Their song ‘We are not a small nation” spread like fire.

As the BBC reported, members of the Belarusian music group Tor Band were sentenced to years in prison at the end of October 2023.

This marks yet another escalation of a nationwide campaign against dissent that Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been conducting for years.

The band’s leader, Dzmitry Halavach, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Another member, Yauhen Burlo, received an eight-year sentence, while third member Andrei Yaremchyk was sentenced to seven and a half years.

Tor Band actively participated in the protests against Belarus’s dictatorship and unfair elections in 2020. Their most popular song at the time, called “We are not small people” (Мы не народец), was one of the symbols of the uprising.  The musicians, together with their wives, were taken into custody at the end of October 2022. 

Before 2020, the Tor Band was already quite popular, performing in both Belarus and Ukraine together with famous rock and pop bands. During the election campaign and post-election protests, where Lukashanka’s victory was challenged by the opposition led by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the band’s songs were playing everywhere at opposition rallies. The BBC notes that at that time, “We are not small people” spread like wildfire. 

Here is the most popular Tor Band’s song at that time: “We are not small people.”

The lyrics of the song “We are not a small nation” are as follows:

We are not cattle, cattle and cowards,
we are a living people, we are Belarusians!
With faith in our hearts, we keep the formation,
the banner of freedom over our heads!  

Something has happened, something is wrong, 

something has broken in our heads. 

My soul is very empty, faith is broken, 

there is only a stink around, of any size. 

But the garbage can is full to overflowing, 

well-fed and stupid, you are waiting for an order 

when they tell you to beat your people, so the sick puppeteer wished. 

I believe, I believe, I believe that…. 

We are not cattle, cattle and cowards, 

we are a living people, we are Belarusians! 

With faith in our hearts, we keep the formation,

 the banner of freedom over our heads! 

Where is our conscience? Really sold? 

I’m afraid my answer will be very banal. 

We began to be afraid, afraid, trembling, 

we were taught to snitch again. 

And if  something happens:

“My hut is on the edge, I haven’t seen, I haven’t heard, I don’t know for sure!” That’s what a moral freak does, 

but not the native Belarusian people. 

I believe, I believe, I believe that…  

We are not cattle, cattle and cowards, 

we are a living people, we are Belarusians! 

With faith in our hearts, we keep the order, 

the banner of freedom over our heads!

After the protests were brutally crushed by the Lukashenka dictatorship, the band was warned to not organize concerts or release new songs.  However, the band’s leader, Dmitry Golovatch, said in an interview with local media in September 2020:

We didn’t have any questions about whether to continue playing. We had songs that we wanted to release: the tracks “Long Live,” “Who, if not you.” There was tremendous support. We made so many friends all over the country! In general, it seems to me that Belarusians have learned to love themselves. There has never been such a feeling of love, and the feeling of patriotism is now going wild. We got to know our country

Lukashenka’s repression has came for the band in October 2022. Their songs, including “Long live Belarus,” were deleted from their popular YouTube channel, and the musicians were detained. 

The BBC cited Viasna’s Human Rights Center lawyer, Pavel Sapelka, saying that the musicians received “an unprecedented prison sentence for creativity.”

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled opposition leader from Belarus, whose husband is serving an 18-year prison term, said on social media: “Lukashenka’s regime shows its fear. Music can be silenced in courts, but never in our hearts.”

This article was written by Daria Dergacheva and originally published on the Global Voices website on 27 February 2024. It is republished here under the media partnership between Global Voices and Shouts – Music from the Rooftops! and a CC BY 3.0 Deed license.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗼𝗻! 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮, 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂!