Fyodor Mirzayanov and Ilya Vasilevich are leaving the country » UDF.BY | Новости Беларуси.
01/25/2011
Early in the morning, two operating officers of an interagency task force in charge of the investigation into the so-called “riot cases” took me out of my house and forcibly brought me to the Department of Investigations.
The Head of the Department of Investigations, Lieutenant-Colonel Kazakevich, in the presence of an investigator Boroznovsky, encouraged me to officially slander the presidential candidate of Belarus. I was given a made-up confession paper which I would have to copy by hand and then sign. In exchange, I would then be considered a witness to the “riots” and not a participant. I refused to give the false testimony, for which I was arrested. When my attorney arrived, I told her about how they had made me the offer to badmouth the presidential candidates. However, as I learned in eight months when I was free, she did not report this information to my relatives and/or the media, because she had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the authorities. After talking with my lawyer, I was taken to the reception center of the Central District of Minsk, where I spent twelve hours in a cell with no light, on a wooden bench on which I could only lie sideways. Next, I was taken to a temporary detention facility on Akrestin Street.
01/27/2011
On this day, I was transported from the detention center to the Minsk Prosecutor’s office. The Minsk Deputy Prosecutor, a certain Mr. Matsel conspired with the senior investigator Dyschenko and the Head of the Investigation Kazakevich in putting pressure on me to coerce me into giving a false testimony. Not having received my consent, I was arrested again and was sent to Detention Center 1. In the order of my detention, signed by Matsel it said that “F.R. Mirzayanov had the ability and the means to obstruct the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, or its review by the court, by illegally influencing the persons involved in the criminal proceedings, and by concealment or falsification of materials relevant to the case”. However, no evidence that I could somehow have any effect on the prosecutors or the Department of Investigation was given.
01/27/2011 – 02/30/2011
I was in a “torture chamber” of Jail 1 in Minsk. In the cell, there were twenty two people, while it was designed to hold only thirteen. The area was less than 12 square meters. There was no light coming from the outside as the windows were covered by special blinds. I was in a room with common criminals who had already formed a hierarchy among them. The so-called ‘supervisor’, who was simply another prisoner with influence, was distributing beds to each inmate, ordering them around and telling them what to do. It was impossible to disobey, because he kept close to other powerful criminals and would call them for help in case I did. He put both moral and psychological pressure on from the first minute of my being in the chamber. He openly expressed to me that he hated political prisoners, and many times, I heard threats of physical harm coming in my direction.
The ‘supervisor’ told me that, for my views, I should be killed. In this, he was supported by other prisoners close to him. He was a hardened criminal who had served sentences before and his being in the cell with people who were only under investigation was a flagrant violation of the law. In addition, he had been in a remand prison for two and a half years, which is very unusual and may indicate that he was a KGB agent and was hired to “knock testimonies out” of the accused. He repeatedly told me there was no such thing as people who do not give a confession after being tortured. He mentioned it as if it was a joke. The inmates forced me to clean the cell which they justified by it being a prison tradition as I was the new guy and also, not one of them. I was only allowed to lie on the cot not more than eight hours a day. It was very difficult to fall asleep, so I could only get 3-4 hours of sleep daily.
02/01/2011
Investigator Boroznovsky came to question me. He promised that if I take the blame, even partially, then he would change the condition of detention to that of “on own recognizance”. Exhausted mentally and physically, I agreed to admit my guilt, albeit “ in part”. Immediately after I pleaded guilty, I was moved from the “torture chamber” to a cell with more or less normal conditions.
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02.02.2011 – 14.03.2011
They lied to me. They did not change the conditions of detention. However, they did stop exerting moral and psychological pressure on me. For a while, at least. One day in February, though, I was visited by an Operations Officer of the Interagency Task Force who was investigating the “mass riots”. He wanted me to admit that I was a member of some opposition group so that the charges brought against me would not look so silly. I said that I was not in any of the opposition organizations.
I think now that this interrogation was filmed on a hidden camera, to then be shown on national television which is their common practice. After the interrogation, he told me that I would be detained while the trial was going on. I did not believe him, but he was right. In Belarus, you see, the time in detention is determined not by judges or prosecutors, but by a KGB operative.
03/14/2011 – 03/24/2011
On March 14, I was again transferred to the “torture chamber”. As the case against me was approaching its “closure” and was being transferred to the prosecutor and the courts, it was necessary for them to prepare me to give the “right” statements. This time, I had it even worse than the last. Insults and threats could be heard almost every minute. During the meeting with my attorney on March 17, I turned to him for help. However, most probably, our conversation was eavesdropped on because, already on the next day, the “supervisor” declared that he knew what I was talking about with my lawyer, and warned that it would not help me, because he “had connections” with the administration of the detention facility. On March 22, my fellow inmates became aware of an article published on the website “Belarusian Partisan” in which “the torture chamber” was described. I was then threatened with rape and murder. A few hours later I was taken from my cell and led to one of the heads of the detention facility, a captain. He did not introduce himself. I was told that on the Internet there was an article about the “torture chamber” and I was suspected to be the source of it. I was warned that it would be in a bad shape if I did not write a statement to the head of the detention center, which would indicate that I have no complaints about my fellow inmates and the staff of the facility. I agreed because I had no way out. The content of the letters that I sent from the chamber were shared with the “supervisor”. He knew what I had written and who I had written it to. On March 24, after I wrote in a letter that I would commit suicide if I was not transferred to another cell, I was summoned to an interview with Chief of the Operations, a Major. He said that I was being transferred to another cell and asked that I would make sure that, nowhere in the media, there would appear any information about the conditions of this prison. I was then transferred to a cell with “normal conditions of detention”.
