ZEKAMERONE

On 5 February 2023, the Gorki hosted a book presentation of Zekamerone, announcing it with »Maxim Znak, a brilliant lawyer and prominent member of the Belarusian opposition, was arrested in autumn 2020 and sentenced to ten years in prison in September 2021. In his Zekamerone (from »zek«, the Russian acronym for prisoner), written in the first year of his imprisonment, he recounts his new daily routine in a way that’s pithy, ironic and surprisingly funny. His stories bear witness to resistance and self-empowerment, to the processes, both quiet and loud, of going mad.« Since mid-December 2025, Maxim Znak and Maria Kalesnikava, in addition to other prominent members of the opposition, are now free and, together with writer Herta Müller and Tatsiana Khomich, Belarusian Coordination Council Representative for Political Prisoners, speak for themselves about the situation in Belarus and read from Zekamerone.

Supported by the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) and the German Society for East European Studies (DGO).