"There are a lot of fences there"

Andrey Pyzh, the author of the Urbanturizm Youtube channel with 800 thousand subscribers, was released from prison. Novaya's correspondent attended his first stream in three years

Monday. Morning. At the park near IK-5 “Metallostroy” near St. Petersburg, pensioners with dogs only occasionally walk. The meeting of the famous blogger Pyzh with fans and friends is scheduled here. Andrey should leave around 10:30. Within an hour, several people are already gathering on the spot. All are men, and it is immediately clear what they have in common with extreme sports. Some go skiing, some go kayaking or roam the desert. Everyone is easy-going, everyone is over thirty, there are at least 50 of them here. These are the viewers of Pyzh, who amassed an audience on videos exploring abandoned abandoned places and dungeons in the style of “Stalker”. For which, in the end, he received a sentence under the article “treason.” Pyzh was accused of taking materials about classified objects in Russia to the territory of Ukraine. 5 years.

Taking into account his time in pre-trial detention, Andrei is released after serving three years in prison.

And here he is. Stormy applause from those who came to greet him. Pyzh shakes everyone’s hand: he says he just did the same thing on the other side of the fence, in the colony.

Outwardly, Andrei has changed. One of his nicknames is “Andrey Nyashny” - well, cute. After prison, Andrei, who is not even forty, became slightly rougher and grayer.

A “press conference” begins in the park, and at the same time, for the first time in these three years , the Youtube channel “comes to life” : the story with the release and the meeting is broadcast online for all 800,000 subscribers.

“State food is just that kind of food...” Andrei answers one of the questions in a drawn-out manner. It is clear that he has not lost his sense of humor. “That’s why one cat in our colony was called Podliva, and the second one was Kasha.” And the cat is Cutlet.

About life in the colony.

— There are a lot of fences there. There are a lot of different checks there. At 9 a.m. check when moving to the “wet room”. Evening check at 17:30, then check immediately after lights out, at 22:00, then at 4 in the morning. Here, four checks a day. During two of them you stand on the parade ground.

- What about censorship, what about wiretapping? Did they listen to you?

- Naturally, all conversations are listened to, all letters are looked through - for entry and exit. You can only write to the prosecutor and the court without censorship. Meetings with a lawyer - through glass by phone. Everything is recorded, the server is standing and writes everything. Naturally, my conversations were monitored first of all, right up to the boss. Because they even called me for a polygraph, asking whether I was going to create some kind of extremist cell.

Everyone laughed.

— In general, the system was created not even for correction, but for the sake of it. She doesn't fix it at all. Especially the most “popular” article - 228 (“narcotic”). Now the 337th article has gone ("AWOL"), there are more and more of them. Failure to comply with military orders, discrediting, all these new articles, people generally come in droves.

The man left (meaning: freed - M.S. ) - excellent. But on the contrary, some people must not be let go. There are indicators and statistics for everything. Everyone is afraid of losing their stars. Any star, any title means extra money and length of service. The system doesn’t give a damn about people’s destinies.

— Why were you put in a punishment cell?

— I sent photos from the colony to my VK community, they posted them there. Nine months later, someone “at the top” found out about this and decided to punish him. But in the colony they cannot humanly say: don’t put photos on the Internet. We need to find control. They found the punishment against me funny.

I work in a sewing shop. An employee comes, we sit in T-shirts, because it’s hot, and why should we wrap ourselves up. The employee says: we are all writing explanatory notes. And according to the PVR, prisoners do not have the right to take off their prison uniforms at work. We suggest not to write, but simply to get dressed, but we were not allowed. Then I say: maybe only I will write? I understand that you came here for a reason. We didn’t yet know that he had the DVR turned on.

He filmed what everyone was writing and turned off the recorder. And then he says: “Andrey understood correctly, I came for him. We ourselves don’t know what’s going on yet, but they said you ***.” This means being caught on camera in violation.

After that, they take me to the “small headquarters” and explain the real reason. They look at my posts - and there are no violations, I’m dressed in the required uniform, I have tags. As a result, they give me 11 days. This is despite the fact that in case of a fight we give three or four days. And here for wearing a T-shirt - 11 days. It is clear that this order came from “from above”. And I went to sit.

Imagine a room, three by four meters. There are windows, but they face a false wall. That is, there are no windows. What the weather is like, day or night, you don’t know at all. Two dim lamps. Wooden painted floors and two concrete blind areas with “fungi”. For every two “fungi” a bunk is folded back. The bunk is fastened for the day. During the day you can only sit on the “mushroom”. Everything else is prohibited. If you lie down, you will be punished immediately. If you go in for sports - punishment. Wake up at five in the morning, lights out at nine. The food is bland, no seasonings. You have nothing with you. Toothpaste, brush, soap and toilet paper. They also gave me books to read.

We were alone for seven days, then the three of us were alone for a day, and then I was left alone for four days. In fact, I had a great time! Because the biggest stress in the colonies is that you can never be left alone. You are always with someone, you are always in sight, living on top of each other. Four square meters in a pre-trial detention center, two square meters per person in a colony - in a barracks, in a sleeping place. But if you stay in a punishment cell longer, if for several months, then the cuckoo will drive away...

...In the evening, Pyzh will leave for Moscow to see his mother and pick up his equipment. When asked whether he will stay in Russia, he answers: time will tell. I'm going to get a foreign passport first. Pyzh has Russian-Ukrainian citizenship.

In the meantime, Pyzh’s fans won’t let him go. After the “press conference” everyone wants to take a photo. And then Andrei will go swimming in the Neva - despite nine degrees of heat outside.

Later, a message appeared on his Telegram channel: “It seems to me that several years of my life have passed. Nothing happened there for me so much that what happened now just seems like a very long time ago. This is very cool. Live actively. There will be something to remember."