The Adventures of Uncle Viti on the Valadarka

Belarusian, journalist for Radio Svaboda Aleh Gruzdzilovitch was born in Maladechna in 1958, graduated from school in Brest, studied journalism at the university in Minsk, where he worked for various media outlets until he was arrested in December 2021 for covering protests. He pleaded not guilty and was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. He served his sentence in the Minsk pre-trial detention center on Valadarski Street and in a colony near Mogilev. Aleh Gruzdzilovitch wrote and drew the poems and drawings about the prisoner Uncle Vitya that were included in this book in Valadarka for his grandchildren Eva, Sofia, Kastus, Alyavtsina and Anatol, but some of the letters from there did not reach the public due to censorship. I was lucky enough to be able to transmit "The Adventures of Uncle Viti" from the Mogilev pre-trial detention center. Later, all the author's letters and manuscripts were destroyed in the colony. The author prepared the text about Valadarka in Vilnius, where he has been living since September 2022.