GRODNO, Belarus — The streets of Belarus are quiet now, a year after President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko brutally crushed a wave of mass protests; billboards and tidy landscaping proclaiming 2021 the “Year of National Unity” are ubiquitous.

But despite public assertions of unity and a campaign of arbitrary arrests and government terror, thousands of activists are working clandestinely to spread dissent and undermine the government.

“Our goal is to keep the regime on its toes,” said Maksim, who declined to give his last name for fear of arrest.

Despite the harsh and often arbitrary repression meted out by security agencies, thousands of people are organizing anonymously to register their anger. Maksim’s group, which he says consists of up to 100 people, is just one of many that have sprung up in cities and towns across the country.

Mr. Lukashenko cracked down on the opposition that arose last year after a disputed election. Now, with the world’s attention focused on Afghanistan, it may appear that he has things under control. But under the surface, opposition activists are working assiduously to keep the revolt alive, and they firmly believe it is only a matter of time before the strongman loses his grip.

On Aug. 9, for instance, a dozen Belarusian activists draped themselves in flags of white and red — the colors associated with the opposition and virtually banned in Belarus from display in any form — and staged a protest in a secluded pine forest under cover of darkness. No one could see them, but they shared pictures of their action online.

If caught, Maksim and his band of “partisans,” as they call themselves in a nod to World War II-era antifascist guerrillas, could face years in prison. In contemporary Belarus, under Mr. Lukashenko’s increasingly isolated and authoritarian rule, many have been jailed for far less.

A man in Minsk was sentenced to 12 days in prison over his young son’s drawing of the sun in a blue sky that had been hanging in a window for four years. Another man in Brest was jailed for a month for writing a line from the Lord’s Prayer on a building. A man was jailed for 15 days because he left the red and white box a TV came in on his balcony.

Many people are finding ingenious ways to make their presence felt. Tech-savvy activists developed Krama, an app that facilitates boycotts by allowing people to scan the bar codes of goods in stores to see if they are connected with Mr. Lukashenko or his acolytes. It also flags restaurants and other establishments linked to the government.

Understand the Situation in Belarus

• • Belarus in the spotlight. The forced landing of a commercial flight on Sunday, is being seen by several countries as a state hijacking called for by its strongman president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko.
  • Election results and protest. It came less than a year after Belarusians were met with a violent police crackdown when they protested the results of an election that many Western governments derided as a sham.
  • Forced plane landing. The Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, was diverted to Minsk with the goal of detaining Roman Protasevich, a 26-year-old dissident journalist.
  • Who is Roman Protasevich? In a video released by the government, Mr. Protasevich confessed to taking part in organizing “mass unrest” last year, but friends say the confession was made under duress.

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