The demonstration in Minsk, occasioned to the Freedom Day celebrated on 25 March, was dispersed so fiercely as if the number of those beaten and detained people could affect positively the well-being of the whole state. 25 March commemorates the attempt of creating the Byelorussian People’s Republic which was proclaimed 25 March 1918 and was destroyed by bolshevists ten months after.     

The beating was done to be modeling: injured were women, teens, and the aged people. Those who tried to get to the forbidden meeting site by public transportation were lucky to escape the brutality: the buses just took them without stopping to the allowed place for meeting that was near the building of the Academy of Sciences. There were about four thousand people who began the meeting there. After half an hour the police forces came and threatened to use the special means in case the gathered did not agree to dissolve (from the allowed by authorities place).     

As Byelorussians still cannot fly, the only way of leaving the ground near the Academy of Sciences was through the Boulevard of Independence. There the police forces managed to divide the column into several groups and to oust it from the boulevard. After that no one else was detained, as the police stations were overcrowded. The detainees’ relatives were informed their people wouldn’t be released till the court day.   

In his time, Alexander Kozulin got behind bars for five and half years also for participation in the demonstration of 25 March. Obviously, the date itself seems to be an annoyance for the authorities as it reminds them that people may have their own will sometimes.