03/14/2011
My lawyer submitted the motion to the court to have me released on my own recognizance. Judge Essman did not respond to the appeal. The fact that I was a student in good standing, that I had a permanent domicile, and was chronically ill was not even taken into consideration. As a result, Judge Essman is now also on the list people who have been banned entry into the European Union for the imposition of unjust sentences on democratic activists.
04/04/2011
Senior investigator Kalyuta visited me and announced that an investigation of my criminal case had been completed and that now it will be closed and transferred to the courts. They suggested that I read the case materials. I was amazed at the numerous violations of the law and trumped up charges which were present in the case:
1. I was now in a joint case with completely unknown to me people. According to the investigators, we all acted in a concert, although three of these four people I had only seen in the courthouse for the first time when I was being arraigned! One of them was the presidential candidate Sannikov, who is still being kept in the dungeons of the KGB.
2. The evidence in the criminal case was extracted with numerous violations. The “findings” by medical experts of injury we allegedly inflicted on SWAT officers were made on the basis of an extract from the reception log of patients in one of the clinics of the KGB. The Inspection of Special Forces who had supposedly suffered physical trauma through our actions was not carried out by any medical experts!
3. The charge against me was that I was trying to break through a cordon near the SWAT officers positioned by the Government House, that I made “a few kicks” at the wooden fence at the door of Government House and threw shards of glass at the Special Forces personnel. However, in the video presented in this case, it was clearly seen that I was not trying to break through the cordon of the SWAT staff, that I was not kicking the wooden fence, and was not throwing any pieces of glass at the SWAT officers!
4. All the proof of the existence of a mass disorder was based on the testimony by members of Special Forces. There was only circumstantial evidence from the testimony of some opposition politicians who were detained on December 19. However, later, in court, these people abandoned their testimony and claimed that these statements were extorted from them by force by the KGB.
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5. However, in no part of the videos presented in the case was it shown how the KGB officers, dressed in civilian clothes, were beginning to break down the doors of Government House and urging the protesters to join them.
27/04/2011 – 14/05/2011
The trials were carried out as quickly as possible – 8-9 hours maximum. We were taken to the bathroom only once a day. It was impossible to eat because we were taken away from the detention center at six o’clock in the morning and taken back at only eight o’clock in the evening.
Judge Chatvyartkova rejected numerous petitions by presidential candidate Sannikov to reduce the time of the trial due to severe physical pain caused by the aggravation of his gout condition. Sannikov was forced to listen to the trial while in a standing position because that way, he felt less pain. Most of the lawyer’s requests for an extension of the investigation and to clarify additional circumstances of the case were turned down. The key testimony of the Special Forces and government agencies were read in the absence of the persons who had given the testimony. These were very controversial, but the requests by lawyers to call witnesses to the court were rejected.
Despite all the fatigue and exhaustion, I did all I could to prove my innocence to the court. However, my pointing out that the accusation against me was fabricated, and that it was clear in the KGB videos that were presented in the case, was ignored by Judge Chatvyartkova. During the viewing of the videotapes of the events of December 19, I pointed directly to judge Chatvyartkova that I was not doing in the video what I was being charged with. My objections, however, were not reflected in the verdict of the court. There also remained many unproven lies in the investigation, which were not paid attention to during the trial. Prosecutor Zagorovsky fully supported the investigation and did not notice the numerous contradictions in the record.
My mother was forbidden to go to the court hearings after she called one of the meetings a “farce”. She was not allowed to be present in the room during the announcement of the court verdict, so she had to shout out to me from the hallway outside the court, so that I would hear that she was near. In the verdict, there was absent the testimony of two witnesses who saw that I had not committed any illegal acts near the Government House on December 19.
The latter were given by the presidential candidate Rimashevsky and a human rights advocate Oleg Volchek. The judge failed to consider the testimony of these witnesses at the sentencing. I was sentenced to three years imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony.
The sentence was clearly not based on obvious facts, but was instead given to please the KGB and the dictator Lukashenko.
Later, judge Chatvyartkova and prosecutor Zagorovsky were added to the list of people banned from entry into EU countries for their role in repression of democratic activists.
15/05/2011 – 14/07/2011
My attorney filed an appeal at the Minsk City Court. The date of a new examination was scheduled for 15.7.2011. All the time until the appeal was made I was in Jail 1 on Volodarsky Street. I was locked in a very small space without ventilation. The temperature outside would reach +32 degrees Celcius. Inside the cell, however, it was much hotter. In the Belarusian prisons they still have three-tiered bunks, which allow the authorities to fill in a small room with a maximum number of people. A walk is allowed once a day. Prison yards are tiny in size. They are, basically, patios, where not only one cannot walk, but one can barely find room to stand. The cells have only cold water. They take you to the bathhouse not more than once a week. The break between baths could sometimes be as long as ten days. The cells have unsanitary conditions. Due to the large crowds of people being in one tight place, infectious diseases such as influenza, scabies, head lice and others spread very quickly. Many people have found linen lice in their beddings. In our cell, laundry lice were found in four places. One man became ill with scabies.
The political prisoners in Jail 1 get special treatment. When my lawyer came to me before meeting him in the office, the guard read all the papers I was carrying, conducted a full search and forced me to strip and squat. If it was found in the papers that I said something critical of the Belarusian authorities, it was to be confiscated.
Even though a large number of letters was sent to me, none ever reached me. I did not get any printouts from the Internet that showed people’s support for me, and that, in the world, there were a lot of those who felt solidarity with me. While in Jail 1, I did not get a single card or a single letter from abroad. And I sent those out in hundreds! If my letters mentioned the current government, dictator Lukashenko, the unfair judgments against me and others, and the difficult economic situation in the country, they predictably never reached my family and/or friends.
Medical care in Jail 1 was extremely substandard. For all cases of sickness, the paramedic offered the same drugs – acetaminophen and aspirin.
