1. Struggle for discourse: Belarusian authors as the voice of New Belarus (outside); pro-government writers competing with "the runaways" and "the independents" (inside).
2. Continuation of the physical and symbolic cleansing of the litetary process (inside).
3. Parallelization and synchronization of book activities (internally and externally).
4. The dawn of the age of consumption of Belarusian literature.

What would be an appropriate New Year's Eve metaphor to choose to kick off this time? Raising the vine. Oh yeah, that's that. When gas workers and electricians with a new power transmission line or the owners decide to install sewage in the country yard or summer house, where grapes have been grown for decades, the approach to the house is often blocked by well-rooted vines. And then you need to destroy the support and throw the vine aside so that the bulldozer can pass. Sometimes — to put grapes on the ground for a year, or even two. But when everything is finished and another spring comes, the owners go out into the yard and put new supports, raise vines. Already in the summer, it comes to life, blooms and bears fruit like nothing.

Today, the Belarusian book business is in a whirlwind of repression, but it still seems like a vine that has been removed from its support, which gives new shoots as soon as conditions are created for it.

The process of moving the social community out of Belarus continues, and literary figures are inevitably affected by it — despite the phobia of losing home, which we diagnosed in the creative bohemia in previous reviews. This is happening against the background of incessant intimidation of the population in Belarus. The circle of persons summoned for interviews by the special services has expanded, mainly for money transfers to victims of repression, and the creative elite is gradually deprived of the opportunity to work according to their speciality. Searches, arrests and high-profile court cases are taking place one after another: the initiators clearly hope for publicity in order to exert psychological pressure on a wide audience. Yes, the episode that Andrej Horvat published on social networks in March 2023 was remarkable. On his way from Belarus to Lithuania, he was brutally detained and interrogated, but as a result was released from the country. One can assume, with the expectation of the resonance that this case will receive. Now a popular author and local historian is abroad.

Another impressive case for the community was the arrest in early March of the publisher Zmicier Kołas, who spent 10 days in the KGB pre-trial detention centre and was released without charges. His employee, printer Aleh Syčoŭ, remains behind bars as of the end of April 2023. The incident, against the background of which these arrests took place, is connected with the sabotage at the Mačuliščy airfield in the context of Russia's aggression in Ukraine. As a result, checks at the borders have increased, close attention is paid to printed publications in passengers' luggage.

At the end of April, it became known about the termination of the publishing license of Zmicier Kołas, but it seems that this was not connected with his previous imprisonment. The reason for the verdict was recognition of one of the publications of this publisher as extremist. "Zmicier Kołas" is the eighth publishing house that has ceased to exist in Belarus for one reason or another since 2020.

Thus, the most uncomfortable (although relatively safe) conditions for cultural activities have been created inside the country. This only increases the confidence and determination with which cultural workers raise the BelLit vine on the other side of the barbed wire, behind the Buh.

The project "Litradio: media about contemporary Belarusian literature" (previously existed in Belarus under the umbrella of the Belarusian PEN) was transferred to new conditions "from the past life". Like virtually all revived initiatives, Pavieł Ancipaŭ's portal has undergone an upgrade. The updated portal is designed to contain literary works, criticism and podcasts about literature, combining text and audio formats. It is actively being filled, and, like our other literary resources, it does not divide Belarusian authors into Belarusian and Russian-speaking, which once again testifies to the value of such an approach for the literary environment of New Belarus, and also tries to expand the optics from which Belarusians themselves look at the literary process due to outsiders: to begin with, the Ukrainian Russian-speaking critic Yuri Volodarsky, who now lives in Israel, reads iconic prose works in Belarusian and writes texts about them. Brief feedback: I wish that such outsider perspectives - and not only from the Russian-speaking world - would appear on the portal more often.

Another iconic portal for Belarusian culture — Makeout — was activated during the relocation in February under the label "DasHip: media about gender and sexuality in the context of Belarus" (project facilitator - Nik Ancipaŭ). The goal is to give a voice to the LGBTQ+ community in Belarus and beyond. It is noteworthy that at the same time online master classes of creative gender and queer writing are taking place, which, undoubtedly, is changing the domestic literary field for the better. In this context, regrettably belatedly, it is worth mentioning the online compilation "The Stretch", which appeared in late 2022 and was undeservedly ignored in our reviews. The collection is the result of the fem-writing laboratory organized by the educational queer-femme sisterhood "Tender for Gender" (facilitator and facilitators of the project: Darja Trajden, Hanna Otčyk, Jula Čarnyšova, Tania Zamiroŭskaja, Jula Arciomava, Toni Ładšen).

