Only three days

Exactly so many relatives are political prisoners to hug them and say the most important. "Cold" publishes the stories of three dates

In Russian colonies, long dates are allowed - three days alone with relatives in a separate room. For prisoners and their loved ones , these are the most important and at the same time the most complex periods of the year. They are preparing for such meetings in a few months, and immediately before the dates they take place a thorough inspection, during which even brought food is cut and checked with a spoon. Elena Skvortsova, editoring of the first department “First Department”, spoke with women whose relatives are serving a term in a strict regime colonies about how their long dates pass and what they feel immediately after.

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"In the room, some things still have to be pronounced in a whisper"

Elena Shakurskaya is the mother of Ilya Shakursky, sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security colony in the “Network” case. According to the FSB, anarchists and anti-fascists created the cells of the “network” in Penza, St. Petersburg and other cities to overthrow power. 11 people were convicted in the case, many of whom claimed torture, beatings, psychological pressure and tossed weapons.

In order for the date to take place, Ilya must write a statement in advance - to provide a list of people who he has in his personal file, and an approximate date. I, as a close relative in his personal file, is, and they miss me. Sometimes I take Ilya’s grandmother or his uncle with me, and for the last time I took his cousin. I learn about the date of the date from Ilya - he calls me through Zonelekom and “Native Communication” (digital services in colonies and pre -trial detention centers. - Approx. “Cold”) .

I also prepare the same statement addressed to the head of the colony: - In triplicate, written by hand - I take them with me to the colony. To Ilya, I always drive a car myself. The road is 280 kilometers. You can take 20 kilograms of things for one with you - this is very little. I take homemade clothes, in which Ilya dresses up during a date. In summer, for example, shorts, in winter - trousers, a white sports T -shirt, white socks. I take hygienic accessories, toilet paper, paper towels, bedding.

I cook everything myself for him, put it in containers, and in the colony I only warm up. I cook cabbage soup (Ilya loves them very much), cutlets, chicken - the fact that he loved at home the most. On a date you can even take that I cannot pass Ilya in the program. For example, raw meat, fish, semi -finished products, pastries. In the summer, I cannot convey cottage cheese and sausages, but on a date they are allowed.

Full inspection takes place in a date for dates. The bags are taken from and to: open sealed yogurt, check the puree in a container with a spoon.

I have been going to this colony for three years, and almost every time we are settled in the same room. It is long and narrow, on both sides there are beds, in the middle - a window with a grate. There is a table for lunch, two nightstands - one has a TV on one. The channels are not shown, but the DVD is connected, that is, I can bring disks with me. Ilya listens to his beloved Viktor Tsoi, we watch historical series.

For all three days, it is impossible to go beyond the limits of this meeting. It looks like a large house: a long corridor with a dull wall without windows, on one side of the door to the room, then - a common shower cabin, toilet, kitchen. In the kitchen there is a stove, microwave, refrigerators, pans, plates, pots. In the kitchen and in the corridor, we intersect with other families, say hello and communicate with them.

FSIN employees do not bother us for these three days. Sometimes they check common rooms, but do not enter the rooms. But some things still have to be pronounced in a whisper. Well, who knows? It seems to me that there are different wiretaps.

The first and second day of the date - I am so good, so calm, but on the third ... I understand that tomorrow I will go out without him, Ilya will return to the hut. It's hard. We have everything in time. If I went on a date at 11:00, I leave in three days at the same time. Ilya remains in the room, he is taken out a little later.

After a long date, I psychologically leave for another month. Although I immediately go to work, but my heart is a lump. When the adaptation passes, I begin to prepare for the next trip. I will see some beautiful socks or a T-shirt for Ilya-I need to buy. Probably, I myself am psychologically so encouraging, because otherwise you can go crazy.

"A date for dates is quite such a kitchen in Khrushchev, only with a bed."

Irina Kovyazina is the sister of journalist Ivan Safronova, sentenced to 22 years in a maximum security colony for the Stateizer. Ivan was accused of transferring secret information to the Czech special services, but they were all published in open sources, and the journalist never had access to GOSTain.

So far, I was only on one long date (I really hope that the second one is just around the corner). We went with my mother to the Krasnoyarsk Territory from Moscow, and I still did not know what exactly could be taken with me. Therefore, all products were packaged (dumplings, sausages), as required for conventional transmission.

Already in the colony, I saw that other people were bringing on a date. Even homemade food is allowed: people brought ingredients for salads, sculpted dumplings and manti. That is, of course, there are strict restrictions. Nothing that contains alcohol. Pickled pomidore cucumbers is possible, but vinegar, for example, is impossible in its pure form. For some reason, you can’t have tea in bags-they were cut. Tea is allowed only scattered. Of course, for these three days for Vanya you can take some familiar clothes and bedding.

A date for dates, I think, seven squares. There are two beds, two bedside tables, a stool, a hinged cabinet. It is quite such a kitchen in Khrushchev, only with a bed. There is a TV only in a common room - it is called a rest room. But we did not look, we were not up to him. We talked for days - after all, before this date we had not talked for almost three years: in the pre -trial detention center, calls and dates to Van were prohibited.

In the common kitchen there was all the necessary dishes, quite modern refrigerators and working slabs. That is, you can live. Let's call it that. I would compare it with a communal apartment or a hostel.

Employees came with a check every day. They knocked on the door or just shouted loudly, but did not enter the room. Vanya went out to them in the corridor. Prisoners are people accustomed to the regime, that is, they approximately understand when they have a test.

We did not take news, printouts and books - they are still censored. Other families took photo albums, this is definitely allowed.

When the date ends, Ivan is fed first. We were announced on the eve of what time they would be taken away. By this time we were already ready. Employees are well aware of what such moments mean to us, so they behave correctly.

