Translated material
Free -form
As they write to Russian political prisoners in Yerevan. News report from the evening of the Letters of Freedom initiative
Photo by the author
Two years ago, in April 2023, the emigrant initiative of Letters of Freedom arose in the capital of Armenia. Activists who came up with this initiative, and many regular participants have since moved to other countries, but letters of Freedom continues to work. The correspondent of the New in Armenia went to the evening of letters and tells who and what he writes from Yerevan to Russian pre -trial detention centers and colonies, as well as why paper letters are better than electronic. One of the participants in the evening is the former political prisoner, which on the eve of emigration almost did not be behind bars.
(18+) This material (information) was produced, distributed and (or) sent by foreign agent Novashov Andrei Valerievich or applies to the activities of foreign agent Novashov Andrei Valerievich.
The Yerevan evenings have letters that have been held every few weeks from 2023 a variety of topics. The indifferent gathered in public spaces to write to the defendants “Tyumen's business” and the case of “Spring”*. In September 2023, the evening was held, on which they wrote to the participants of Mayakovsky. The wife of Artem Kamardin, one of the defendants, came to this meeting in Yerevan - to tell, what anti -war poets are accused of and what kind of bullying they are subjected to. At that evening they read poetry of young poets resisting the political regime.
On the 41st birthday of Ilya Yashin **, on the eve of his exchange, Letters of Freedom devoted a policy of policies, showed a documentary about Yashin and arranged a video call with the director of the film.
There were meetings at which Ukrainians who fell into Russian prisons and Crimean Tatar activists wrote. The evening dedicated to the Crimean Tatars was preceded by a lecture on the history of this people.
And evenings are invariably passing, where they write letters by a political prisoner, celebrating a birthday this month. At the last Letters and Numbers coworking space on Tumanyan Street, they congratulated the birthday people of April.
"Broke and thrown away"
- I wrote: "Hello, Nikitushka, your old friend from Arkhangelsk writes to you." Wrote that she left for Armenia. That a denunciation was written in Russia, but whether the case will be instituted is not yet clear, ”says Svetlana's letters participant. She emigrated to Armenia a few months ago. For the first time came to the Yerevan evening, but began to correspond with prisoners of conscience in Russia.
Nikitushka is a teacher, and now political prisoner Nikita Tushkin from the Komi Republic. Svetlana clarifies that she began to write to him when Tushkin was not yet very famous.
Svetlana did not hide her views on her and what is happening within Russia. One of his colleagues wrote a denunciation.
- I am the mother of the girl who is put on the wanted list in Russia. She is an eco -and zoo defender. She studied in St. Petersburg and wrote a peaceful slogan on the wall of the house. They managed to take her from the country. I realized that I also had to leave, but I did not think that I would have urgently. I thought that in Russia I would bring more benefits. There I could transfer money to political prisoners and write to them, I could talk with people, ”explains Svetlana.
She says that not an activist, "but just a decent person." In Arkhangelsk, Svetlana went to rallies against the garbage training ground in Shiesa and Donatil for eco -defenders.
Her daughter Marina is now in Germany. While Svetlana remained in Russia, Marina advised her to whom the unknown political prisoners to write, and sent beautiful postcards from Germany so that her mother would send them political prisoners. Marina calls her mother to her, but Svetlana wants to stay in Armenia.
- Maybe my daughter will see free Russia, but I will not live. My life was broken and thrown into the trash. I will never forgive this, ”says Svetlana.
But, according to the woman, she does not write to the prisoners anything dull and depressed. He believes that letters from the will should give hope.
At the neighboring table, Alexei, who emigrated to Armenia in 2022 and goes to such evenings from the very beginning of the initiative of Letters of Freedom.
- He left Russia exclusively for political reasons, although there were no administrative and criminal cases against me. I went to almost all political rallies since 2014, but I was lucky - I had never even got into a car zapak. Maybe they did not pay attention to me, because I am older than other participants, ”he says.
That evening, Alexei wrote to Nikita Tushkin and Konstantin Shukhanov. He had not heard about Constantine before. I learned about him from a certificate prepared by the organizers of the evening. Shukhanov is 29 years old. He was against his own and convicted of the "public justification of terrorism" and "public calls for the implementation of an extremist of activity." Details are unknown, since the court took place closed. Shukhanov from Angarsk, and Alexei, who lived in Moscow in Irkutsk, before moving to Moscow, decided to write a fellow countryman.
