"If you write, then only on hot trails." Former political prisoner Ihar Karney released a book of prison memoirs
The human rights publishing house Sviedki is releasing a book by journalist, former "Svaboda" member Ihar Karney, "Incommunicado. Torture by Solitude," which he wrote in 2 months. Radio Svaboda spoke with the author.
In Belarusian realities, books about prisons are not something exclusive and unique. And after 2020, a peculiar "six handshakes theory" works in Belarus: people know about the punitive system not only from the victims themselves, but from relatives, friends, acquaintances, says Ihar Karney, the author of the new book "Incommunicado. Torture by Solitude."
The journalist was detained on July 17, 2023, and sentenced to 3 years in prison allegedly for cooperation with an extremist formation, then received another 11 months for "malicious disobedience to the colony administration." He served almost two years. In June 2025, he was expelled from Belarus. He first ended up in Lithuania, then moved to Portugal to his family.
"The idea for the book was in the air, I already realized in the pre-trial detention center that all this would have to be reflected. Perhaps someone had harsher and scarier trials, but there was neither the impetus nor the desire, and some lacked the skill and ability to describe it all. And I, being a journalist, was forced to write," Karney says.
"Of the papers, only the passport was left"
Ihar Karney recalls how in the summer of 2025, a month after his expulsion from behind bars, he came to Warsaw to first meet with his daughters, who live in Poland, and also with friends.
"Tatiana Niadbai, the head of Belarusian PEN, suggested that I not delay. But, unlike my colleague Aleh Hruzdzilovich, who published individual parts on the Radio Svaboda website and then released these memoirs as a book, I didn't have such a luxury — to write in pieces, I had to write the book at once. I came to the conclusion: if you write, then only on hot trails, while everything is in vivid colors. Otherwise, all impressions will dissolve, dissipate, scatter, and collecting it all anew from fragments will no longer have enthusiasm, strength, memory, or impetus. It's an illusion that time passes and wounds heal," the journalist admits.
Ihar Karney was released from prison with nothing — not a single piece of paper, sheet, or letter was returned. How did he manage to write a book of more than 400 pages without notes, from memory, in such an incredibly short time — 2 months?
Illustrations for Ihar Karney's book were prepared by his wife, Ina
"In 2021-22, prisoners still had opportunities to send something from behind bars. When I was imprisoned in 2023, it was already unrealistic. Several times there were 'searches' in the colonies in Shklou and Mazyr, where I ended up after the second verdict. And everything I noted down and restored was confiscated there. And the 'control shot' — during the forced departure, or rather, cynical expulsion, the KGB officers took the rest in 'Americanka' — what remained, including personal letters from relatives... Of the papers, only the passport was left, which was also quickly declared invalid," Karney says.
"When I started writing the book, I didn't use the word 'incommunicado'"
The journalist didn't want to repeat himself, as books by former prisoners had already been published, and new people might also write. It was decided to focus specifically on isolation — on the incommunicado regime. Ihar admits that he didn't know this word before. He first heard it in a conversation with a lawyer and didn't immediately realize what it meant.
"Because sitting in a pre-trial detention center, there's no incommunicado yet: you are a suspect, you hope: maybe they'll release you. There were meetings with a lawyer, correspondence, parcels. It was still possible to exist — not to live, but to exist. Well, when the 'colonial' adventures began, the conditions there were an order of magnitude harsher, with restrictions on all fronts. When I started writing the book, I didn't use the word 'incommunicado,' it appeared at a later stage of editing. I had another version: the title 'Torture by Solitude' and the subtitle 'How Dissent is Beaten Out,'" the author of the book admits.
He believes that in his own case, perhaps, this is not entirely justified, because many people have been in a regime of total restriction not only with relatives, but generally with the outside world for more than one year. Ihar spent six months in solitary confinement in the Shklou colony (he only worked 4 days at the sawmill with Pavel Belavus), and all the rest of the time — in punitive solitary confinement (ShIZA) and cell-type premises (PKT). On the harsh regime in Mazyr, he was also in ShIZA, but there were 4-5 people there.
"When you are a 'yellow-tagger' with the status of 'extremist' and with professional record No. 10 — segregation occurs. As for 'white-taggers' (murderers, maniacs, rapists, robbers) — from the point of view of the penitentiary system, this is a normal public, but it's better not to interact with political prisoners, extremists, at all. And if possible, create unbearable conditions for them. Not everyone physically endures these abuses. When a person is thrown into ShIZA without reason, new violations are invented, then placed in PKT, set up again, and so on until the next criminal case under Article 411 — it turns out to be a 'vicious circle' from which one might not escape, even with a small initial term," says the former political prisoner.
