Dec 21, 2010
nybooks: Brutality in Belarus Timothy Snyder Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus’s sad capital, is one of the most terrifying public spaces in Europe. It is nothing but concrete, steel, glass and fearsome horizons—no benches, shelter, or anything for people who might wish to do something so normal as to assemble and speak together. Where anything vertical rises from the ground, it bears a video camera, insuring that any gathering can be observed by the Belarusian KGB. And yet, when Aleksandr Lukashenko claimed victory by an improbably large absolute majority in the presidential elections on December 19, people came, in the tens of thousands, to protest the official results. Photo: Riot policemen standing guard around a government building during an opposition rally in Independence Square, Minsk, December 20, 2010 (Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images)

nybooks:

Brutality in Belarus

Timothy Snyder

Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus’s sad capital, is one of the most terrifying public spaces in Europe. It is nothing but concrete, steel, glass and fearsome horizons—no benches, shelter, or anything for people who might wish to do something so normal as to assemble and speak together. Where anything vertical rises from the ground, it bears a video camera, insuring that any gathering can be observed by the Belarusian KGB. And yet, when Aleksandr Lukashenko claimed victory by an improbably large absolute majority in the presidential elections on December 19, people came, in the tens of thousands, to protest the official results.

Photo: Riot policemen standing guard around a government building during an opposition rally in Independence Square, Minsk, December 20, 2010 (Viktor Drachev/AFP/Getty Images)

(Source: nybooks)

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Aristotelean Thomist; dabbler in the epicurean and sartorial arts; sworn enemy of wasting my time.


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