"I am ready to tighten the belt in Moscow to feed my husband every four months"

Svetlana Vorobyova is the wife of the ex-Document of MAI Alexei Vorobyov, who was sentenced to 20 years of strict regime for the Stateismman. Alexei was accused of transferring secret information to China. As evidence in the case, “Chinese dust” appears on the map of the memory of his smartphone. Vorobyov’s defense stated that the examination of the traces of Chinese dust is anti -scientist, and all the formulas from the secret abstract of the dissertation, the photo of which Vorobyov allegedly handed over to China, were published in the open access.

All four times that we went on a date - first in the Valoiki IR of the Belgorod region, now in the IR "Morshansk" of the Tambov region, - I came, our daughter Varechka and Aleshin Mom. The application is submitted at the end of the month for the next month. For example, at the end of October it will be possible to apply for November. Exactly four months should take place between the dates. And here it is still very important that each detachment has its own days, so you need to guess that the two events coincide: the dates from which our four months are counted, and the dates, on which you can go on a date for a particular detachment. A slightly complicated scheme, but we always have everything, thank God, took place as usual.

Even before we get a response from the head of the colony, we buy train tickets, because, it turns out, the Moscow-Morshansk route is quite popular. We arrive in a day at four to five in the morning, a familiar driver meets us and takes us to the hotel. Until 10-11 we rest and go shopping and to the market to purchase the necessary products.

For each person who enters the room, 20 kilograms are laid, so everything should be minimal. I try to take, for example, incomplete toothpaste to save weight. We are carefully approaching the choice of children's books for Varya. Of course, it is not easy for a child not to go outside for three days. On the one hand, I want to take toys to occupy it, on the other hand, it all reduces the weight that could be spent on food for Alyosha.

These 20 kilograms do not include bedding and water. The territory of the colony is in a marshy area, so the water is not very good quality. She is right with the smell of a swamp. In the colony there are jug filters - we filter this water, then boil, cook on it, drink tea. We had no poisoning, but we bring our own as drinking water.

Absolutely everything can be taken from food on a date. We make a menu in advance. That is, we know that on the first day we will weld chicken soup. To do this, we calculate how many meat and vegetables you need to buy. In the summer, from the heart, they fed Alyosha with berries - in the program they cannot be transmitted. Raspberry, strawberries, blueberries, currants, fruits ... In general, everything that was on the market, I dared and brought Alyosha. From this we made a large fruit salad. He was madly happy. He has not eaten blueberries for five years or six years old, so for him it was a holiday. Recently, we learned that the oven works there, so we prepared a home version of meat in French. They took rolls and pizza with them.

Of course, now it all is very expensive. But I am ready to tighten the belt while I am in Moscow to feed my husband every four months.

There is usually a huge queue before a date in the colony. When it comes to us, we convey all things in the window. They [the FSIN employees] with us weigh and check them: they open packages, cut sausage and cheese, open milk and check with a metal stick.

After checking the things, we are given an application for payment of the room, and we are waiting for a sufficient number of people to gather in order to go to the accounting department - it is in the neighboring building. The room costs about 1000-1500 rubles per day.

Employees of the colony treat us with understanding. No screams or rudeness. If we do not create difficulty in employees, then they also do not create us.

Then we go inside, hand over phones, charging, all the electronic things that we have. Then we go to the inspection room. They inspect one at a time: you need to remove the top first, then the bottom.

While we are passing all the checks, Alexei has a regular day: he wakes up, goes to work, after lunch remains in the hut and waits for him to be taken on a date. Last time, we waited quite a long time when Alexei came to us, because for a long time we collected all the prisoners who went on a date on this day. Varechka even said: “Where is the daddy, maybe he forgot and will not come?”

The moment of the meeting is the most touching, the most pleasant. First of all, we quietly stick Alyosha with a package with gifts for Varya so that he will go and give them right away. She, of course, is very happy. After that, Alyosha goes to the shower, because they have a bathhouse only once a week. The rest of the time they wash them as they can - boil water and doused with basin. It smells of oil, which lubricate the sewing machines. Rob, respectively, also smells of oil, so we bring fresh clothes from the house.

This time in the summer we lived in a room where there was one one and a half -spaced bed - we slept four across.

There are four rooms on the floor, there is a kitchen, a toilet and a shower. Every day, employees come before lunch to get out in these rooms. It even happens that you, for example, have prepared something, did not have time to wash the dishes and one of the workers can do it for you, even a little inconvenient. The kitchen has all the necessary dishes, a stove, microwave, but you need to bring your lips and detergent. Everyone who smokes does it in the kitchen.

We can stay with Alyosha together only at night. Talking to dawn until dawn. Especially the first night: we lie, we cry, laugh, tell each other in a whisper. Then we go to breakfast like sleepy flies.

During the day, they come to us to check Alexei. The first time they knock on the door at six to seven in the morning. As a rule, they do not enter the room. Alyosha goes into the corridor and is noted. In the morning, we hear the prisoners on the street on the industry, that is, to work. Also, every half an hour or an hour, a mini-signaling is triggered on the street. But when you come to a loved one, it does not matter in which you meet. The only important thing is that you are together, that you can talk, hug, touch each other.

On the last day, at about 12 o’clock, men are collected in the corridor, inspected and taken away. We know time in advance, so we manage to say goodbye - weep, hug. Then they begin to withdraw relatives. We take our valuable things that we surrendered before a date, and get a pass to the exit beyond the colony.

From this moment again, getting used to life without each other begins again. This is the most difficult moment. It is very difficult and psychologically and physically, because these two and a half days and three nights are a small life for us, which we live very emotionally and brightly. So emotionally that it is difficult to remain alone later.