Translated material
How to write letters political prisoners?
On January 25, 2024, Doxa was recognized as an “unwanted organization”.
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What is this guide?
Imagine that you are placed in a place where you can no longer choose a circle of communication, places for walking, most of books, news, Internet content. Even in fantasy, this feeling of isolation is quite alarming, but even more alarming - to return after many months or years on Wednesday, which has already ceased to be familiar. Correspondence is one of the few ways to overcome isolation. We asked the activist Zhenya Shamin to answer frequent questions about letters by political prisoners.
How to choose a addressee?
Political prisoners are completely different people. Among them, there are both civilian and political activists, pursued for their activities, as well as people who find themselves in captivity for belonging to a certain faith or simply for repost on a social network. Some political prisoners find themselves in jail and colonies in fabricated criminal cases. If you do not know who to write, you can turn to one of the thematic human rights projects that talk about political prisoners.
- List on the website of "Rosuznik". Convenient sorting is built on the site, including by the names of criminal cases. There are also examples of letters that can be focused on if you write for the first time.
- List of political prisoners on the site "Memorial". Contains detailed dossiers of prisoners from which you can draw topics for writing.
- Telegram-boot @svobot_bot , which sends the name and address of the political prisoner, chosen randomly. There are sections: “Sit for politics”, “Sit for religion”, “Sit for peace” and “birthday”.
- List of political prisoners of Belarus on the website of the Vasna human rights center. This is the most complete list where there is all the dossier, addresses and even a map of the imprisonment indicating the number of repressed people who are there at the moment. You can write through the project “ Letters to the Blue ”.
You should not write at once a large number of people, any communication takes a lot of effort, and letters - an unusual format - even more so. If you are comfortable and interesting to maintain correspondence with one or two people, you can choose more recipients. The exception is postcards, but they are more appropriate before the holidays or upcoming courts in order to simply express their support without entering into a dialogue.
How to send a letter?
There are several ways
- FSIN-written . An email costs 55 rubles per sheet and the same amount of answer form, which will come to your email scanned. For another 35 rubles you can attach an image, but they will print it on an ordinary black and white printer. This is the fastest way to deliver-due to strict reporting, the censor often processes the letter quickly. The answer form can be attached only one, but there is an opportunity to send empty letters, paying only the answer, then several sheets will be given to the prisoner. It will not be superfluous to make a FSIN-card to save on commission when paying.
- " Rosuznik ." It is difficult to send an email through Rosuznik for free, it is difficult to evaluate the terms of delivery and an answer. “Rosuznik” is a volunteer project that exists only for voluntary donations that should be made on the site based on personal resources in order to maintain the possibility of free correspondence for everyone.
- Post office . A simple letter costs from 25 rubles, depending on the weight, the ordered will be more expensive, but it can be tracked by the track number. The institution is obliged to notify the delivery of a letter or refusal at the censorship stage, but no one does it, it will not work out to control the terms of censorship either, but this is the best way if you want to attach color drawings or photos in good quality. For some pre -trial detention centers and colonies, this is the only way to deliver letters.
- " Letters to the cell ." If you want to write to Belarusian political prisoners, this can be done through the project website. Like the “Rosuznik”, the project is completely volunteer, and it is also great to support the donates from time to time.
I never wrote to prison. I don't know what to write so that it is interesting
When your own life seems to be a routine, you can again try to imagine yourself in the place of a prisoner who is not available for practically nothing that you have.
The story of a walk with a description of the surroundings will be a good enough topic for writing, as well as a story about your studies, pets or hobbies.
This will allow your addressee not to forget the world outside the barbed wire, and you better realize what value your everyday life has. Responding to letters, I sometimes look around my room or pay attention to the view outside the window and feel delight, even if I am very bad.
I never wrote letters and do not quite understand how to do it
The universal structure of the letter does not exist, you can write as it is convenient for you. If the first letter is given hard, you can do it:
- Open a note on the phone or a regular notebook.
- Start a letter from a greeting, imagine, tell a little about yourself, your work or study, hobbies and offer to start correspondence.
- Ask the addressee about his or her interests and hobbies, in the future you can send articles or news on these topics.
- Set aside your letter and give yourself a few days to supplement it with any stories, jokes, questions or thoughts.
- When you decide that the letter is ready, you can send it!
Is it possible to share sad news? And talk about travel?
Pressure from traveling can be an important addition to the picture of the will in the human head, allow you not to forget it, but can become the key to interesting topics for correspondence. It is not at all necessary to write only on positive topics, everything that happens outside the prison walls is important.
Correspondence with political prisoners is still an ordinary dialogue with a person, albeit in an unusual format, so you can always clarify whether it is comfortable to affect a particular topic. You will never guess for yourself, what is an unfamiliar person to you, so just try to write about what is interesting to you. Any dialogue is able to lead to something interesting.
Can I have an example?
