It’s better to regret what you did than regret what you didn’t do...
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Andrey Pauk was born in Naroulia in the Homyel Region of Belarus. His sister Tatsiana Pauk was born in 1983. His mother, Zinaida Budkouskaya, is a Belarusian from the Homyel Region, an accountant at the regional Customer Service Centre. His father, Vladimir Pauk, is a Russian from the Bryansk Oblast of the Russian Federation, an electrician. Naroulia, Andrey Pauk’s birthplace, lies on the Pripyat River. On the other side of the river lies the Polesie State Radioecological Reserve. In 1993 the family moved to the “radioactively clean” town of Aktsiabrski, 130 km north of Naroulia. The town’s historical name – Rudabyelka – later became the name of Andrey’s YouTube channel. In 2000 Andrey graduated from secondary school in Aktsiabrski, and in 2000–2003 he studied Furniture Design at the Homyel State Polytechnic College. In 2010 he graduated from a distance course in Bioecology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Belarusian State University. He is a rural activist, a blogger, and the creator of the satirical YouTube channels “Rudabyelskaya pakazukha” (“Rudabyelka Show”) and “Red Greenery” and the “Group about the absurdity and discomfort of town life” on social networks. After graduating from the Polytechnic School, he returned to Aktsiabrski. He worked as a machine operator in the local sawmill and then at the House of Youth Creativity; he was released for political reasons. He then opened his own photographic studio specialising in the needs of country people. The studio was forced to close down due to pressure by local officials, who were dissatisfied with Pauk’s criticism and public activities. In September 2017 he was fined for publicly requesting employment. In August 2018 he took the local Regional Office to court. It was later found that the verdict had been written before the trial even began. In March 2019 he was one of the suspects in a case according to Section 1 of Article 340 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus in the matter of a “knowingly false report of a bomb in the building of the Regional Office in Aktsiabrski”. This accusation was unsubstantiated and was finally withdrawn. He has also been charged with a number of incredibly absurd alleged crimes, such as of having supposedly killed his own wife and her lover. During the presidential elections of 2020, Andrey Pauk and his wife Volha acted as independent observers. Andrey was punished for this with 15 days of administrative detention. Then in August 2020 he and his wife and two children left Belarus for – as they thought – a brief stay abroad. Since September 2020 he has been living with his family in Lithuania, where he continues to record videoblogs criticises Belarusian officials. In Lithuania, he joined the opera singer Marharyta Lyauchuk to form another satirical YouTube channel is gaining ever greater popularity.
