Mikoła Dziadok told how a criminal cellmate made him Belarusian-speaking

Blogger and one of the leaders of the anarchist movement Mikoła Dziadok was arrested on November 11, 2020. He was sentenced to five years in a penal colony. Before the end of his term, on April 4, 2025, he was transferred to Pre-trial Detention Center No. 1 within the framework of a new criminal case under Article 411 — for "malicious disobedience to the demands of the colony administration." However, on September 11 of the same year, he was released along with 51 other political prisoners as part of a deal with the Americans and was immediately forcibly deported to Lithuania.

Mikoła recalls that he spent the last almost six months in Kaliadzichy with "an old man from a small town."

"A drunkard, but normal," Dziadok notes and explains that he was usually put with people with whom, in the opinion of the administration, he would not be able to create some "revolutionary cell" in the cell. Therefore, they placed him with a man who, while drunk, cut his drinking companion. Dziadok was considered a "recidivist," so his neighbors were appropriate — meaning the old man also had previous convictions.

"[He] was coming down [from intoxication]. Gradually recovering. But as a person, he was conscious, not bad. That is, not degraded. He even read books sometimes. He worked as an electrician in his town," the blogger continues.

Dziadok recalls that there was a TV in the cell, so conversations often touched on politics. However, as the blogger assures, he didn't need to agitate his cellmate:

"He just talked to me for a day, a second, a third, and heard what I was imprisoned for. In Belarus, many people still don't understand that you can be jailed for a Telegram channel, for a like, for a comment. For him, it was a shock that people like me are in prison."

As the blogger claims, they "lived well, there was understanding."

"And suddenly, out of nowhere, in the morning he was smoking in the toilet and said this phrase to me: 'Speak Belarusian with me.' I was like: 'Okay.' I don't need to be told twice. And from that moment, I started. He also tried to reply in Belarusian, but nothing came of it," the blogger recounts.

According to Dziadok, for the last two weeks before his release, he spoke Belarusian with his cellmate. Mikoła recalls that he offered the man to switch to Belarusian only for half a day at first, to "learn slowly." However, he disagreed and stated:

"No, let's do the whole day. I want to listen to the Belarusian language."

The blogger believes that at that moment, perhaps, the man's Belarusian identity suddenly awakened.

Later, recalling the day of his release, Dziadok told about an unexpected meeting at the KGB:

"Then came the day of my release. (...) They bring me to the KGB, lead me into the so-called 'glass' — it's a cell shaped like a coffin. (...) I was standing facing the wall. They bring in a person. (...) I turn around, and in front of me is Zmitser Dashkevich. We hugged. And I understood that it was a sign."

As Dziadok claims, already the day after his release, while in Vilnius, he began giving interviews, talking to journalists, and commenting on events. At that time, according to him, he made a final decision for himself:

"And I just told myself: 'I have no reason to return to the Russian language'."

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