"Belarusian science is a scorched wasteland where individuals try to create a normal world for people like you." Chekhovich debates with Pauliuchenka

"Fiodar Pauliuchenka and Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, the Reform.news team, released a speech in their talk show "Sasha, what are you talking about?" about 'researchers' who were dissatisfied with the Cyberpartisans' action.

If you don't watch the video but read its transcript, you can't shake the feeling that it's some kind of inverted two-headed Lukashenka. The text only lacks the word 'eggheads', which the experienced politician with 30 years of experience so loves. Just read these quotes — it's simply some kind of mockery of the entire scientific community:

—Here we have 'researchers', various kinds of *исследователи* (researchers), criticizing the Cyberpartisans. Do you know why? They accuse them of being fascists, dirty goats. Because the Cyberpartisans defaced the website of the National Library of Belarus. Which is headed by Hihin. Hihigin. Hihin. (...) And now the 'researchers' cannot get access to research. Lost access to important resources on the platform. 'Infuriated scientists begin to compare hackers to people who burn books'.

— And are 'scientists' some kind of people from the Belarusian Academy of Sciences?

— I don't know.

* * *

— It seems to me, you know, a certain trend has started. This isn't even Stockholm Syndrome anymore. This is something in the vein of: I'll bash my own brains out and then claim that the damaged part is creating something.

* * *

— You know, when I see such people, I want to say: go to hell. Just go to hell. If you have the conscience, and most importantly, the brain, to open your mouth and say that you are disrupting my ideal inner world. I've adapted so well to the dictatorship. I'm just standing on all fours and I'm comfortable. (...) It seems to me that we need to think about your cognitive abilities, discuss them, maybe get checked by a doctor. I have no other answer.

I understand that Pauliuchenka has never in his life used the Combined Electronic Catalog and other resources on the National Library's website, and perhaps imagines it to be like Onliner's catalog. But then, maybe it's not worth attacking those who know what it is?

Let me explain: The Combined Electronic Catalog of Belarusian libraries is a huge database with bibliographic information about all possible printed publications issued in Belarus, as well as their authors. This is not the kind of website whose closure creates inconvenience for lazy bookworms who can't get to the National Library to ask for a book.

Firstly, many researchers, like you, journalist Pauliuchenka, have been forced out of Belarus, but for some reason have not yet given up on 'writing Belarus' (I would phrase it this way, no less).

The Combined Catalog is a database that is critically necessary for researchers' work precisely in online format. It has no replacement, none at all. These are not Western catalog-databases that are linked to each other and whose data are duplicated or accumulated in some Wikidata. If our domestic catalog is gone — that's it, you won't find the necessary information about books and authors anywhere else.

Belarusian science is not a 'cozy world that has adapted to the dictatorship,' the disruption of which caused 'eggheads' to spew shit on Facebook. It is a scorched wasteland where individuals try to create a normal world for people like Pauliuchenka.

Everything that forms the basis of your Belarusian identity — Polotsk Sophia, the Cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, the first printer Francysk Skaryna, Slutsk sashes, the Old Belarusian language of the Statutes, Sarmatian and Vilnius Baroque, the history of uprisings, 'Letters from Under the Gallows,' ethnographic maps of the Belarusian tribe, the Constituent Charters of the BNR, Stalinist repressions — this list can go on endlessly. All of this is not intuitive knowledge that comes with mother's milk! All of this has been pulled from oblivion by scientists and laid as the foundation of the Belarusian nation. At the same time, the scientists themselves never lived lavishly; they are forced to do their inconspicuous work in poverty, and many have paid for it with their lives.

Every scientific study is an investigation, utilizing numerous sources and databases. It's easy for Pauliuchenka and Atroshchankau to mock some 'researcher'-fools (I can't help but think that such use of Belarusian diminutives in a Russian-speaking context is also a form of mockery borrowed from Lukashenka), who do not understand the essence of the regime and unfairly accuse the Cyberpartisans. Well, because some Catalog there has no significance for Pauliuchenka's own work. This is simply a demonstration of general indifference to the misfortunes of others: as long as it doesn't concern you personally — let there be a flood!

But not by the Catalog alone. There are many other state resources and databases where Pauliuchenka's and Atroshchankau's idols could post their little pictures for Freedom Day.

I would greatly enjoy seeing how journalists like Pauliuchenka and Atroshchankau would laugh if, after another Cyber-action, the Pravo.by website were shut down. What, not as fun as with the Catalog now?

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