In the context of the relocation of the Belarusian publishing industry, the "Januškievič" publishing house continues to release popular literature in Belarusian on a large scale, having also established a convenient distribution through allegro.pl, which has long been a dream of Belarusians abroad. In addition, Andrej Januškievič announced at the end of April about the purchase of rights to a number of Stephen King's works. Taking into account the fact that the American writer publicly stopped cooperation with publishing houses of Russia and Belarus a year before as a sign of protest against Russia's aggression in Ukraine, this news has not only a narrow cultural, but also a wider, political and diplomatic significance. In the spring of 2023, it can be said that the publishing house "Januškievič" has restored 90% of the capacity it had before its closure in Belarus — in the spring of 2022.

So far, the only significant gap in the regrowth of the vine of the literary process is the disappearance from the agenda of independent literary prizes: named after Ciotka, Šerman, Aniempadystaŭ, Arsieńnieva. Hopefully, their resurrection is a matter of time.

But let's go back to our Blue-eyed country. Insiders give signals about the crisis of the state structures of literature. In order to keep resources in their hands, officials need to fill the pages of newspapers, magazines, and books with more or less decent texts, and during planned events in museums and libraries, the number of which should also be regulated, show the public not entirely disgraceful living authors. However, the repressive apparatus carries out extremely strict censorship, using anonymous denunciations, raids by propagandists, espionage in social networks and other kinds of such kung fu. Unspoken blacklists actually spread to the entire creative community within Belarus, regardless of the language and aesthetics of creativity. Authors today need very, very little to become non grata for the state. At the same time, the unimaginable rise of informal culture in the previous years greatly raised the bar even for the Ministry of Information and Culture and their motley projects, increasing the reader's sensitivity to trash. Pro-authority writers have to compete and try to look dignified — and this is also, rather, not their internal need, but an order from above. The regime seems to have forgotten that one of the main reasons for the 2020 revolution was aesthetic: the population was overfed with officialdom, tastelessness and kitsch.

Thus, a request has been created for it to be beautiful, noble, high-quality, but for the author not to post anything anywhere, not to assign it to anyone and — mission impossible — not to sign up for the "wrong" candidate in 2020. As a result, the Bahdanovič Museum actually turned into the author's playground of its employee Michał Baranoŭski. And it would even be comical if it weren't so depressing. The potential of the creative field of the Republic of Belarus tends to zero and strongly depends on the loyalty to the system of individual "uninitiated" creators, on whether they will be tempted by meager fees in exchange for the loss of reputation. (For example, the shaming in social networks of the poet Rahnied Małachoŭski for the patriotic poem "I'm proud", published by him at the end of March in the newspaper "Literature and Art" became notable).

The responsibility for access to the press of "extremist elements" obviously rests with the officials from literature, therefore no one tries to take these positions. There are signals about the shortage of staff at the state literary feeding station. It seems that officials have put up a new solid support for grapes, but they cut off any "unreliable" sprouts — even those that don't mind reaching for it. Such a selection looks both funny and boring. An open question: will there be an unspoken amnesty within the system for further peaceful budget cuts, or will the authors, who today are published at the expense of the state, begin to be used for image purposes — to blackmail them with the privileges given to them and force them to publicly swear an oath to the regime?

Independent from the pro-government feeding trough, the majority tends to look for manifestations of the good old red-green trash in everything that is done today by state officials from literature. For example, in February, the outrageous Minsk writer Nata Alejnikava, who read poems about love in pink dresses during scheduled events on February 23, was subjected to virtual bullying. But, as it seems to us, a marginal phenomenon is wrongly presented as the mainstream. One cannot fail to notice the exceptionally high-quality content produced by the modest state-owned vertagraders under the threat of non-renewal of contracts, in the conditions of "banning everything", one cannot fail to appreciate partisan schemes for joining the culture of people who need it today more than ever, to develop national humanitarian science and education in the shadow of the "Russian world". There will be no examples, of course.

