For ‘Butter Week,’ Brest officials approve effigies to ‘social parasites,’ but not ‘corruption’ or ‘bureaucracy’

Maslenitsa—also known as “Butter Week” and “Crepe Week”—has just wrapped up in Eastern Europe. In the Belarusian city of Brest, locals partook in the traditional burning of effigies, but this year the local authorities weren't thrilled about everything fed to the flames. In fact, officials even prevented Vitaly Kazak, a local activist, from burning effigies labeled “corruption” and “bureaucracy.” 

Kazak says he built the two effigies himself. “Corruption” was designed to look like a pig wearing a crown with money stuffed into its pockets. For the “bureaucracy” effigy, Kazak pinned to the doll all the boilerplate responses he's received over the years from civil servants. 

Two weeks before the event, Kazak informed Brest's officials that he wished to burn his dolls at the city's Maslenitsa festival, but they told him that burning such dolls would be unacceptable. The activist brought “corruption” and “bureaucracy” anyway, but special forces officers intercepted him at the festival and escorted him to a police van. Kazak was soon released, but he didn't get his dolls back until the holiday was already over.

Plenty of other dolls did reach Brest's bonfire, however, including effigies to “social parasites,” “boozing,” “rowdiness,” “inflation,” “Spice,” “terrorists,” “disease,” “thieves,” and more.

In the end, they returned “corruption” and “bureaucracy” to Kazak, who plans to burn them in his own yard.