15/07/2011
An appeal that my attorney had lodged in Minsk City Court received a reply. I was not surprised that the sentence was upheld. As you can see, the Belarusian court system is corrupt from top to bottom.
28/07/2011 – 08/01/2011
I was transferred from Jail 1 to a colony named, “Wolf’s Lair”. The transfer lasted about four days. First, I was placed in a paddy wagon and taken to the railway station. They put me in a special car for escorting prisoners called “Stolypin” after a famous Russian police despot. Two hours later, I arrived in the town of Baranovichi, where they put me back into the paddy wagon and took me to jail. There I spent several hours together with six other inmates in a stuffy room which was so extremely small in size, that there was barely any room to stand, let alone to sit down. We were not allowed to go to the bathroom, nor were we given any food or water. Then they took us in for an inspection. The guard asked me for a pack of nuts. I had to give it to him, because he could take away from me my other food. After that we were taken to a transit cell, where I stayed for three days. In this room, there were two wooden decks. One was at the top, the other one was below. On these decks there were five dirty, unpleasant-smelling mattresses, which had obviously not been changed in years. Bed linen was not provided. In the cell there were about twenty people. They did not bring us letters; there were no newspapers or television. Medical care was also not provided.
08/01/2011 – 08/22/2011
Three weeks later, I was in the Quarantine of the penal colony of “Wolf’s Lair.” Typically, prisoners are held there for not longer than ten days. The Head of Quarantine, a former “Deputy for Political Work” in other colonies, told me that my identity should be fully investigated before I would be allowed to be assigned to a group of prisoners.
I think my excessively long stay in the Quarantine was due to the fact that the KGB gave an order to the operative department of the colony to “work me over” so that I would write a petition for clemency to the dictator…
A letter from Andrew Olegovich Sannikov from the Novopolotsk penal colony found me at the end of the earth, in Sakhalin.
Here at the Sakhalin State University, I read the author’s course on drug prevention.
The Japanese call Sakhalin “Sahaliya Karafuto” which means “birch island.” Indeed, there are many birch trees here. Just like in Belarus. And, as in Belarus, a hard labor camp was created here in the 19th century. In 1869, a first batch of convicts was sent here, eight hundred of them. It was about the same number as of those arrested on December 19, 2010 in Minsk, after the protests against the rigged results of the presidential elections.
In the summer of 1890, Anton Chekov visited The Birch Island and since then, Sakhalin has been inextricably linked with the name of the writer. Chekhov studied, and then described in his writings the miserable world in which people who were sentenced to hard labor were forced to live. Among them, political prisoners were also present. One of the main items in the Chekov Literary Museum is his book “The Sakhalin Island- Daily Lives of the Convicts”. Time will come, I believe, when through the efforts of those devoted to the cause of Belarus freedom, a similar museum of political prisoners will be set up in a free and democratic country.
Visitors to that future museum will be able to look into the distant past, and one of the main items on display will be a letter to the presidential candidate, a prisoner of conscience S. A. Sannikov, the letter that ended up in Sakhalin.
It so happened that I was not in Belarus when the country had the election campaign. I was not on the Square on the Election Day. Thousands of people gathered. Candidates for President of the country were there. My son who, for the first time in his life, was exercising his right to choose was there, too. However, after the events of December 19, I was forced to stay in Belarus and to go to Volodarka daily as if I was going to work.
I began to live the life of thousands of people passionate about their struggle for freedoms and for economic and political change in the country.
I never knew Sannikov’s family , as I did not know the Statkevich, Ussov, Nyeklyaev, or Mikhalevich families. I never knew Sannikov’s grandfather – one of the founders of the National Yanka Kupala Theatre. The first time I saw Sannikov was on April 27, 2011, on the day of the trial. With him, in the dock, there were also four young boys, including my son. That was when I got the idea to set up the “Happiness Behind Bars” column online so that people would know about what was happening.
Immediately after the unjust sentence was handed down, I sent all the Decembrists a letter with the “happiness questionnaire”. The resulting letters from political prisoners had become an invaluable material for the readers and also for those psychologists who had not sold out to the regime. By reading these letters, you, dear readers, have repeatedly learned that prisons deprive many people of the most basic things, taking away their natural right to enjoy life and to be happy. In such an environment nothing even remotely resembling happiness can ever be attained.
Here is Sannikov’s letter. Please read it carefully, and see for yourself how this person, who dared to embark on becoming a presidential candidate in the midst of the Belarusian political reality, remains true to his principles, even when in prison.
He lets us see his inner world and what he feels now that he is incarcerated. He does not escape into the future, but lets us experience his present reality the way it is. He has no illusions about the seriousness of the situation while remaining very much in control of his thoughts and feelings. Just look at the vitality of this man and see how psychologically sound he is in spite of the ordeal!
In spite of the physical and emotional suffering that the regime has caused him, he did not break. How hard must it be to write about personal things when you are behind bars, when you are a candidate for President of a country! The letter is informative, cautious and discreet. He knows only too well that it will be read by the authorities, and thus, will not give out any information that can bring harm to him or those outside, should it fall into the wrong hands.
“Dear Ludmila F!
I would be happy to help you in your research about happiness in prison; however, I regret to tell you that I cannot give complete answers to your questions. The reason is simple- I am still in custody. Thus, my being frank in my answers may be used (and how!) against me. It has nothing to do with my political views or anything like that. Here I have nothing to hide, and I do not intend to change them. But it has to do with things spiritual and psychological- emotions, general mood, and things like that. Therefore, I will not answer too fully or too frankly. I will just talk generally about myself and what I have been going through here.
I believe that people cannot experience happiness in prison because in order for a person to be happy, total freedom is necessary. When you are locked up like this, all the feelings and emotions you have, will, one way or another, eventually be stifled by the bars and the guards. I can say the same about being able to feel joy. It is not easy to feel anything like that here.
