33booksforanotherbelarus 33booksforanotherbelarus

"33 Books" at the Koeppenhaus Greifswald memorial event

"33 Books" at the Koeppenhaus Greifswald memorial event

On 28 October, the Koeppenhaus Greifswald became a Belarusian memorial to the victims of Stalinist terror. On the night of 29-30 October 1937, over one hundred people were shot by the NKVD in Minsk as part of the Stalinist repression, including many poets and writers. This night is known as the black night of Belarusian culture or the night of the shot poets and is an important date for the independent cultural scene in Belarus. Commemoration of the victims is currently impossible in Belarus, but events are taking place in many other countries. In 2023, for example, in Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Norway, Canada, Italy, Estonia, Czech Republic and also in some cities in Germany. The Koeppenhaus Greifswald invited Iryna Herasimovich and Zmicier Vishniou to present the authors who were repressed under Stalin and to report on the current situation of cultural workers in and from Belarus. Remembering the victims is linked to thinking about spaces in which the repressed Belarusian culture can survive today. And so, in the second part of the event, Zmicier Vishniou and Iryna Herasimovich presented the project 33 Books for Another Belarus, which is currently working to create such spaces for endangered books.

05.02.2024