Yes! Here is a fragment from a letter to the defendant of “Moscow Affairs” Kirill Zhukov (now he is already at large), published on the Rosuznik website:
I saw a dolphin meter away from myself in the open sea, I thought I was dying from surprise, but then nothing, I decided to treat him like a big dog [...] I had Newfoundland as a child. Fear passed, but the dolphins also did not swim so close. The juniper forest was still burning in Bolshoi Utrish, he was extinguished in 3-5 days, but people with tents were evacuated from there, and I only arrived there, in a tiny hotel ... And there was no one. You could walk along the grief and not meet anyone.
Pavel Krisevich. “Dead Butyrka: Citizen Dog” (sheet, colored pencils, mascara, toothpaste)
And if I can’t constantly maintain correspondence? This can upset a person
In addition to choosing those letters, me and some other people, the possible feeling of guilt for the interrupted correspondence or for the opportunity to suddenly interrupt it due to burnout or lack of strength.
Everyone perfectly understands that no person is obliged to provide support, especially if for some reason it does not have such an opportunity. Yes, fatigue or burnout is also significant reasons. But the opportunity to get this support again, let even after some time, much more important than a potential resentment that you most often will not even meet.
You are not required to explain the reasons for the break if you do not want to do this. If you want, you can simply describe the past time and feelings from this pause.
We are all very similar and understand each other, regardless of which direction of the fence with barbed wire are at the moment. Just on the other side of pleasant emotions from letters more.
Here is what the political prisoner from Khabarovsk Maxim Smolnikov wrote to me (now he is free, but under the ban on certain actions, the case is still going on):
Hello, Zhenya! Glad to get a letter from you again, do not worry about unwritten letters. It happens, you set yourself an ambitious task, you don’t fulfill it for a bunch of reasons (sometimes you don’t even start), but then with all the energy you take yourself to reproach and condemn. In that case, I tell myself that apparently in the censure and there was my task :)
What can not be written due to censorship? What is forbidden to write?
When the letter enters a pre -trial detention center or colony, the censor first processes it. According to the law, he has 3 working days for this, but the deadlines can increase on holidays, in case of censor illness or even due to a printer malfunction.
There are practically no official censorship rules. In letters, one cannot share other people's contact and personal data, as well as discuss the details of the case. This really should not be done so as not to harm your addressee. All other censorship rules are invented by employees of institutions, sometimes spontaneously.
Here's another example
In the spring of this year, in the pre -trial detention center of Kansk, an email was received from my girlfriend with a politicized teenager Denis Mikhailenko . Here is his literal text, only the name has been changed.
Hello Denis! My name is Yana, I am a little scientist-biologist and love hedgehogs, and also buckwheat tea. It is smell and taste just like caramel. I am writing to you and I hope to cheer up, I hope you are doing well there as much as possible! Do you have the opportunity to play sports there at least a little? I am in the past, one might say, an athlete! The half marathons ran when she was engaged in athletics. Activity at least the minimum gives strength. I still really like hiking and camping. A couple of years ago I went to the mountains, there are such landscapes and air! I saw a very cute fox. I like it when with a tent, a tree in a fire is cracking ... very sincerely! I will wait for an answer, I want to know how you yourself are interested in! Take care of yourself!
This is a funny and naive letter to a 15-year-old young man to the place of imprisonment did not have a censorship, like all other letters from different people for almost 2 months. It can be argued that this was deliberate pressure on the defendant. After a number of complaints, some of the letters began to be skipped.
Some correspondence show that many prisoners not only do not avoid discussions of the conclusion, but also like to joke on this topic, such as a defendant in the case of the “network” Julius Boyarshinov .
From the correspondence of the defendant of the case of the "Network" Julia Boyarshinov and his girlfriend
It happens that very strict censorship is used for specific prisoners to exert pressure on them. To interfere with this, the censorship of the letter can be appealed in the electronic reception of the FSIN. To do this, it is not necessary to have special knowledge, you can help you with a telegram-boot of the human rights activist Roman Kiselev, where you can ask any question and get a ready-made complaint form. The more attention to the situation, the faster the “blockade” will be broken.
From the correspondence of the defendant of the case of the "Network" Julia Boyarshinov and his girlfriend
I am afraid that letters will attract the attention of the authorities to me
You should not be afraid that your personal information can somehow be used for persecution. Censors almost do not transfer the texts of letters to the Investigative Committee, this is an extra work for them. If only you do not write about your own crime (but I definitely do not advise you to do so). Or are not on the federal wanted list.
I met only one case when a woman was called for a conversation because of letters. These were letters to a foreign political prisoner, which became just a pretext for a conversation about its other activities, but there were no consequences in this case.
On the other hand, the use of pseudonyms is not prohibited, and anonymity can be maintained But if something goes wrong at the Russian Post, you cannot get an answer. By sending a letter through electronic resources.
I am not 18 years old. Can I write a letter?
According to the law of age -related restrictions. Parents of minor authors of letters, too, usually no one reports correspondence, but if anxious, you can not mention the age.
Thank you for reading to the end
Now write your first letter to the political prisoner or political prisoner.
We will be glad if you talk about your correspondence experience-we will wait for your messages in the @doxateambot telegram bout with hashtag #letters.
Editor
Editor
Rivka RivinIllustrator
Illustrator
Katya LitvinovaPublication
June 29, 2022