In his opinion, people with yellow "extremist" tags are perceived as material for experiments. Neither health status, age, nor the reason why a person ended up behind bars is taken into account. Unceremonious attacks are used.
"Moreover, in some places, it's more concentrated. It seemed to me that specifically in the Shklou colony (this is confirmed by other inmates – Ahira Hayeuski-Khanada, Aliaksandr Yarashuk, Paval Seviarynets, whose place I briefly landed in) – all of them are convinced that there is a 'special task' – to pressure political prisoners. And the head of the Shklou colony is Karniyenka (his nickname is Karney, I heard how the guards mocked their boss). He created unbearable conditions for me and personally decided my fate. So the 'Karneys' didn't get along," admits former political prisoner Ihar Karney.
How not to go crazy
The book "Incommunicado. Torture by Solitude" is divided into 4 "stages": "Isolation," "Cell," "Voice," and "Support."
"I share my 'prison universities': how to endure these trials, how not to go crazy mentally, how to endure physically. Because when you don't see the sun, the sky, you are walled up in four walls without a window, you are constantly cold, malnourished — this affects not only your physical but also your mental state... I met people who simply went crazy, sitting in such conditions. Not everyone can morally adjust themselves, ignore external conditions, and try to focus on their inner world.
Perhaps sincere believers or people with meditation or psychological practices endure such conditions more easily — they just switch their minds," Ihar says.
An excerpt from the book: "Cynical jailers know that true violence is not in pain, not in handcuffs, not in screams. The most effective pressure is to force a prisoner to exist in a world where there is no one but himself. To listen to his own breath until he begins to doubt whether it's worth continuing. And in this concrete sack, where even the rustle of footsteps echoes, suddenly something unbelievable: a fly makes its way through a crack. At first, just irritation, an instinct — to push away, to destroy. But the hand freezes... And I feel almost childish joy: I'm not alone!"
Karney recalled how in Mogilev prison No. 4, while awaiting an appeal after a new sentence under Article 411, he came across Jack London's book "The Star Rover" — about a professor who is sentenced to life imprisonment and travels through time.
"If I had known about this work earlier, perhaps it would have been easier for me. It's about a condemned man, who is also in a 'straitjacket,' he was physically almost dying, but he would fly out of his body and seemingly travel through the universe. And indeed, if you manage not to self-torment, to distance yourself from this abuse, you have a better chance of remaining sane," the journalist says.
According to the former political prisoner, in places where there is certain segregation, people with yellow "extremist" tags are perceived as material for experiments. Neither health status, age, nor the reason why a person ended up behind bars is taken into account at all.
"Lest it seem that this was invented, generated by my sick intellect..."
The idea to supplement the book with the voices of other "inmates" was born during the work on it. In "Voice" — more than two dozen memoirs of former political prisoners: "Losik's Torture Chamber," "Charniauskaia's Communal Apartment," "Seviarynets' Cross," "Mazheika's Hygiene," "Klaskouskaya's Insects," "Semchanka's Choice," "Lutskina's Strike," Parkhimchyk's "Farm," "Labkovich's Themis."
"Lest it seem that this was invented, generated by my sick intellect (not artificial, but sick), so that the book wouldn't look subjective, the idea arose to include the impressions of several people who went through similar trials," he says.
Ihar was in the first batch of those pardoned and expelled from the country in June 2025. He had just started writing the book — in September, the second batch was released, which included many of his colleagues and friends with whom he had crossed paths in the zones in Shklou and Mazyr. Then there were other batches, and he added the stories of those released to the almost finished book.
"There were other forms of abuse: Yulia Charniauskaia's house arrest or IT specialist Viktar Parkhimchyk's 'chemistry' with assignment. And this is not easy at all when strangers are constantly with you, who have settled in to such an extent that even in Charniauskaia's refrigerator, the guards had their own shelf. Ms. Yulia even thought that if she had the health, she would go and serve her time. IT specialist Viktar Parkhimchyk, who was serving 'chemistry' with assignment, was assigned to work as a livestock breeder on a farm where he was supposed to assist cows in calving. The stories are different, and some envy, saying that, supposedly, on home 'chemistry' or house arrest, a person sleeps in their own bed. But it turned out that it's not all that simple," says Ihar Karney, the author of the book "Incommunicado. Torture by Solitude."