Dashkevich: It's not worth running into small trouble after wedding

As believers, Zmitser and Nasta Dashkevich think that it is the church wedding ceremony that sets a start for a new family, not the state legal formalities. The John the Baptist Church organized the whole wedding. The guests says all as one that it was a proper wedding - it was funny, easy and memorable.

Nasta Dashkevich: "I think we will celebrate two wedding anniversaries. December 26 was the day when we saw each other by miracle. We don't consider it to be our wedding day, but is is also a start of our family. The real holiday took place nearly 9 months after - on August 31. Our family has been created today, by real."

The wedding picture

As many have noticed, Zmitser Dashkevich preserved a fine sense of humour despite the great challenges in prisons during the last three years. He answers many questions ironically. He says the sense of humour saved him behind the bars as well, giving an example.

Zmitser Dashkevich: "Once a Deputy Head of that devilry colony in Mazyr called me to his office. They found a razor blade in the cell - prisoners usually cut their wrists by such devices. So, he says "Write an explanation note!". I say I won't. He repeats, "Come on, write it!". I say "Listen, I've just told you I won't write anything!".  He got furious, like, how dare you speak like this to administrative workers, you break all the codes! I say, "I thought we were buddies or probably had some tea together as you talk to me like this!". He was shocked as he knows that prisoners usually lick his boots as he is the one who can decide whether a person with a 10-years sentence will leave the prison after 5 years. So, sometimes it's good to joke, sometimes it's better to be serious, there can be different situations... "

Zmitser telling how he proposed to Nasta:

Young Front activist of different times

Zmitser Dashkevich confesses he feels absolutely different after the wedding and doesn't plan to run into trouble.

Zmitser Dashkevich: "On the one hand, I am not going to run into trouble... It was a quite different thing when I wasn't married - I could do anything any moment despite the preventive police control. Now it's a quite different responsibility - it's not worth it to get into trouble for some small things. Still, I am not going to sit quiet either."

Nasta's father Uladzimir Palazhanka also hopes that the newlyweds will calm down a bit. He survived two heart attacks while Nasta fought for her happiness... However, he denies that he will have two restless family members instead of one now.

With Nasta's father Uladzimir Palazhanka

Uladzimir Palazhanka: "I wouldn't say so... Yes, Nasta used to be a rather restless girl... However, they have entered an absolutely new life now. Of course I hope they will become more solid and pay more attention to each other than to the political activity."

It was an informal wedding party in open air

Nasta Dashkevich confesses that although it sounds barbarously but it really was the prison that united them and brought them towards creating a family.

Nasta Dashkevich: "I am convinced that everything that happens happens for the good. Probably, the last imprisonment helped both me and Zmitser to understand that we cannot live without each other. When we found ourselves in different cells we understood that something most important had been taken away from us. Although this evil system celebrated - the term of Zmitser's imprisonment was also a blessed term in its own way." 

The first wedding dance:

Zmitser will be under the preventive police control for the next 6 months - this means he should be at home since 8 p.m. till 6 a.m. and open the door at first the demand. He also cannot leave Minsk without the police's permit.