There are several thousand posts on Russian speaking Instagram tagged #будущийзащитник (youngsoldier). Those are pictures of kids of different ages often dressed up as soldiers, from amateur snapshots to those made professionally. Some of the kids are just 2-3 years old. Right now Belarus is fighting its totalitarian regime. After peaceful mass protests that took place after the latest presidential election, which were brutally suppressed by the police and special forces, hundreds of the protesters that were detained reported that they were tortured, humiliated, and severely beaten. Despite multiple cases of unprecedented and unmotivated violence have been documented and made public, the government refuses to admit any of it. When working with this contemporary on-line archive I try to understand if the violence we see today has its roots in childhood. And who is to blame then: parents that give their child a machine gun to pose for a picture or the social media, that encouraged them to post those pictures, to get likes and approval. Since the police are recruiting our citizens, not someone from abroad, I want to find out what is there in our society that makes some of us be capable of such cruelty. 


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