Alexei admits that it is not easy to write. I do not want to slide into a lump, besides, sometimes it seems to him that any news from the remaining freechers will perceive as bragging.
Alexey tries to write about what he saw in Armenia, about which he knew almost nothing before the relocation. He opens this country for himself and hopes that his observations will interest those who have never been here. In addition, the reference materials prepared by the organizers indicate how the addressees are interested in: music, books, sports, campaigns. Sometimes it helps to find common topics. It is known about Konstantin Shukhanov that he is interested in football, fishing, contemporary art and electronic music, and that he is an active blood donor.
Three years after relocation, Alexei feels burnout, but continues to go to rallies and evenings of letters.
- It’s just that there is nothing else left, although you feel hopelessness. I lived for a long time at the “scoop”, and when I went to rallies in Moscow, I also had no illusions that now we would leave, and something would change. He walked to stay honest with himself, and this motivation remained in Armenia, ”says Alexei.
- I go to such evenings to support people who suffered for their views. Since 2014, I do not agree with what is happening in Russia. The idea of fleeing Russia appeared from the first day of her, but it didn’t work out right away - another participant in the evening Sergey, who was rejecting in Yerevan from St. Petersburg, adds. - Dedlin was the presidential election of 2024. In St. Petersburg, he came to the campaign “Half by Putin”, and in his pocket there was already a plane ticket to Yerevan.
At the evening, Sergey wrote to Valentina Zabernaya - a teacher from the Donetsk region who was sheltered by a Ukrainian soldier. She is accused of terrorism.
- She faces up to 20 years in the colony. Given that Valentina Ivanovna is already 65, this is a death sentence. I am sure that Valentina Ivanovna is far from politics. She, like, for example, many Armenians I met, just a kind and open person, - Sergey is sure.
Anarchist and the White Guard
Sergey and Alexei are regular participants in such evenings. Like human rights activist Catherine.
“It is important for me to come to such evenings in order to feel the community, to see people who share the same values as me,” says Catherine.
In 2020, Catherine was fined for participation in rallies. It is not known about other criminal or administrative cases against her, but the district police officer constantly came to her with warnings. After February 24, Catherine decided that it was dangerous to stay in Russia, and was rejected from Moscow to Yerevan.
She began to write prisoners in 2018, when she met the convicted person in the case of the “Network” *** Juliana Boyarshinov. I went to the courts, and later corresponded with several defendants in the case. I made friends with Julian and another convict in this case - Viktor Filinkov. I came to meet them when they were freed from the colony.
- I wrote to others. For example, the former coordinator of the headquarters of Navalny ** in Arkhangelsk Andrei Borovikov, convicted of publication in social networks of the video of the Rammstein group. He also went out, we saw him several times and continue communication. Recently, I began to correspond with the defendant of the Tyumen case to Yuri Itimov, we have a warm correspondence. I correspond, for example, with Karina Zurkan. She abandoned the citizenship of Moldova in favor of the Russian one, and soon she was condemned in the case of espionage in favor of Moldova. I also support other women in custody.
That evening, Catherine not only wrote letters, but also collected signatures under the appeal to the President of Russia with a demand to ensure a fair investigation of the case of Sedya Suleimanova, a girl who fled from Chechnya, but was stolen and probably killed. The Russian and especially Chechen law enforcement agencies, apparently, want to lower the case on the brakes.
- I have been following this business for a long time. I am familiar with some volunteers from the Sedya support group. When they began a campaign to collect signatures under the petition - first in Russia, and then abroad, she decided that I could collect signatures in Yerevan. I wrote to the Sedya support group, in Yerevan contacted Yan - the coordinator of the local department of the Ark and the coordinator of the Letters of Freedom initiative, and we organized the collection of signatures under this petition on today's evening, ”Ekaterina explains.
The most colorful participant in the evening is a tall guy trimmed. His hands and neck are covered with tattoos - not prison, but subcultural. The letter “A” circled in the circle is especially striking. This is an anarchist and former political prisoner Stepan Zimin, convicted of the "Swamp case". The accusations against Stepan were fabricated. He went out at parole, but by this time he spent two years in a pre -trial detention center and a year in the colony.
After the release, Stepan remained a political activist and a convinced anarchist. Last year, Zimin was almost sent to the colony again. In addition to the symbol of anarchy, the phrase-meme of the beginning of hostilities was tucked on his neck, this caused the attack on Stepan a participant in the Russian Community of the Russian Communist Party.
