Under the blogging pretext

How the most famous Russian prison Internet diary changed the life of a convict, his wife and their colony

The acting head of correctional colony No. 3 in the Tambov region, Vladimir Torbov, calls the inhabitants of the correctional colony not a contingent, not clients, not convicts, and not even convicts, as required by the norms of “colonial” slang. He calls them, as an ordinary native speaker of the Russian language, - convicts. There are about 1,500 convicts in IK-3, and among them is the one thanks to whom the whole country now knows about the life of this ordinary Russian colony. He was convicted under the most popular “business” article 159, part 4 of the Criminal Code (“fraud on an especially large scale”), while still in the status of a person under investigation, he began to maintain the “Butyrka-blog”, which in the spring of 2010 won the international competition The Best of Blogs in the category "The best Russian-language blog according to readers." This summer, Butyrka Blog will be released as a separate book. For the first time, the name of the prison blogger will appear on the cover: Alexei Kozlov. On the eve of the book's release, a Newsweek correspondent met with the blogger in IK-3, recalled selected passages from the diary, and made sure the description was accurate.

Aleksey Kozlov was arrested two days before President Dmitry Medvedev uttered the historic phrase: “It is necessary that our law enforcement agencies and authorities stop terrifying business. Consider this signal given." As written in the blogger's biography, he quarreled with his business partner over the plant's shares. At the end of July 2008, representatives of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs took Kozlov straight from his office. He never returned home.

The Butyrka Blog begins with this detention - but without names, titles and any details. For almost a year, he was published on the Slon.ru business news and blogging portal - and was one of the portal's most popular diaries, because the story of "simple millionaire Alexander N.", as Alexey was called in his blog, was not some kind of exceptional. “One hundred and fifty-ninth, part four through thirtieth”, that is, fraud on an especially large scale plus an attempt to legalize criminal proceeds are the two most popular articles of the Criminal Code for middle-class businessmen. Those convicted under these articles are not even hundreds, but thousands. Kozlov would later meet a dozen entrepreneurs with a similar fate both in Butyrka itself and in the colony - and write down their stories similar to his. Knowing what might lie ahead is scary. But useful.

It is useful to understand that “on custom-made cases, the investigation goes on for about a year, then the investigator is replaced with a “butt”, and in a few days he makes a decision on the arrest”, after which “the investigator rolls his eyes up and says that this is not her decision.” It is useful to know that sooner or later a mediator will come to the relatives of a non-poor person under investigation, sitting in a pre-trial detention center, and voice a fee - one and a half million dollars for release from custody and then the same amount for closing the criminal case. It is useful to understand from someone else's experience that they will take the money, but the prisoner will most likely sit like that.

It is useful and important to know that living comforts in a cell can be obtained for money or cigarettes. Tariffs are fixed: a set of bed linen not torn to tatters is a pack of Kent cigarettes for a bath attendant (and it would be nice to address him as “you”). For a pack of Parliament, a convict from the housekeeping service will help to transfer things when transferred to another cell. A smoked chicken breast in a Butyrka stall costs 500 rubles, and the same amount - a monthly certificate stating that the person under investigation is entitled to a special diet: milk, cottage cheese and eggs. One minute meeting with relatives while waiting for a court session - 1000 rubles. In the Tverskoy Court - twice as expensive. The same rates for delivery by escorts directly to the court of food from nearby restaurants. Receive unofficial transmissions through a local Orthodox parish - 50,000 rubles for two bags per month. Even with court permission to make calls from a pay phone, you still won’t be able to make a call, but you can get a mobile phone for 10,000, which they will still find and seize. If you start paying for something, be prepared for the fact that money will always be demanded.

“I quickly realized that even the most unpleasant things are quickly ousted from memory,” Kozlov argues (we are talking with him in the psychological relief room in the colony. Robert Miles in the speakers, photo wallpapers, a dummy fireplace, an empty samovar, and all the colony management are right there, in chairs). - In order not to forget anything, I started making these notes. Then I didn’t even think about publishing all this, it was my wife who convinced me. ” Kozlov's wife, journalist Olga Romanova, was then the editor of the blog department at Slon.ru. She believes that one of her articles could be the reason for the attack on her husband. Olga from the very beginning was a supporter of making the story of her husband's trial as public as possible. Now Aleksey admits that it was the right decision: “Maybe the publicity saved me from… mmmm… lethal outcome. But those who were in Butyrka after me were not spared by publicity.”

Kozlov is talking about Sergei Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who officially died in Butyrka from acute heart failure. At one of the court hearings, Magnitsky called himself a hostage - he meant that the purpose of the investigation was not him, but the management of the company he advised. After the death of Magnitsky, 20 people from the leadership of the Federal Penitentiary Service were dismissed, including the head of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Moscow and the head of the Butyrka detention center. Six months later, in another Moscow pre-trial detention center, in Matrosskaya Tishina, the seriously ill detainee Vera Trifonova died. She was accused of fraud - the same "one hundred and fifty-ninth, part four through thirty."

