those years..." the former political prisoner recounts with a smile.
"I woke up to the clattering of my own bones"
Siarhei admits that the Shklov punishment cell (SHIZA) was probably the worst and most difficult part of his "prison journey." Siarhei recounts how he was first placed in a "glass" cell, where he felt like a dog because he ate on the floor. He tells how cold it was later in the isolation cell, how every morning he listened to the anthem of Belarus (hands at attention!), about the hunger in the punishment cell.
"Very little food and very cold. Thermal underwear there was forbidden. As a biologist, I understood the biophysics of the process: the body spent most of its calories on warming up. I started losing weight. So much so that I could palpate my elbow joint, checking how the tendons attached to the bones. For the first time, I realized how thin I could be. For the first time, I realized that the expression 'clattering bones' is not a metaphor. And there were times when you sit by the battery, fall asleep, and suddenly — boom! — you fall and wake up from some strange clattering... Yes, I woke up to the clattering of my own bones... When they once took me to the shower to wash, I looked at myself in the mirror — it was terrifying," Siarhei Ivantsou testifies.
It was December 2023. At the same time, there was also a heating breakdown in the entire colony.
"Then I experienced some mystical moment. I decided I was going to die. I resigned myself. I was already sitting and saying goodbye to life, praying. And at that moment, it seemed to me that someone from my deceased ancestors sat down next to me and started talking to me. Perhaps it was my grandfather, who died in 2020. He comforted me, said that the term was still running, asked if they were bringing me medicine and food. He told me to hold on. And he spoke so calmly that I calmed down and bravely endured those remaining days in the Shklov punishment cell. To this day, I believe it really was the spirit of my ancestor..." the former political prisoner recounts.
"They were glad to get rid of me and Fiaduta..."
"Mystical moments" and ironic coincidences in Siarhei Ivantsou's story were actually more numerous. Even the fact that he was detained on October 21 — Father's Day ("On Dad's Day, my daughter was deprived of her dad. She was only 11 months old then"). On December 13, 2022, his daughter took her first steps in her life. On the same day, three years later, Siarhei was released early. He believes that the system "shot itself in the foot" by releasing political prisoners on 13.12 (the combination 1312 in subcultures means the abbreviation "A.C.A.B." — "All Cops Are Bastards").
On his wedding anniversary, while sitting in the punishment cell, Siarhei received a court summons for... divorce. This, he admits, was so unexpected that upon leaving the isolation cell, he was forced to consult a prison psychiatrist, who prescribed him medication.
Even the administration of the Mahiliou colony felt sorry for Siarhei, scheduling an unscheduled meeting with his parents for December 23, which Siarhei never had, as he was taken out of the zone on December 13. Two days before the unexpected release — December 11 — Siarhei was brought a court order for divorce to sign...
"Siarhei, but why, do you think, did your name end up on the list of those 123 political prisoners who were released and taken out of the country on December 13?" we ask the former political prisoner.
"Firstly, I didn't have much time left — half a year. Secondly, I probably bothered them with my trips to the 'free' hospital in Minsk. The thing is, back in 2018, I had a hemorrhage on the retina of my right eye. The treatment was not cheap — 300 dollars per injection. They saved my eye then. But in 2022, there was a relapse. I managed to get one injection — and then I was locked up. They took me for injections from pre-trial detention center No. 1, and from Shklov, and from Mahiliou. From penal colony No. 15 alone, I went to the hospital for convicts in Kaliadzichy 8 times.
Therefore, of course, they were glad to get rid of both me and Aliaksandr Fiaduta, for example, with whom we became close during those transfers. And finally, the third reason, and again a mystical one: back in 2023, in Valadarka, I calculated and knew that by at least February 3, 2026, I would definitely be free..." Siarhei recounts.
In the cell in Valadarka, as Siarhei recounts, there was a calendar hanging where someone had written by hand: "Home in 2025!". Siarhei took it as a sign and a message. He convinced himself that he would be out at least in December 2025, at most in January 2026. But by February 3 — he would definitely be free. On that day four years ago, Siarhei's grandmother passed away.
"And so, when I lived here until February 3, I prayed for my grandmother and thanked God. I said: we did it, You and I, I believed You would give me such an opportunity, and You did..." Siarhei concludes.
"I had a lot of mystical experiences, especially in Shklov. You know, the tougher the conditions, the more unusual, supernatural things happen in your life. The worse the conditions — the more angels hover over you. Someone will say that the person just went crazy. But no, not crazy, no..." adds the former political prisoner.
"Threes" there become "goats," "eights" — "quartermasters"
As for "going crazy," we have no doubt. As an Enneagram expert, Siarhei categorizes himself as Enneatype Seven: the Enthusiast, Animator, Epicurean. To characters with a head mental center. An extravert with highly developed creativity and intellectual productivity. A person who learns easily and shares information with others, as we witnessed during the conversation.
He describes at length and in detail how representatives of different types adapt to prison reality. How representatives of the third type ("who can quickly 'change their shoes'") become "goats" and work for the administration. How "needed by the cops" are Ones-perfectionists — zealots of order. How inconspicuous individuals of Enneatypes 4 or 5 were in the squad. And how representatives of the eighth type — "bosses" or "confrontationalists" — became "quartermasters" or "supply managers" in the zone.
"Overall, the Enneagram is a typology about deep motivation. We see, for example, that people do the same things and hold the same positions, but — for different reasons and motivations. For example, representatives of my type gladly take a position where it will be interesting and everything is new. Novelty and interest. If there is such a thing — he will take it," Siarhei Ivantsou summarizes.
"So you took such a position — you became an emigrant. Here everything is new and interesting," we joke.
"Oh, that's true. And this is the next stage of the quest. The prison stage is passed, the emigrant one begins. Life is a game! But I am a Type Seven and a Researcher subtype. And I have already begun to study the cultural code of Poles. The first discovery is this: whoever immigrated here a few years ago is already woven into the Polish matrix. During conversations with them, I encounter the same misunderstandings that occur in communication with Poles. When I talk to our girl who has lived here for three years, it's almost the same as with a Polish woman. But when I meet a Belarusian who has only been in Poland for a couple of months, I feel that we are on the same vibe," Siarhei notes.
"Fed by the same Babruisk marshmallows. There's nothing like it here," we joke again.
"Did you like the prison marshmallows?" the former political prisoner asks goodbye. "Spicy!" we reply.
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