As Zimin says, he did not touch his finger at a finger, only asked to calm down. Nevertheless, Stepan was detained on the street a few days later and sent under administrative arrest. The testimony against Stepan, which the judge unconditionally believed, gave the attacker at Zimin. Having served several days, Stepan was again detained at the exit of the special receiver. He was charged with a new administrative case. The lawyer ensured Stepan to be released home for the obligation to appear the next day. Zimin urgently rejected in Armenia. He says, otherwise it would end in a criminal case and a large prison term.
Answering questions, Zimin recalls that, serving a sentence in the “swamp business”, he received many letters from friends and simply from sympathetic.
By and large, it was from the “swamp business” in the recent history of Russia that the tradition of writing letters to the Politzams - completely unfamiliar people with whom the spiritual kinship was revived.
- I was lucky that in the SIZO, the “Water”, which I got into, was a shallow censorship, missing almost all letters. In other Moscow pre -trial detention centers it was worse. Somewhere they did not miss letters, somewhere they crossed half, ”recalls Zimin. - Prison is a restriction in communication and information. We have YouTube, telegrams, news public for every taste and color, and there is only a TV: Channel One, NTV, “Russia-1”, God forgive me. For the most part, prison libraries consist of Russian and foreign classics. No modern literature. The person is in the information vacuum. And opening a letter from the will is, relatively speaking, how to go on Instagram. Reading such letters, the prisoner understands that outside the prison, life continues, that his prison term will end and everything will be fine, ”says Stepan Zimin.
In the Yerevan evening, Stepan wrote to 18-year-old Fedor Teplyshev, who is fond of the history of the white movement.
- Probably, if we were in that era, we would be on different sides of the barricades. But we are both fond of the history of the Civil War, we can say that we are sailing in one boat, ”says Zimin.
"A moment will come when everything changes"
Letters written at such evenings first are transferred to Russia and are already sent from there to pre -trial detention centers and colonies. Why write by hand by hand, if there are services that allow you to do it online? Participants in the Yerevan evenings say that paper letters are more sincere and differ from electronic ones in the same way as a real picture from reproduction. The current coordinator of the evenings of letters in Yerevan, Alexander Mishuk, explains that, in addition, access to the services of the FSIN-Pisemo and Zonatelekom is difficult for reserves who do not have a Russian SIM card. Several colonies in Russia are not connected at all to these services. It is easier to provide parties to the evenings with paper and handles than laptops. In addition, at such evenings, one addressee is usually written by several people. In one envelope, you can send a lot of letters at once, and as a result, paper letters cost the organizers cheaper than electronic ones.
Alexander Mishuk, too, albeit quite a while, for his beliefs fell in Russia in jail.
- February 25, 2022 I went out in a single picket in Yekaterinburg, and I was taken away. I got to the court of the Leninsky district, where all the detainees were given nine days for nine days. In the Yekaterinburg special -reception has long been no hot water. They fed disgustingly. I then requested the menu - it does not coincide with reality by 90 percent. In fact, we were given the cheapest sausages and boiled porridge. Then I sued the conditions of detention, and I was awarded a small compensation in Russia.
In a special -reception, you are in an information vacuum. On the radio all day some chanson. You do not know what is happening outside. And we were very supported by notes that friends and completely strangers put us in transfers.
I still store the notes that I received and re -read, ”says Alexander.
Mishuk in the protest movement since 2014. In Russia, volunteer in several human rights projects, including in the Yekaterinburg Memorial **. Having emigrated to Armenia, on a volunteer basis he interacted with the “voice” ** and “Ark”. Together with the “Ark”, Alexander on November 30, on the day of memory of victims of political repressions, organizes in Yerevan the action “Return of Names”, begun “Memorial”.
Alexander was born in a small Ukrainian village, moved to Russia with his parents later. He collects humanitarian aid for the remaining in this village, which since 2022 live under shelling and often remain without electricity and heat.
At the evenings of letters by political prisoners, Alexander came back in Yekaterinburg, where they were held by the “Politics Space”, “Yabloko” and “Memorial”.
- There were fewer political prisoners then. First he wrote to media people-Navalny, Yashin, Kara-Murze **, Dmitriev. I continue to write to Dmitriev, although not very often. He is very responsible, tries to answer everyone. Very warm letters always come from him, says Alexander Mishuk.
