Translated material
Prison people. Bum
He was brought in and pushed into the cell, terrifying with his sallow complexion, black hands, despite being sanitized, and thickets of hair that somehow evenly spread over his face and head. It was impossible to see the eye - they swam either from beatings, or from beatings and a hangover. At first glance, the new neighbor was 60-65 years old. He, shuffling and looking around, trudged to the bunk, where one of us poked him.
Grandfather unfolded the mattress, fell on it and fell silent for almost two days, getting up only to check and go to the toilet. They didn't bother him. On the third day, he finally got up and - for the gruel. Here we tried to talk, but from the slurred answers we did not understand anything, except for the article - a hooligan. Everything is as usual.
Traditionally, spitting on the misanthropic prohibition of the Federal Penitentiary Service to share, they found sweatpants, a jacket, underwear, a razor, threw food from the transfers to the prison gruel and forgot about the old man. Everyone has their own business - the camera is big.
Another week has passed. Returning from a meeting with lawyers, I see a newcomer - obviously beaten by life, but quite a strong man of my age, who is fiddling with our TV, having removed the back panel from it. I felt unwell: the TV in this cell showed almost nothing, but you could listen to the news, and the news is life for me.
- Who is this? I screeched.
- Meet Valentin Ivanovich, - prompted colleagues. Do you remember the old man? It is he. He is a radio engineer. Promises to fix it.
Valentin Ivanovich, without turning around, nodded his head, continuing to wield a sharpened spoon and paper clips.
„
When, during my hunger strike, the administration tried to force him to sign a false piece of paper, as if there had been no hunger strike, he, like the rest of the inmates, refused, despite considerable pressure.
”
A few days later we started talking. The story is usual: the son died, the wife died, he drank heavily, the cunning neighbors threw him out of the apartment, he was homeless for almost a year, he got into a fight - they took him away. Later I looked at the case - the same thing, but in clerical language.
He turned out to be pleasant in communication, although we had very little time: court cases, the need to read a huge number of documents did not leave large “windows”. He, too, was doing something all the time, correcting, equipping. The camera clearly replaced his lost home. And when, during my hunger strike, the administration tried to force him to sign a false piece of paper, as if there had been no hunger strike, he, like the rest of the inmates, refused, despite considerable pressure.
However, he clearly did not have that will, that readiness to fight for his own destiny, which is necessary to "swim up" in our current cruel world. The future fate was easy to read: prison - street - prison - death under the fence from the cold or a heart attack.
How many such faces have I seen over the past years, how often have I heard about those who have already left ...
People, maybe we should make our world a little less cruel? After all, these people need quite a bit of help ...
Soon the head of the prison called me to “talk”, and when I returned, there was no one in the cell. I was given 15 minutes to get ready for the stage.
I left without saying goodbye, but after watching the latest REN TV news on a TV that worked well.
Continuation. Beginnings in The New Times # 27 , 29 , 35 , 38 , 42 for 2011 and # 1–2 , 9 for 2012