Verses of freedom. Poetry of prison and exile

The book "Poems for Freedom" is a powerful collection of Belarusian poetic texts written in captivity, exile, camps, and while awaiting rehabilitation. From 19th-century Philomaths to Stalin's camps, all these works are united by an unbreakable will, longing for the homeland, and inner freedom. The reader will find here poems by Adam Mickiewicz, Jan Czeczot, Larysa Hienijus, Vasil Suprun, and other authors who endured severe trials and preserved a voice worth hearing. This is not just literature – it is the testimony and pain of a people tormented but not broken.
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The book "Poems for Freedom" has collected poetic works written in conditions of imprisonment, hard labor, camps, exile, awaiting rehabilitation and review of a criminal case. Chronologically, the texts cover an almost 150-year period of an uninterrupted tradition and forced development of Belarusian prison poetry: from the Philomathic 1820s, when Adam Mickiewicz and Jan Czeczot were imprisoned in Vilnius, up to the camp lyrics of Vasil Suprun and Larysa Hienijus, condemned shortly after the end of World War II. The poems included in the book reflect the emotional state of political prisoner poets, their dreams and expectations, life principles, but most importantly – the inner freedom that was very often lacking in those writers who were on the other side of the barred window.