On February 10-12, another poetry festival named after Michaś Stralcoŭ "Poems on Asphalt" was held in Vilnius: it was organized by the International Union of Belarusian Writers in cooperation with the Writers' Union of Lithuania. It seemed important that the format familiar to fans of Belarusian poetry, known from Minsk venues, was repeated in the conditions of relocation. True, there was less punk, as usual, and more sentiments and empathy. Because this year, in addition to other missions, "Stralfest" served as an opportunity to meet authors from Belarus and those who cannot come to their homeland. Jur Paciupa became the laureate of the festival. The presentation of the anthology "Baltai — Raudona — Baltai" published in 2022 as an act of solidarity of Lithuanian poets and translators with Belarusian colleagues also marked an important point of cultural cooperation between Lithuania and Belarus within the framework of the festival. Contributors of the anthology are poets and translators Marus Burokas and Vytautas Dekshnis.

On March 22-26, the XXX International Book Fair-Exhibition took place in Minsk, which can be considered as the first result of the tenure of Aleś Karlukievič, who was elected (appointed?) chairman of the pro-government Union of Writers of Belarus in early 2022. And this result is interesting, first of all, because it exists in general — in contrast to the era of Mikałaj Čarhiniec, which was distinguished only by the odious escapades of the writer-general. Thus, in the publishing house "Zviazda" in partnership with the Russian publishing house "OGI", at least two thick tomes were published: "Modern Russian Prose" (960 pages, contributor - Sergey Shargunov, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Yunost", Russian literary official under Western sanctions) and "Modern Russian poetry" (704 pages, contributor – Maxim Amelin). Two thick bilingual books from the series "Literature of the CIS countries" published "with the support of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Communication of the Russian Federation", which could be browsed at the Russian stand, contained a section of non-oppositional modern Russian literature (From A to Z, from Aksyonov to Yakhina), with the Belarusian version of the text. This means that people worked — translators, editors; and budgets were absorbed. For the first time since 2004, the pro-government literary holding has demonstrated its ability to participate in collective projects and distribute money for the benefit of its followers.

In 2023, joint projects with Russians are perceived by readers extremely negatively, because in this way Belarusian authors are integrated into the apparatus of Russian propaganda. But if similar activities had started earlier, by 2020, we would probably have a completely different literary landscape than today, when everything alive and relevant in modern literature (festivals, awards, schools of young writers) was institutionalized in Belarus through the Belarusian PEN or the independent Union of Writers.

The presentation of the anthologies became an occasion for unknown heroes to display the Russian stand on a huge screen and broadcast the phrase "Rossiyan literature" to the entire exhibition. For using the word "Rossiyan" instead of "Russian" in a state university today, you can get a scolding from a pro-government "yabatska"-teacher, but, as we can see, it's permitted to Jupiter.

The mysterious disappearance of the bust of Łarysa Hienijuš on March 30 after the denunciation of the pro-Russian Hrodna propagandist Olga Bondareva is another notable case of the season. Walking monuments are an important topos of European literature, but in Belarus this phantasmagoria took place in reality. Working version: the bust was hidden by local residents so as not to irritate the propaganda, which looks like another act of Belarusian cultural partisan struggle.
On April 27-30, one of the most important book fairs for Europe was held in Leipzig, with the wide participation of Belarusian writers. The stand of the publishing initiative "Pflaŭmbaŭm" was open, presentations of German-language translations of the books "What are you going for, wolf?" by Jeva Viežnaviec, Alhierd Bacharevič, Jula Cimafiejeva, Saša Filipienka, Volha Hapiejeva, Maksim Znak, meetings with publishers and writers Alena Kazłova, Sviatłana Aleksijevič, Dźmitryj Strocaŭ and Zmicier Višnioŭ.

Among other notable international events where Belarusian literature was heard, it is worth mentioning the International Writer's Week in Adelaide on March 4-9, where the Belarus Free Theater performed a play based on Alhierd Bacharevič's "Dogs of Europe" with the author's participation. The Australian meeting with Bacharevič was accompanied by the label A Writer in Exile. One can argue how much the Belarusian topic is interesting to the world establishment today, but there is something else. In the context of war and geopolitical changes in the region, there is also a symbolic struggle between Ukrainian and Russian intellectuals for discourse and visibility in the world. This is expressed, for example, in the disagreement of Ukrainian writers to perform where Russians were invited. Or in the revision of the world cultural canon on the subject of its "derussification".