I will try to explain why I think so. In my opinion, in order to preserve your sanity while in such circumstances, it is necessary to avoid abrupt changes in emotion, both negative and positive. You must control any type of emotional outbursts and not let your mind wander or your thoughts get out of control.
It is clear that all aspects of life in prison are very oppressive and, thus, can lead a person to despair and a loss of identity. Especially, during the interrogations, a great deal of negativity is thrown at you. They try to wear you down with long questioning, try and provoke this and that reaction in you, and use various other psychological means in an attempt to break you down. In these situations it is important to maintain your mental balance and clarity of perception. Oddly enough, maintaining mental stability also involves forcing yourself to avoid the feeling of being overjoyed when a rare occasion presents itself, of which there are very few. It is also very important not internalize your emotions, but to achieve total absence of any emotional swings or expressions.
As far as joy is concerned, the main joy for me has always been anything that has had to do with getting news from my family, friends and loved ones. At the same time, I understand that getting a letter or a newspaper today does not mean that I will be receiving them regularly. I am happy when I get something, but I do not just sit and wait, hoping that more will arrive soon.
When behind bars you do feel strange joy, or rather relief: since you are already incarcerated, there is either no more questioning or the interrogations are now much faster, there are no more tedious “forced talks” with sinister men with shoulder boards of different government departments. The main positive feeling in prison is when there are fewer negative ones.
However, I am not able answer your question about there being a specific “formula for attainment of happiness” in prison. I am really sorry about that.’
Did you feel, dear readers, that the politician does not give up, even when he is in jail?
He keeps moving ahead, taking calm and firm steps towards his goals in spite of everything. Reason still illuminates his path in life, and the harsh experience gained over eight months in prison has brought him even more strength to keep going. He tries to stay calm in the face of the obstacles facing him, a mark of a truly wise man.
He does not engage in self-deception nor harbor empty hopes for an early release, or some prisoner exchange with the participation of European politicians. He is able to encourage himself and give courage to other political prisoners who face hardships of prison life. Of course, he feels anxiety, grief and sadness and even despair, but he does not give in to misery. Despite being deprived of so much, this courageous man feels the joy of serving others and thus, I dare say, he has found happiness.
Don’t you think that this letter from prison was written by a happy man? That the man has attained the state of absolute happiness, and thus, as La Mettrie once said, “ has found everything ” ? Personally, I felt the happiness that was coming from the letter, and I understand why it makes no sense to seek happiness when you are happy already. After all, you have a beloved wife and a son, a loving mother, good friends, supporters, voters, and a cause to devote your life to.
Without having expressly bestowed upon us a recipe for happiness, without having given the government censors the chance to lay their hands on his most private, personal feelings, the politician still provided us with the main ingredient of the formula which is crucial for a happy life of every Belarusian. And the ingredient is FREEDOM!
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk – Minsk
What is happiness? Some say, it is found in private life. According to others, it is to be attained in one’s profession, or in the favorite business. Professions, as you know, are aplenty, and varieties of happiness are also innumerable. And given the fact that the owner of a profession is an actual person who resides at a particular time in a country with a particular form of government, the shades of happiness are also quite numerous.
There is wine- taster’s happiness. Open a new bottle of wine and enjoy the taste! Not in the Slutsk region of Belarus, though. There is also the geophysicist’s happiness. Always scouting and developing: and then,’ Bingo! We‘ve found oil!’ There is a happy blogger, too. Be a pilot in the sea of information until your computer gets confiscated! There is a happy image-maker. Create an image, the image of the future President! The voters will “pay”. There is the happiness of an ecologist and a district surveyor. A riot policeman also has his happiness- it is in the number of people he can pack into his Black Mariah.
There is the journalist’s happiness. And there is the happiness of a journalist of an independent newspaper. There is judge’s happiness. There is happiness of a defense attorney of a political prisoner. There is happiness of a minister and a deputy. And there is happiness of the deputy minister which is double happiness. There is the happiness of the prison staff. They say, though, that there is no such thing as “prison happiness” and I’m also inclined to believe that there is no such thing for those who are incarcerated.
‘A normal person, if he is not a masochist, is unlikely to experience happiness from punishment Knowing that he is mortal, and even more, as said Woland, ‘ suddenly mortal’, a man in jail has been removed from life as he knows it. He is sure that there was life “before” and there is life “after”, but now he is forced to just kill time. Falling asleep in prison, a man thanks God that a day has passed, but not because the day was meaningful, or that it was useful or that he was happy, but because he was now one day closer to freedom.
Lights out! His sentence is now one day shorter, but so is his remaining life- it is now one day shorter, too. Besides creating disgust and degradation, the so called “correction” in prison does nothing else. In the penal zone, you have nothing to do but kill time, but you have no right to choose how to go about it or how to give that time some meaningful characteristics. Without being able to do that, the sad task of killing time becomes extremely empty. All that makes imprisonment not an act of correction, but just that of punishment’.
( Dmitry Drozd. 38 years old. Historian and researcher. Member of the presidential candidate, Andrei Sannikov’s initiative group. Political prisoner. Sentenced to three years in a maximum security penal colony. Serving time in Bobruisk colony # 2)
‘When behind bars, one cannot be fully happy. With the loss of freedom, you lose the opportunity to do things you love, you lose your livelihood,you cannot be with your loved ones, the people who are dear to you. Even the most ordinary thing which you take for granted –to be able to go where you want, whenever you want – you are deprived of that, too ’
(Vladimir Eremenok. 21. An activist of “The Young Front”. Political prisoner. Sentenced to three years in a maximum security colony. Serving time in Vitsba colony.)
