A few days ago marked two years since the death of Raman Bandarenka — a man who became one of the symbols of the 2020 protests in Belarus and, sadly, one of its victims. Raman was one of the residents of a Minsk courtyard at the intersection of Chervyakova Street, Kakhovskaya Street, and Smarhonski Tract, which during the protests became known as “Square of Changes.” Another resident of this “square,” Stsiapan Latypau, who handed out flowers to protesting women and actively took part in the life of his courtyard-“square,” was detained, attempted suicide several times during his trial, and ultimately received 8.5 years in a high-security prison.
In today’s world, we often know very little about our neighbors, especially when living in the huge “ant hills” of residential districts. But this courtyard became known to all concerned Belarusians. It appeared in many news reports, tea gatherings and even concerts were held there. Residents hung white-red-white ribbons on the fences, painted a mural on a transformer booth, and fought to preserve it. And it was for this reason that it received its own name — “Square of Changes.”
This courtyard, this phenomenon, has already been forever inscribed in the history of modern Belarus. And in 2022, Yauheni Otsietski decided to publish a photo album about this “square.”
The book was published in two languages — Belarusian and English. In Belarusian, it is “Плошча Перамен”; in English, “The Square of Changes”. The funds for its publication were raised on Kickstarter, and it received support rather quickly. By August, the printed version had already been presented in Warsaw.
The book includes 70 photographs, as well as 13 monologues from local residents.
The very idea of such a book is simply excellent — because it is the history of events.
But the most frustrating thing is that there is no history in the book. It is a set of photographs arranged in chronological order, plus separate opinions of participants about the events.
I expected that the book would still tell about what was happening at the time, what became the reason for such a phenomenon as the “Square of Changes,” why it came to be. What it actually meant for society (after all, this was how people showed that they were tired of the realities, and that there were, in fact, many of them). If you are Belarusian, a Minsk resident, you know all this, because these are the events of your homeland, your city. But the book should have told and shown this to those who were not at the scene. It is a fragment of history, as if frozen in amber.
Who Raman Bandarenka was, why he died, and what surrounded his death (including numerous stated facts about the involvement of high-ranking officials) — none of this is in the book. And even about Latypau the facts were distorted, stating that in court he allegedly tried to cut his veins with a ballpoint pen. He did not try to cut his veins — he stabbed the pen into his throat!
The neighbors’ opinions are good, but there is no overall picture — no coherent narrative emerges.
But fine, the book was presented as a photo album. I actually love photo albums with historical photographs; I even have a small collection of them. However, the photographs in this book are just photographs with dates — there is no accompanying text or even captions. I think at least short descriptions would have been helpful.
The quality of the publication is good, but there is a catastrophic lack of material. Most of the photographs are in landscape orientation, and therefore in the book they take up at most half a page. And for some reason the compiler was afraid to place photographs side by side. As a result, there is a huge number of pages only half-filled, and most spreads contain just one photograph. That means three-quarters of the spread is simply blank. So in reality, there’s about 30 pages’ worth of material with normal layout, but it’s artificially stretched to 148 pages.
However, the photo album itself is important, and I do not regret that this book is in my library. But the rating is a 3 — only out of respect for the events, because the book itself is rather weak in terms of presenting the material. For those unfamiliar with the history behind these photographs, the book will be of no help. And that’s a pity.
Moreover, it is doubly frustrating because, at the same time as the book, an online project of the same name — The Square of Changes — was released. It is available in four languages (Russian, Belarusian, English, and Polish). And the web version is much more well thought-out and of higher quality. It has a story, it tells that story, there are captions to the photographs. Had the authors of the book made it like this online project, the book would have been priceless. As it is — it turned out not very good.
My rating: 3/5