Against this background, one may get the impression that Belarusians are inaudible and invisible, but this is hardly the case. The Belarusian problem is, first of all, life in an unfree country, under conditions of growing repression, gross violations of basic rights and freedoms, imprisonment of journalists and writers in the presence of a strong civil society, and it only partially overlaps with the problems of Russian society and is not at all relevant to the Ukrainian situation. The countries in the context of which the world better understands Belarus and Belarusian specifics are Myanmar, Iran, China, Turkey and other states where despotism faces real public resistance. The global focus on our local problems, which is precisely achieved by the international cooperation of writers, helps us to see ourselves more adequately and to look for real working solutions for the crisis that Belarus is experiencing here and now.

It is also important to mention those literary events that took place, reinterpreting Valancin Akudovič, "without us". This is, for example, the International Children's Book Fair in Bologna on March 4-9, at which the Lviv "Vydavnytstvo starogo Leva" was recognized as the best in Europe. Ideas for the future?

At the end, another mantra about the indivisibility of the domestic literary process by borders with concrete examples. It seems that for the first time within the limits of the "new literary situation", pro-government and independent publications are not divided according to aesthetic and artistic currents (well, just a little bit). It is interesting to compare the relocated project of Siarhiej Kalenda "Minkult" (in March 2023, the 6th issue dedicated to the concept of emigration was published in Vilnius; the source of financing is crowdfunding) and the collection of young novelists "Shadow of the Star", which was published in parallel in Belarus (financed by Ministry of the Republic of Belarus, contributor — Julija Alejčanka). Andrej Dzičenka, a young left-wing avant-garde artist, wrote his prose in both. He was presented in "Minkult" with a spiky non-fiction in Russian, in a pro-government collection - with an equally spiky, but adjusted to the social realist "comb" of "young talent" Belarusian-language text. We are far from shaming one of the young authors who was published inside, and praising "Kalenda's community". There are strong and weak texts in both camps. We simply have to state that due to the political background today, the significance of the institutional division has increased. Independent literature is financed by patrons, the community or grants that go through the new Belarusian institutions (the Belarusian Council for Culture), which today causes more sympathy and trust. State literature with budget financing, even if it presents an attractive product to the reader — beautifully, in Belarusian, is perceived by this reader as a propaganda tool of the regime.

At the end of April, two long-awaited books of poetry were published: "Near" by Nasta Kudasava with graphics by Sviatłana Dziemidovič and "Almond Body" by Hanna Šakiel from the "Vilma" publishing initiative. Both books, in addition to their exceptional content, are a manifestation of the latest trends in Belarusian book publishing. It is quite difficult to immediately say in which country each book was published: both are perceived as an organic act of Belarusian literature. The women's publishing initiative "Pflaŭmbaŭm" positions itself in a similar way: it does not mean relocation and does not declare staying here. Authors' books are published here and there and read everywhere.

"Russian world" and its rhetoric are organically alien to Belarus and Belarusians, this is manifested even in the context when it is necessary to demonstrate fraternal friendship and loyalty to "great Russia". The obnoxiousness of individual propagandists today is meant to overshadow the profound (and completely, by the way, rational) desire of Belarusians for independence. Like 200 years ago, Russian culture in Belarus is an instrument of violence and pressure. Opposing this — secretly in the country and openly outside its borders — is a task that today, among other things, unites the cultural community.

Turbulences of the Belarusian literary process of the last 40 years — splits, transformations, unification in aesthetic movements, etc. — always preceded social changes and were their harbingers. If we take this as an axiom, then, according to observations in the field of literature and book culture, the consolidation of Belarusians around the topic of Belarusianness (whatever one puts into this concept), regardless of borders, is inevitable. And it will manifest itself, as 2020 showed, through trade union solidarity as well.

In current conditions, the symbolic significance of such professions as a publisher, a bookseller, a librarian, a museum curator, an archivist, a literary educator, a literary historian, a literary agent, has grown both internally and externally. To some extent, even the prestige of these specialities today overshadows the vocation of a poet, a writer. For the first time in the history of Belarusian literature, we can state a transition from juggling symbols to creating and expanding a product.