‘Did I experience happiness behind bars? No. I did experience some “joy”, though. I was glad when there was a place to sleep. I rejoiced when we could just fall asleep at night. I enjoyed hearing, during the time of forced wakefulness, the sound of a “bike” outside the walls, speeding by. I would be thinking of its owner with a smile. He was a man on the outside. He was free. I enjoyed greeting the dawn through the narrow windows of my cell. I was so pleased when a letter from the outside arrived, when in the maze of the jail we would meet each other. Happy rendezvous with friends. We were so glad to see the first spring rain come.’
(Ilya Vasilevich. 19. Student. Political prisoner. Sentenced to three years in a maximum security colony. Serving time in Mogilev colony number 19.)
‘The thing that does not allow you to experience full happiness in prison is the absence of relatives and loved ones. But life goes on in prison. That is why I was able to find reasons to rejoice even while there. What gave me most joy, were letters from people without whom life in jail was very hard. They were an important part in my formula of happiness – my beloved Nastya (Anastasia Polazhanko, his bride) and my dear relatives, who devoted their lives to me and to whom I devoted my life in return, who helped me to remain firm in my beliefs, and realize the goals I had set for myself in the most practical way.’
(Dmitry Dashkevich. 30. The President of “The Young Front”. Political prisoner. He was sentenced to two years in a penal colony. Serving his time in the Gorki colony.)
‘In prison you feel like you are in zero gravity. Occasionally, there is a feeling of joy when you get good news from the outside. But this feeling soon disappears. I do not grieve about what happened and never regret my actions. Most likely, it is because I do not see myself guilty of any wrongdoing. Only one thing keeps me happy and strong and it is my goal – the liberation of my country and its people from this evil regime’.
(Edward Lobov. 22. Head of the Minsk branch of the “The Young Front”. Political prisoner. He was sentenced to four years in a maximum security colony. Serving time in “Wolf’s Lair” colony).
‘A prison is not an institution; it is a state of mind. And, it in that sense, most citizens of my country are imprisoned. Happiness is possible only under one condition – FREEDOM! First and foremost, inner freedom! Despite the complexity of the situation in which I have found myself, I have been truly encouraged by my friends’ and family’s loyalty. The people whom you meet on your path, their kindness and humanity, give you joy. New and interesting experiences make you feel glad, too. And yes, you can have them in prison, why not? You also feel overjoyed when you realize that the system and its minions, which you had to face in your struggle, are in fact, impotent and inefficient’.
(Ales Kirkevich. 21. Chief of the Hrodna branch of the “The Young Front”. Political prisoner. He was sentenced to four years in a maximum security colony. Serving his time in the Novopolotsk colony.)
Happiness depends on the country where you live, the government and the President. It is a fact already established by scientists. Based on their experience in prison, thousands of Belarusian political prisoners, “the Decembrists” became even more convinced of this truth. By controlling the country, the President can either bestow happiness, or he can make you and your nation miserable.
But the President, like any other person, too, can be a happy person. Or, perhaps a deeply unhappy man. A correspondent of a Russian newspaper has once disclosed the formula of happiness given to him by the President of Iceland. The main components in this formula, she says are happy citizens.
So, what does the happy president guarantee his country?
He guarantees freedom of speech, a high rating of the quality of life, a well-functioning school and university system, and a low level of corruption. The happy president offers his citizens and the country’s public organizations and associations the right to actively address election issues. All the major problems are solved by the duly elected parliament of the nation. The inhabitants of the happy President’s country have high life expectancy and one of the highest indicators of happiness in the world.
What is the Belarusian President’s formula for happiness? And is he himself really happy if he does not guarantee those things that would make his citizens happy? After all, unlike in Iceland, in Belarus trouble is in great abundance, but happiness can only measured in zolotniks (the smallest unit of weight equal to 4.266 grams, which is used primarily for weighing gold and silver). Recently, Belarusians, have been witnessing how their internal “gold reserve” was being exhausted right in front of their eyes. This has been encouraged by an illiterate government economic policy, the mad rise of prices and the reduction of wages, the lack of freedoms, or the inability to use them.
Every electoral campaign in the country is an epidemic of unhappiness with hundreds arrested, and dozens put behind bars for long periods of time. Any activity of protest by the people is followed by trials and harsh sentences. In fact, since December 19, 2010, we have been witnessing a fear sowing campaign in which, instead of the agricultural machines in the field, the riot police is driving Black Mariahs, and Alexander Lukashenko is reaping a harvest of those whom he has fined and imprisoned.
The total gross harvest of detainees has already reached three thousand people.
Obviously, the government is not responsible for the accumulation of happiness “reserves” for the people and for the preservation of the public domain.
It looks like happy people are not wanted by this regime!
There are food famines, but also, there are information famines. While incarcerated, more people experience the latter. One does not starve to death from the information hunger. But the life on the outside, for those who are on the inside, dies. Sometimes, no signals from the outside world reach prisoners for months. The resulting silence makes one want to scream.
The presidential candidate, the members of his staff and the youth activists would remain in such forced silence in the winter of 2011. Under the conditions of organized information famine, the regime was trying to break down the political prisoners in the colonies in order to force them to write petitions asking the President for clemency.
Why is such information hunger scary? It is because it affects the psyche, gradually developing in those behind bars the state of anxiety, depression, by creating sleep disturbances, and by reducing the working capacity of their minds making them deteriorate. A prisoner in solitary confinement can also develop “prison psychosis”. The symptoms are depression, insomnia, fear, auditory and visual hallucinations, hysterics, and delusional fantasies.
Psychologists believe that people always need information in its complete form and only then they can function normally. In the contrary case, lack of information leads to errors in perception and the ability to evaluate current events and those of the actions of the people around one, and hinder the adoption of productive solutions to everyday problems. Well aware of this, those in charge of prisons got orders to delay the letters of the prisoners to the outside world thus creating an information vacuum around them.
