Polish historian detained for taking photos of Lenin in Belarus

Minsk policemen and special services spent many hours interrogating art historian Krzysztof Tihan from Lublin.

He was released only after he had signed the document saying that he had photographed "a strategic object", namely, the electric tool factory. In reality, the historian photographed the monument to Lenin. Gazeta.pl has informed about it.

The incident occurred in Valhahradskaya Street. Krzysztof Tihan photographed the monument to Lenin installed there. The electric tool factory was in the background. A man in plain clothes approached him soon afterwards and told him to follow him. The historian was led to the factory. The man was interrogated by security guards and some strange people there. They were interested whether Polish special services visited the university Tihan worked at, whether Belarusian students studied there and whether the historian had contacts of one of the Polish secret services in his phone.

The historian was taken to the police several hours later. He was photographed and had to sign the document saying that he had photographed "a strategic object". Then the Pole was delivered back to the monument to Lenin. The officer who brought him there deleted some of the photos from his camera at parting.