“Mercuric Silver of Life” – New Book by Ales Bialiatski
The new book of essays was written by Ales Bialiatski in prison and is dedicated to events of 2010 – 2011 in Belarus.
The book includes memoirs, reflections and meditations, as well as describes daily routine and events that preceded the arrest of the human rights defender. The title of the book is quite metaphoric as the author tried to convey changeability and dangerous attraction, a kind of coldness of life.
“It is easy to write about the events of 2010 – 2011 because they seem to have imprinted well in my memory, but it is hard as well because time inexorably destroys freshness of emotions, hundreds and thousands of tiny details which create the multicolor picture of life. New events, new impressions appear, pushing out and eliminating the old ones,” wrote Ales Bialiatski in one of the letters.
The human rights defender, editor of the book Alena Laptsionak wrote in the preface: “It’s been more than two years since Ales Bialiatski was arrested, and he has already served more than a half of the term. But even this time turned out to be not a lost one, to a certain extent, and Ales, being a steadfast person, has managed to use it and to enliven the routine of incarceration with creative ideas and with their fruitful realization.”
The letters of the book since August 4, 2013 were published in Ales Bialiatski’s personal blog on the website Belarusian Partisan.
We remind that this is the second book by the human rights defender published for the time of his imprisonment; the presentation is coming soon. The first book “Enlightened by Belarusianness” has been banned by court in Belarus. Ales Bialiatski, head of the human rights center Viasna and Vice President of FIDH, was charged for large-scale tax evasion and sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment. The bank accounts which were grounds for the charges transferred money aimed for human rights activities of Viasna which advocates for human rights, provides assistance to people who endure difficulties through human rights violations; the organization has many times sought for official registration, but still stays unregistered by the state.