This was the case with one of the inmates of the Bobruisk colony, where the regime tried to make the isolation so unbearable that he would ask for clemency. I only received a letter from him three weeks after he wrote it and, ironically, only on the day when it became known that nine participants in the demonstrations on the Square had been pardoned.
Lack of information makes those in jail truly suffer. This is well known to the powers, so everything is being done to make sure these people suffer. In one example, after a terrorist attack on the Minsk subway, the mother of Nikita Lihoveda, Helen, sent him a telegram to let him know that his family was all right. The telegram was handed to Nikita in his Valadarski jail a whole fifteen days later. Just imagine what the young man must have gone through! Imagine what the parents, the wives and the loved ones of the political prisoners must go through when they do not get any letters from them for months on end!
When no information reaches the prisoners, terrible melancholy sets in. ‘I realized the meaning of the word ‘punishment’, – wrote political prisoner Pavel Vinogradov in his letter from Wolf’s Lair prison, – punishment is when you are forced to spend your days in empty idleness; when you have nowhere to go, nothing to do.’
Prisoners find themselves in the state of information famine for a couple of reasons. The most obvious one is because all of them have been forcibly removed from their normal daily lives. The second is that the prison authorities utilize both internal and external censorship to further their isolation.
Internal censorship among prisoners is carried out in several ways. All of their correspondence is strictly controlled. Therefore, a letter may be delayed for weeks before it reaches the addressee.
Some letters are confiscated and do not reach their destination at all. A government “No letters for prisoners” operation was carried out in June – July of this year. Also, to coincide with the wave of silent actions of protests in the country, there began an official campaign to force the imprisoned activists to write letters asking the President for mercy. As if to purposely aggravate the situation further, the correctional facility’s only official in charge of censorship suddenly went on vacation effectively shutting out all communications between the prisoners and the society outside.
As a result of all this, political prisoners either receive partial news from the outside or do not receive them at all. They are not able to learn much about what is happening with their family, friends, work or school.
Of course, the information deficit is experienced by non political prisoners as well. However, unlike these, the political ones are also denied full access to all forms of news from the media, with the censors deliberately cutting out pieces of newspaper articles and routinely blacking out any kind of mention of anything in the letters that has to do with the news from the democratic press or opposition sites.
The ban on using the phone and the computer in jail, no Internet access, and only being allowed one ten-minute call a month adds significantly to theses people’s isolation . Prisoners have to apply one month in advance to ask for the permission to make a phone call to their loved ones and even then, there is no guarantee that they will be able to call them. There are just not enough pay phones in the penal colonies. However, every year there are more and more prisoners who want to satisfy their information hunger. In addition, any prisoner may be deprived of this phone privilege under any pretext, and if he is perceived to be in violation of the penal zone’s many rules and regulations.
There is another form of censorship, which is restriction on what the imprisoned activists are allowed to read. For example, works of fiction are banned, and they are only permitted to receive religious and educational literature.
The external censorship makes the information hunger even harder to bear. It is a total disgrace for our judicial system that the political prisoners in Belarus are routinely denied the right to an attorney. Such was the regular practice in the KGB jail where they were held in relation to their involvement in the December 19 Affair. Allowing journalists or representatives of human rights organizations to visit Belarusian jails was even further out of the question.
Are there ways to fight the hunger for information in prison? The best way would be to be able to regularly get news from relatives, and to have access to any new knowledge in general. For this systematic, meaningful, personal, and inspiring correspondence is a must. It is also crucial that the prisoners be able to get in touch with famous and influential people on the outside, such as the politicians, the journalists, the writers and the musicians.
Thirst for information can occur not only in its absence but also, if it is limited to just short messaging, or to business forms with formal requests. As the length of time spent in incarceration increases, so does a person’s need for detailed information. He needs to know more about what is happening in the country, the world and what is new in the lives of his friends and relatives.
Another way to prevent information famine in the penal colonies is through education. This has been done in developed countries for a long time. However, in Belarusian prisons, only secondary vocational education is allowed, and then, to only a select few. On one occasion, the mother of the political prisoner Edward Lobova, Marina asked the authorities to allow her son to obtain college education through distance learning. However, the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus who were in charge of computer communications categorically denied her request. ‘Not allowed’, was their answer.
In contrast to Belarus, the inmates in the Russian Federation have been entitled to receive not only high school, but also college education since as far back as 1996. It takes five and a half years, and, after the graduation, a state diploma is given. The tuition is also quite reasonable: 2, 685, 5584 Belarusian rubles per academic year.
Among Russian prisoners, the most popular program has been that of the Modern Humanities Academy. Through the use of remote technology, six hundred and five inmates serving sentences in twenty three penal colonies located in ten Russian regions have been able to study for a higher degree. The Academy’s platform offers different types of computer-based training and coaching programs, where, by actively using the Internet, electronic books, and distance courses these people can successfully complete their education.
I understand that in the times of the economic crisis, the last thing on the regime’s mind is how to give quality professional education to prisoners. For the authorities, the problem is that young people of country’s colleges and universities study too long and too much. As for the college of hard knocks in prison, that one is easy to get into. Anyone that does not toe the party line can become a ‘student’ there with no entrance exams and no other special requirements. The hardest part is getting kicked out; for that you need to write a petition for clemency to the President.
December 20, 2010. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The time difference with Belarus is eight hours. I am worried about my son who has been detained in Minsk for participation in an anti-government protest. I turn on the government channel of the Republic of Belarus. After a few seconds of viewing it, I recall Mikhail Gorbachev’s catch phrase: “The process has started …”. The discrediting of the dissidents who not long ago showed their opposition to the current government on the city square has begun. But, in fact, it was the beginning of a well thought out political action . In those days of December, I said to one of my fellow psychologists: “In the future, you will write a dissertation on” The Defamation of Activists: its psychological conditions and mechanisms (re: the events of December 19, 2010 in Belarus).