Mishuk became one of the coordinators of the Yerevan initiative of Letters of Freedom a few months after its creation. It was started by the Yekaterinburg activist Ivan Lyubimov and eco-defender Richard-Roman King from the Omsk Civil Association **, which were then in Armenia. Lyubimov has an art education, and during evenings letters on the tables are not only paper with the Letters of Freedom logo, but also copyright cards, many of which was performed by Ivan himself. In addition, the tradition is connected with it to write not only the famous political prisoner, but also to those who are rarely mentioned by the media.
It was the Yerevan initiative of Letters of Freedom invented in November-December 2023 to conduct the marathon “support everyone”. Activists decided that all Russian political prisoners should receive news from the will, about which it is only known. And they did it. In this action, invented by political emigrants who found themselves in Armenia, thirteen cities from eight countries participated: Paris, Lisbon, Coimbra, Bologna, Parma, Turin, Milan, Chisinau, Moldova, Yerevan, Zurich, Geneva, Glendale, Budva.
-Then we still had a marathon in March 2024, when we wrote to all the women-implanted. A lot of girls from the Fem community included in this. Probably, it was a record in the number of participants in the evening of letters in Yerevan. More than 80 people came. We occupied all the premises, ”recalls Alexander.
In letters to the prisoners Letters of Freedom invests envelopes, stamps and paper for answers. Sometimes political prisoners answer. Some answers are published in the Letters of Freedom TG channel. Alexander Mashuk most remembered the answer of Galina Dovgopol, whom he wrote. Here is a fragment from this answer:
“Sanya, I must definitely survive and return. I will try very much, and believe me - I will not break! Too many years for me to be able to remake me.
Believe everything that will come in a moment when everything changes. Good always defeated evil, you just have to learn to wait.
Порой мне кажется, что мне тут гораздо легче, чем вам всем там. Да, я лишена какой-либо информации о том, что и как происходит на воле. Конечно, я отстану от жизни, от тех новшеств в технологиях и прочем. Но зато меня не отвлекает ничто от раздумий — как правильно жить и поступать?
Еще, Сань, я нашла в себе небольшой талант рисовать. Выйду, то, конечно, напишу книгу со своими иллюстрациями. У меня есть тут много увлечений, что порой не хватает времени на себя. Я спешу, спешу жить и радоваться маленьким «бонусам» судьбы.
Огромное еще раз спасибо! Берегите себя, будьте здоровы! Всех обнимаю».
— Она сидит якобы за государственную измену, — уточняет Александр. — На самом деле — за то, что, живя в Крыму около российской военной базы, не отказалась от украинского паспорта. Это ее письмо, самый первый ответ от нее, часто перечитываю. Так получилось, что не столько я ее поддержал, сколько она меня.
Александр Мишук говорит, что ответы приходят реже, чем хотелось бы. Кто-то из заключенных использует присланные Letters of Freedom марки и конверты, чтобы написать родственникам или адвокату, — это, конечно, важнее. Но главная причина — не всю корреспонденцию пропускает тюремная цензура. Это касается и бумажных, и электронных писем. В последнем случае отправителю, конечно, придет уведомление, что письмо доставлено. Но доставлено цензору. Это вовсе не гарантирует, что оно дойдет и до заключенного. По наблюдениям Александра, тюремная цензура все более ужесточается.
Ереванские вечера писем уже не собирают под сотню участников, как было в самом начале. Многие активисты уехали из Армении в страны, где им проще самореализоваться. Покинули Ереван и два основателя Letters of Freedom. Но Александр Мишук намерен продолжать вечера.
— Как и вся Россия, система ФСИН закрывается, и все больше становится похожей на черный ящик. Система все наглее, контроля над ней все меньше, пытки все жестче. Это ГУЛАГ 2.0. Спасает только то, что система огромная и разрозненная. Где-то пытают, а где-то нет. Где-то письма не передают, а где-то они все-таки доходят до заключенных. Остается только верить, надеяться и продолжать писать. Даже если письма не передают, это все равно сигнал для администрации СИЗО или колонии, что человек не один, что ему пишут, им интересуются. Так что смысл продолжать есть, к тому же ответы от политзаключенных, пусть и все реже, но все-таки нам приходят, — говорит Александр Мишук.
Андрей Новашов**