Akhihiro Gaevsky-Khanada

An activist of the anarchist movement and a recipient of a special foundation award supporting gifted pupils and students.

In Belarus, ten activists were accused of organizing and participating in anarchist groups — “Revolutionary Action” (“Revoliutsiina Diia”) and “People’s Self-Defense” — and were tried for events that took place between 2016 and 2020. Akihiro was sentenced to 15 years and nine months in a high-security penal colony and fined 22,400 Belarusian rubles. He was added to the list of “terrorists.”

2020s

Reading time: 6 minutes

The final statement

‘A racketeer offering ‘protection’ depends on the very threat he claims to shield his victim from. States in their early stages of formation operate in much the same way. Without an enemy, there is no need for a ‘protector.’ And if no enemy exists, one can always be invented.‘

This theatrical and ‘Kafkaesque’ trial has left nothing but a profound sense of disappointment. It was conducted so poorly that even spectators were excluded. Such a performance would not be fit even for the Pukhovichy Palace of Culture. I believe the prosecutor can confirm that. Even Tsarist and Soviet show trials were public. But so be it—I will speak nonetheless.

They have fashioned us into an international criminal organization allegedly threatening no fewer than three states. For greater dramatic effect, they might as well have sentenced us to 75, 79, or 94 years by combining all the charges and adding treason, mercenarism, and sabotage of the harvest campaign to the indictment.

But let us turn to the classical theory of the state proposed by sociologist Charles Tilly in order to understand the nature of the Leviathan.

In the era of early states, armed men—for example, the Varangians—would raid settlements, plunder them, and flee with their spoils. Over time, however, these raiders began to settle the territories they once attacked. Their expropriation became localized, transformed into tribute. The victims, in turn, at least knew how much they would be robbed of, and when it would happen again.

Princes were then compelled to protect their subjects from attacks by other bandits. The robber became a protector, collecting tribute in order to wage war. A racketeer offering ‘protection’ depends on the very threat from which he claims to shield his victim. States in their early stages of formation operate in much the same way. Without an enemy, there is no need for a ‘protector.’ And if no enemy exists, one can always be invented.

The invention of firearms profoundly changed states. With them, even peasants could defeat elite groups of knights. States began relying on mercenaries, paid through taxation. The legitimacy of violence became blurred, as former soldiers often became brigands, while yesterday’s pirate might enter royal service.

But mercenary armies strained state budgets, driving countries into debt. As a result, rulers began mobilizing their own populations—not through payment, but through morality. People were persuaded that they were dying for themselves and for their land. That moral justification could be religious or secular, whether nationalism or democracy. In return for loyalty, the state granted people a degree of participation in governance.

Yet at times, states return to their origins. They ignite conflicts to prove their own necessity, resorting to plunder in order to wage war against both external and internal enemies.

And so we are confronted with a ‘hybrid war’ against the ‘collective West’ and the ‘fugitive’ opposition, with ‘unprecedented’ pressure from the ‘Anglo-Saxons.’ By this logic, the Russian Federation invades Ukraine and abolishes rights and freedoms in the name of an illusory spirituality; by similar reasoning, the Republic of Belarus seizes companies such as Kommunarka and Motovelo, or imposes a tax on the ‘socially dependent.’

For two years, I have witnessed state-sponsored racketeering on different scales. For two years, I have watched the repressive apparatus grind people down. The unconstitutional retention of power, the total suppression of dissent, the impoverishment of the people, and support for a senseless war—how is this not organized crime wrapped in the shell of a state?

I sincerely regret only one thing: that I did not do everything in my power to oppose the fascist gang that has built a country where ‘sometimes there is no time for laws.’ To stand against them today is to be an anti-fascist. To stand against such states is to be an anarchist.

To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau, the only place fitting for an honest citizen in a state where lawlessness is legalized and protected is prison.

I would like to thank those sitting beside me on the defendants’ bench, especially those who began this journey in 2020. I believe that you will endure the trials ahead with dignity.

I would also like to express my respect for Edward Snowden, whose mention in my essay has been presented as evidence of my guilt. He demonstrated that conscience can be stronger than circumstance, and that human rights are more important than ‘national’ interests. Apparently, we need our own Snowden as well.

And finally, my sincere human gratitude goes to the lawyers who are not afraid and who do not give up.

The best times are still ahead.

¡No pasarán! Long live Belarus! Slava Ukraini!

Minsk City Court, Minsk, Belarus.

September 6, 2022

Source: ‘Viasna’ (‘Spring’)

More information: ‘Viasna’

Photo: ‘Viasna’