The Russian dictionary of synonyms has thirteen words that mean the same as the word obesslavlivanie (defamation). I say- not enough!
Backbiting, backstabbing, belittlement, denigration, depreciation, detraction, disparagement, obloquy, opprobrium, slander, slur, traducement, and vilification.
They are not just synonyms, but functions that are performed by the bought law enforcement agents, editors and journalists of the state media. While such functions are not spelled out in the list of their professional duties and such people do not officially work for some Department of Defamation and Vilification, their actions are officially sanctioned, nevertheless. The only pity is that some opposition members are willingly, and sometimes without realizing it, have helped the authorities pile filth on their fellow party members.
In the New T.F. Ephraim, and Dahl Russian dictionaries “to defame” means “to spread an evil rumor about someone, to publically scold or disgrace, to attempt to ruin someone’s good name, reputation and honor.” For over seventeen years already, certain elements in power in Belarus have been actively using a variety of forms and methods to slander its various opposition parties and movements as well as its human rights organizations. They have been doing their utmost to assassinate the character of the people who lead them and to discredit their work, methods and the results they have attained. Skillfully, evil conditions are created for politicians to unwittingly dishonor themselves. As a result, once the reputation of such a politician is in shambles, this automatically discredits the organization which he or she belongs to.
One of the things that the powers achieve by doing it is creating a justification for their persecution of the dissident opposition and a negative public attitude towards it. Through defamation, suspicion is sowed, trust is undermined, and a general hostile atmosphere is maintained. They try to demean the dignity, authority and prestige of the leaders, destroy the inter-party communication as well as any connection between them and the citizens of the country.
Defamation is a stratagem to form a negative image of the participants in the protests, the presidential candidates, their staff and all the progressive young people in general. Personally, for me as a voter, those in power have forever lost those young people who demonstrated on TV on Dec 19, and who later gave the alleged “confessions” of wrongdoings.
When I saw on TV a student, my friend’s son, delivered to the authorities by the director of his college, who had, prior to that, enticed him into his office under false pretexts and had him arrested, you, people in power became aliens to me forever! Only those who are not one of us are capable to hate the youth so much as to be willing to publicly discredit them in the public eye, causing mental anguish to their parents and friends. And all of it with one purpose: to extend their hold on power. In a few months, these same young men, having experienced harsh prison conditions will survive the trials, boldly accept the sentences handed to them and still categorically refuse to petition the President for clemency.
The whole thing would not be so horrible and disgusting, if it was only limited to the possibly temporary process of defamation, however, the results are insidious and long: ordinary citizens gradually form deep-seated prejudices which later become established social norms. Such prejudices are hard to budge or weaken afterwards, let alone destroy. Negative social labeling is used in making the resentment as long lasting as possible. The President and the Belarus television brand their opponents with such words as “The Fifth Column”, “troublemakers”, “grant-suckers”, “hands of Moscow”, “enemies of the people” . These labels, as if a shameful mark upon the forehead of the opposition totally discredit it in the eyes of the society. This leads to the result desired by the powers – quite a few people will no longer want to have anything to do with the dissident parties, and begin to fear and shun their representatives. The leaders of the silent protests in Belarus, while also disapproving of the authority, at the same time distanced themselves from the opposition, and thus, did not gain anything in the process.
I have conducted a survey. The sampling was random and included mostly residents of Minsk and the Minsk region between the ages of 18 to 75 years, representatives of different professions, as well as students and pensioners. There were 94 people total. Among those interviewed, there were no members of the opposition movements. The survey showed that most respondents’ attitude to the Belarusian opposition was either positive or ambivalent (both positive and negative). Changes in the direction of a significant improvement in the perceptions of the opposition, as stated by the respondents themselves, occurred during the election campaign, and in the course of the events following December 19, 2010.
There is enthusiasm for “heroes,” “patriots”, “the vanguard”, “the best representatives of society,” “the freedom fighters of the people.” There is also a positive attitude illustrated by such words as: “honest,” “daring,” “holding a conviction,” “thinking about the people.” There is a compassionate attitude expressed by such terms as “kamikaze,” “persecuted,” “exiles,” “suffering,” “victim mode”, “doomed.” There is a negative attitude conveyed by using such descriptions as “losers”, “talkers,” “liars,” “conflict”. Finally, there is hostility to the opposition: “no job”, “financed from abroad,” “ready to cause economic harm to the country”, “spoiling the country’s image.”
Thus, the attitude towards the opposition in the society varies. Prejudice against it remains.
August 4, 2011. I get on the Internet, and one of the sites has a striking headline: “The raid on“the Spring” carried out. Bialiatski taken in for questioning.” The next step in “discrediting the department” has been made. The defamation of the opposition continues.
December 19, 2010 divided the lives of many mothers in Belarus into the “before” and “after” parts. After the sentencing of their sons, tens of ordinary Belarusian women became mothers of political prisoners. ‘Only twice in life, during the birth and the death of their child, a mother hears her own cry as if it were coming from outside,’ once stated Isadora Duncan.
I beg to disagree with the American dancer. I will say that there is a third time, and it happens when her son is handed a verdict that deprives him of his liberty. It is no coincidence that the last words that the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, that the eldest of the five “Decembrists” said in the courtroom were ‘Take care of my mother! ’ He was a wise man, indeed!
Immediately after the arrests, what held the mothers and the sons together became their letters to each other. ‘Mom, you don’t need to lower your eyes when they ask you where I was ’ wrote Nikita Likhovid in his first letter to his mother Helen.
‘What brought me one of the greatest joys of my life was the first letter from my son in prison. I felt the delight which can only be compared to what I felt when he was born’ – admitted the mother of the political prisoner Edward Lobova, Marina.