On April 9 of this year, amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, initiated by the president, came into force, which partly alleviate the fate of those under investigation for certain economic articles (including those suspected of fraud): “if these crimes were committed in the field of entrepreneurial activity,” then arrest them until judgment is not possible. But a month later, a group of senators introduced a bill to clarify the concept of "entrepreneurial activity", which could dilute the meaning of the presidential amendments. However, even before the amendments were introduced by the senators, the courts did not massively release those suspected of fraud on bail or on bail. In the case of Vera Trifonova, the court ruled that her case was not related to entrepreneurial activity.

“Everyone understands that these are good, commercial articles,” says Kozlov. - Planted - and you can ask for money to let go, and then you can let go, or you can continue to pull the money. Many of us had options on this topic.” Now several more “one hundred and fifty-nine, part four” are sitting with him in IK-3. These people form the backbone of Kozlov's comrades for the coming years - that's how it turned out, he says, although it is clear, of course, that they are united not by the same article of the Criminal Code, but by a way of life - a past life. Business, travel, books and even newspapers. Kozlov's neighbor, convicted of simple theft, says this about them: Vedomosti, it seems. I don't read that. I prefer something about cars or entertainment. But everyone plays football, regardless of the articles.

The subscription to Vedomosti is registered with Kozlov, and then the newspaper goes from hand to hand. When his wife went to the local post office to subscribe, for some reason she did not find the business daily in the subscription catalog. I asked a post office employee where, they say, Vedomosti. So, the postwoman responded and pointed her finger - here, “The Bulletin of the Criminal Correctional System”. This name is more familiar: next to it is another zone and a pre-trial detention center. In total, Kozlov received annual subscriptions to newspapers and magazines for 14,000 rubles. The press is brought, of course, not every day. “But it’s convenient: you get a pack, you read it like War and Peace,” Alexey laughs.

In general, people in the colony are much more divided than in the pre-trial detention center, Kozlov admits. It is important to carefully choose the circle of communication. So that no one sits on the neck. “I am a Christian and I try to help many - those who have no one in the wild,” explains Kozlov. “But here, many perceive disinterested help as your weakness.”

Now in the building of the detachment of Alexei is being renovated. Linoleum in the hallway is being replaced with tiles. “But this is not because we have Kozlov in this detachment,” he assures. O. Head of IK-3 Vladimir Torbov. - Here in the thirteenth detachment they also laid tiles, only orange, not green. We whitewash the ceilings everywhere every year, and over the summer we will make cosmetic repairs in general in all units.

The authorities proudly show the freshest room in the colony - the rooms for long visits. The corridor is covered with terracotta wallpaper, the floor is tiled, the walls of the shower room and the kitchen are lined with cheerful tiles, a new refrigerator and stove, everything is clean, women walk around with saucepans. Next in line is the replacement of old window frames with double-glazed windows. Everything here is better and newer than in the administrative buildings of the colony, the leadership emphasizes. And it is true.

“It seems to me that there are no places left for the repair of which I would not donate money. We repaired a barracks, a club, a library, a hostel, and then again with a new one, and more, ”Olga wrote in a blog in January of this year. She writes her “Diary of a Wife” when Alexei fails to transfer his notes to her: sometimes they don’t give dates because of the swine flu quarantine, then she can’t call: “However, unlike the same Butyrka, the money really goes to the needs of the convicts, and I saw this on every visit. I also saw at the reception window how people brought wallpaper in rolls, paint, glue, some kind of chandeliers ... And then I saw these wallpapers and chandeliers in our hostel.

For a long time in the colony they did not show that they knew about Kozlov's diary. But in Butyrka they were declassified pretty quickly. The result was a serious search, which was carried out by high authorities. Then the leadership of the pre-trial detention center demanded that Olga stop writing the blog and generally remove it from the network. The couple decided not to change anything. Some time later, a big boss from the Moscow Federal Penitentiary Service came to Alexei and said that he could help him transfer to any other central - so that the local administration would not take revenge on him for the diary. “I refused, but I am very grateful to this person,” says Kozlov. - When I go out, I will definitely thank him. If, of course, he is still in Russia.”

The administration of the colony learned about the diary of the convicted Kozlov from the regional authorities - they sent them several pages to read, says Romanova. At the next date in IK-3, the leadership of the regional UFSIN was waiting for her. She rebutted a little: they say that not only names are not in the blog, there is even a region called BZOC - that is, the God Forgotten Regional Center. And then the FSI authorities made her an unusual offer - from now on to write everything in the open. With names, positions, and finally call the God-forgotten regional center as it is - Tambov. And write officially that the repair is good and that there are no complaints. She wrote that.

For a year in Butyrka, Kozlov lost 40 kg. In the colony, he recovered by more than twenty in a year. Firstly, the food is decent, and secondly, "there is a feeling that the equator has been passed, and it is clear what will happen next." Improved in chess. Became a believer. I read a lot of different books - from Pelevin to the latest highly specialized economic literature in English, which, along with peanut butter, was sent to Kozlov by his friend from his studies at an American university. The most recent book in his own library is a Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging just brought in by his wife, not yet started. This is in order to keep up with life during the time spent behind bars. Aleksey Kozlov, author of the Butyrka Blog, was sentenced to seven years, served two years, five more to go.