The controversial "Matskevich's game" for Belarusian politicians and activists has started in Poland

Uladzimir Matskevich. Photo from his Facebook

An organizational-activity game, initiated by methodologist Uladzimir Matskevich, has started in Krakow. The organizers present it as a space where "all political forces of Belarus are present to one degree or another."

This is a week-long intensive where participants with different positions are supposed to develop new approaches to political and social problems through conflict and collective thinking. It is believed that solutions are born precisely through the clash of positions. In practice, however, the results of such games remain, to put it mildly, non-obvious.

The organizers did not disclose the list of participants. The statement about "all political forces" sounds loud, but it is currently impossible to verify it: there is no open list, nor is there an understanding of who plays what role.

It is known that former political prisoner and blogger Mikola Dzyadok, Natallia Kaliehava, head of the "Dapamoga" organization and "Zamak" shelter for Belarusian political emigrants, and representatives of "Cyberpartisans" are participating in the game. The participation of Viktar Babaryka and a representative of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's office was also announced, but there is no confirmation of this yet. In total, there are more than 70 people.

Matskevich's Games

Matskevich's large-scale organizational-activity games are not a new practice. But their effectiveness has remained questionable for years.

Matskevich has been involved in games since the late 1980s. Uladzimir Matskevich conducted his last large-scale game in 2013. The project was international: it was supported by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Germany and Poland, and the Bertelsmann Foundation acted as an investor within the framework of the Transformation Thinkers program. Not only Belarusians participated, but also representatives from Syria, Argentina, Chile, Egypt, as well as European experts.

The idea seemed ambitious — to work out transformation scenarios for countries where there are no ready-made models. But in practice, the game did not even lead to a basic result.

Matskevich himself admits: "in some sense, it failed." They did not even manage to prepare a joint final document. Part of the scenarios that were discussed during the process — including possible crises in Ukraine — were simply not taken seriously by the participants.

After this, the large "games" effectively stopped.

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