Not safe at home

Graz as a temporary home for artists from Belarus

Author Hanna Yankuta and translator Ihar Krebs

(Bild: Christoph Hartner)

Author Hanna Yankuta has not been able to live safely in her native Belarus for years. That is why she and her partner Ihar Krebs are nomadic, moving from one place of exile to the next - they are currently in Graz, for example, and told the "Krone" about their lives.

"Everything changed from one day to the next," recalls Hanna Yankuta on the day in 2021 when she realized that she would no longer be able to return to her Belarusian homeland. The author was in Warsaw for a reading when it was announced that all NGOs, including the writers' association PEN, in which Yanuta was involved, had been banned following the brutally ended protests against the system of authoritarian head of state Alexander Lukashenko. "I immediately realized that this meant I was no longer safe in Belarus," she says.

"Since then, we've been living as nomads, playing puzzles with our existence," says her partner Ihar Krebs, who works as a translator. They move from invitation to invitation, living a few months here, a few months there - they are currently in Graz at the invitation of Kulturvermittlung Steiermark as "artists in exile". "I still go home every now and then because I don't want to lose faith in the Belarusians. The people are good, the system is bad," he says. "There are many sensible people, they meet underground."

Author Hanna Yankuta and translator Ihar Krebs

(Bild: Christoph Hartner)

For Hanna Yakuta, exile has also changed everything in her work: "Until 2020, I mainly wrote children's books, but I can't do that anymore." Instead, she writes very political texts - including a book of poetry in which she deals with the Belarusian constitution: "My poems are commentaries on the articles of the constitution - and are intended to show how hollow their meaning is under Lukashenko."

Ihar Krebs' work also reflects the situation in Belarus, which has only worsened since the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. He recently translated the main works of Theodor Herzl into Belarusian: "Although the texts are historical, they also have a lot to say about the present. It's about the hope of having a new state, of experiencing a peaceful homeland. That also appeals to many Belarusians," he says.

And so Yakuta and Ihar also hope that their time of forced nomadism will one day be over and they can return home: "If Russia loses the war in Ukraine, that would also be a new hope for our country," says Yakuta. "Until then, like so many Belarusians currently living in exile, we will maintain the culture and language of our country and work on a new Belarus." Because if they have learned one thing: "Everything can change from one day to the next."