Testimonies That Must Be Heard: An Interview with Viktar Babaryka

Our partners at Memorial.Polska have recorded an interview with Viktar Babaryka, a Belarusian politician, former banker and 2020 presidential candidate who spent more than five years in prison.

In June 2020, after announcing his intention to run for president, Babaryka was detained. In July 2021, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison. During his imprisonment, he was repeatedly transferred between detention facilities and penal colonies, placed in punishment cells and denied contact with the outside world. He was released on 13 December 2025.

In the interview, Babaryka speaks about prison conditions, the system of pressure imposed on political prisoners, and the methods used by prison authorities to make his life unbearable. He discusses these experiences with his characteristic irony and humour, revealing the absurdity of the repressive system even in the most difficult circumstances.

His grandfather, a victim of Stalinist repression, occupies a special place in his story. Several generations later, Viktar Babaryka himself found himself in the same building where his grandfather had once been imprisoned. This coincidence became a reminder of how the history of repression continues to return in the lives of Belarusian families.

Preserving testimonies means preserving memory

Political repression in Belarus is not only a matter of numbers, court sentences and records of places of detention. It is also about people's personal stories, experiences and memories — all of which must be preserved for future generations.

The testimonies of former political prisoners help document what happens behind the walls of prisons and penal colonies. They reveal how the repressive system operates and restore the human dimension to history. As long as people are able to speak about what they have experienced, it is essential to listen to them and preserve their words.

We thank Memorial.Polska for its work collecting and preserving the testimonies of people who have experienced political repression in Belarus.

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Watch the interview with Viktar Babaryka on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/hdT42ulJArA?si=_jbqkdRkU9aCwr_q

https://youtu.be/TYczDMb_JZo?si=cy1_XAtwoC2S3B6K

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