Currently, there are 29 union leaders and activists doing time in Belarusian prisons. The “Salidarnast” Association starts a series of publications telling the stories of some of those political prisoners.
“Volha is an absolutely lucent and pure human being who wanted justice and lawfulness for people”. This is what colleagues say about Volha Brytsikava, leader of the independent workplace union at the Naftan oil refinery in the city of Navapolatsk.
Her dramatic story began in August 2020. At the time, Volha who worked as the Head of the Oil Products Sales Department at Naftan, had a meeting with the management where she voiced the demands that workers had put forward to the plant administration and the authorities. The demands included a stop to violence, resignation of Aliaksandr Lukashenka and the Head of the Central Elections Commisson Lidia Yarmoshyna.
Later on, Volha took part in a spontaneous workers’ rally in front of the plant’s office building. At that time she still had her freedom and she said in an interview to “Salidarnast” four years ago that she had no regrets of her involvement and that she had left the pro-Government union at Naftan.
“When we were done counting people who had signed the demands list, I was amazed by the behaviour of the leader of the Naftan workplace union affiliated to the Belarusian Chemical Workers’ Union (BCWU): he would leave the room for long stretches of time, returning with a sad face, and in the end he refused to sign the minutes. It was then that I clearly realized the extent of that union’s dependence on the employer. In fact, this is what moved me to leave the BCWU.”
Volha had been a BelChimProf (BCWU) member the whole of her 16 years as a Naftan employee. And saw that membership as a sheer formality like so many others did. But leaving the union was indeed a matter of principle for her. Besides, several months after the meeting with the management and the rally, Volha was fired.
“Yes, I did lose my job but I achieved harmony within myself. I could not breathe till I saw how many people shared my thoughts and feelings. On August 14, when I saw people in front of the plant’s offices, saw their determination, it was worth a lot to me…
The guys were saying they needed an independent union. And we turned to the Belarusian Independent Union. We could see that it offered a proper space for organizing and we were trying to protect each other…” (from Volha Brytsikava’s interview to “Salidarnast:).
The Acting President of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions Maksim Pazniakou says that “Volha was incensed by the falsification of the elections’ results in 2020 and the violence that followed. She and the colleagues who had followed her saw the Belarusian Independent Union (BNP) as the organization that could set thing right, at least within their workplace.”
“Today, it’s difficult to tell people “Come to us (the Belarusian Independent Union), it’s really cool in here”. Because everyone at the plant can see how they hammer us. We face pressure; practically each one of us is under investigation of alleged violations of the house rules.
“Many workers had lost their chance of making it to a higher pay grade. The management would say to them: “You want Grade 6? You need to leave your union.
“Or: “You want a place in the management cadre pool? Well, how can we put you there while you are a BNP member…
“A bonus for professional mastery? No, I don’t think so... You are eligible for a bonus as a contributor to the maintenance project last year? But you are a BNP member, so don’t expect to be on the list…»
It is difficult yet exciting. At some point I realized how happy I was to have come to know all these people, so staunch, so unyielding. They get hammered yet they fight, they get hammered more yet they resist.” (from Volha Brytsikava’s interview to “Salidarnast”).
Aliaksandr Sakalou, an activist of the “Rabochyi Rukh” (an initiative uniting working people in the Republic of Belarus to defend their civil and labour rights and freedoms – S.), met Volha at that wildcat workers’ rally in front of the Naftan offices on August 14, 2020.
“Volha has always been saying that if she had to choose between the material and the moral, she would go for the moral. She had a good job at Naftan and a good salary. Even after she had been dismissed and continued working in the Belarusian Independent Union, I know she was still offered a good position and a good salary. And abroad, too.
But Volha had her principles and her determination. She believed she should help people, try to change life for the better in her Motherland. What mattered most to her was justice and helping people.”
“I can’t, in all honesty, say to people “I am not afraid, nor should you be!” I am afraid like any other person, the fear is there, no matter what. When I got the sack, I could quietly and silently start looking for another job. But then I’d have a feeling that I had betrayed those who walked the road we embarked upon on August 14 with me.
I decided it was important to me to stay and make use of the chance that each Naftan worker had to organize with absolute legitimacy at a legal trade union platform.” (from Volha Brytsikava’s interview to “Salidarnast”).
At the time, Volha was helping a lot of people including those who faced repressions. Until the repression machine targeted herself.
Volha was arrested for 75 days for being vocal against the war in Ukraine. Then she got another 15 days for the dissemination of “extremist materials”. In 2022, Volha spent the total of 105 days behind bars.
Aliaksandr Sakalou: “She would say “I cannot accept what is going on in my Belarus, I cannot live with it. Although, people would tell her “Volha, they will put you away, you do see what goes on, don’t you?”. Yet, she refused to leave, saying “this is my land, my birthplace, my Navapolatsk, and I shall fight to see things changed.”
Next time, Volha was arrested in August 2023; she was tried under Article 130 of the Criminal Code (fomenting racial, national, religious, or any other social discord or animosity – S.). Brytsikava was sentenced to three year of medium security prison. In June 2024, she was put on the list of Belarusian citizens, foreign citizens, and persons without citizenship who were associated with extremist activities.
In August 2024, Volha faced another trial, charged under three Articles this time, and her prison term was extended by another three years. Following an appeal to the Supreme Court, the second sentence was later reduced by 1 year. All charges had been trumped up. Volha’s real “guilt” was her lack of loyalty to the dictatorial regime.
Maksim Pazniakou says, “Now she has to spend five years in prison. The sad thing is that in February this year, just recently, Volha’s mother passed away, and she could not be with her during her last days. This is such a tragic story.
I feel strongly for Volha. She is a paragon of a strong woman of integrity who has tried to achieve justice for people and was ready to make personal sacrifices, unwilling to yield to the system. And above all, she would not want to be intimidated by the system, and she wasn’t.”
Aliaksandr Sakalou adds, “Currently, Volha is held in the Homiel women’s penitentiary. Recently, at the end of January 2025, the KGB put her on the list of so-called “terrorists”. It was done to increase pressure on her, serving as grounds for a reduced number of visits, parcels, opportunities to talk to people, in other words, to isolate her from the outside world and try to break her. But she still gets support from a large number of people who send her letters. Volha is strong, I’m sure they will never break her.”
On April 19, 2025, the campaign “Unionism is not Extremism!” will run a Day of Action for Trade Union Rights and Democracy in Belarus demanding the release of the imprisoned Belarusian trade union leaders and activists.
The campaign was launched to draw the international community’s attention to the situation of labour rights in Belarus. The country faces police terror, torture, and persecution of those opposed to Lukashenka’s dictatorial regime, including independent trade unionists.
The campaign calls for the release of trade union and other political prisoners, the cessation of repressions against union activists, and the restoration of guarantees for independent unions’ legal activities.
The campaign is organized by the “Salidarnast” Association which provides support to union activists, with the launch date to mark an anniversary of anti-union pogroms perpetrated by Lukashenka’s regime in 2022.
“I have met a multitude of people who have chosen not to remain silent, who would not accept what is and has been going on all around us. That was our only way to survive – otherwise many of us would have died of pent-up emotions for which the only way out would be through a morbid condition…
One should not aspire to much: go out and do what you can, using what you have, and in a place where you are. Some would not be willing as they believe this is like fighting windmills. Or that “one warrior can never win the battlefield”.
But if every lone warrior rises up to battle, we shall all meet each other on the battlefield and we won’t be alone anymore.” (from Volha Brytsikava’s interview to “Salidarnast”)
Viktoryia Liavontsieva
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