In such letters, they got the opportunity to tell their mothers what they could never tell them face- to-face in real life, as such sentimentalities would go against stringent local social rules in regards to how a man is allowed to express himself. After several months of detention, in a letter to his mother, the thirty-eight year old political prisoner Dmitry Drozd opened up: ‘Mom – you are my only treasure on this earth’. I am convinced that all the other incarcerated “Decembrists” will also sign their names under these words. Below, with his consent, I will quote Dmitry’s letter in full.
A Letter to Mom
‘I was a pretty wild kid, and I did not like all those namby-pamby mushy expressions of affection such as hugging, kissing, sweet words of endearment, and I would always consider it mandatory to defiantly wipe my cheeks after all your kissing.
As I aged, these displays of affection were, basically, reduced to zero. Except that, on rare occasions, when we both knew we were parting for a long time, such as when I was going on my hippy trip to Africa, or as a guest worker to Moscow, where I would disappear for months or even longer, we would hug in the hallway. And we also hugged on that day of December 19, 2010. I knew then where I was going.
I knew that troops were gathering in Minsk, that there were now water cannons in the city to disperse the demonstrators, and all that was in the -10C, -20C degree temperatures. I knew that the commander’s voice would not flinch when he would order them to open fire (or water) on us.
I did not know if I would be coming home again. It was scary, and you did not want me to go there. More precisely, knowing that I would still go, you tried to stop me. But I went, taking with me a bullhorn. That bullhorn would later be shown on the video, and used as evidence when charges were read against me, and when I was sentenced.
Then there were ten days in Zhodino, followed by a month of freedom, and one more goodbye in the hallway, in front of two police officers who arrived at 7:00 AM to take me in as a witness. And a six month long internment first in temporary detention centre-1 and then in the penal colony-2.
I do not know how many tears you shed during that time, how many times the folks at home would wake up hearing you cry, how many times your blood pressure would shoot up, how many times you called the ambulance.
You do not write to me about the fact that you are in terrible pain now; that you are really suffering. I know that you are trying to protect me from feeling your pain the way you feel it. However, it is no accident that in your letters, there momentarily flashed the words ‘to go in for a medical examination’. I know how you’re afraid of doctors and that you would only consider becoming a patient at a hospital as a last resort.
Your fears are well-founded, too -our family has been plagued by misdiagnoses, failed operations and early deaths as long as we can remember. Your mother, father and your elder brother all died as a result of medical errors. Your husband, my father, died suddenly just a few days before his fortieth birthday. When he passed away, I was only18, but now, I am 38, almost as old he was when he died. And if I am to believe the verdict handed to me, I stand to spend my fortieth birthday in the penal zone.
After your husband died, you did not remarry, but instead, you just dedicated your life to your children – to me, my sister Natasha, and now, to your grandchildren, Alex and Ilya. You always like to say: “I am happy when everyone is home.” I know how you dream of seeing me married, how you want to see more grandchildren. But now I’m far from home, far from being able to make those dreams come true for you.
You often did not understand me, did not read my poetry and did not share in my desire to finish college, or to publish my book. You did not approve of my spending money on travel and books instead of home repair, furniture and clothing. However, you always understood deep inside that those were my decisions, my life. And now, I want to believe that when a lot of those things that I had conceived of have come true, you’re just a little proud of me, because I lived the way I wanted and, thus, I was happy. Even now, when I am in the penal zone, getting hundreds of thousands of letters with kind words from around the world, and support and encouragement from the most influential people in the world, I hope you understand that we did the right thing.
I feel terrible to admit at my almost 40 years of age, that my only treasure in the world is you, Mom. That at an age when I myself could already be a grandfather, I am, just like a little boy, afraid that something may happen to you. You know, once upon a time in the nursery, when the governess asked us, kids, the question of what would we like to ask a magician for, all the kids, vying with one another, shouted: ‘Toys, ice-cream’. But I said,’ I want my mother to never be sick and to never die ‘
At this time, hundreds of troubles have befallen you. After the hardest trial for you – my indictment and sentencing, when it would seem that it could not get any worse, life dealt you yet another blow-your younger brother was found dead on the road from Grodno to Minsk. The cause of death has not yet been established. Then it was my aunt’s husband’s death, with all the funeral-related problems.
How do you endure all this? Where does such a small, weak woman get her strength? I know that often, because of illness, you cannot get to the store, and have to turn back halfway, almost fainting from your weak condition. I know that wherever you go, you have to take your medications with you. I know what an ordeal it was for you to be at the trial, to see me in handcuffs, and then, in my cell. Later, in spite of your claustrophobia, you came and visited me at the Volodarka prison. I know that now, after the collapse of the “economic miracle”, you, who are already retired, have gone to work again in order to survive and to help me.
Thanks to you, today I was having my tea with sweets. I know that is unlikely that you eat them yourself because you save them for your children and grandchildren. Your ability to sacrifice for the sake of your relatives and your loved ones has no limits; your ability to provide them with creature comforts, material (no one can cook as good as you!) and spiritual, is incredible! You do not have enemies, you do not get angry easily, and you always listen and give advice.
I know that in pursuit of my goals, I could do and will do a lot in my life, but I cannot love the way you love –simply and naturally, every second of your life, as easily as you breathe. And this love for us, your children and grandchildren, is what your life is all about.
No one will ever be able to love me, such a complicated person, the way you love me. As long as you are in the world, I’m not alone. Even here in the detention camp, once, in the window, I saw you. It was not even a second – a moment. Was it my poor vision, a game of light and shadow, a glare in the glass? I do not know what it was, but I saw and heard you. Just like back then, when coming home late at night, I used to see a light in the window of the kitchen, and I would know that you were waiting for me to make sure that I would not go to bed hungry.
What can I do to make you happy, even for a moment, so that I would see you beam with joy, and that we could happily embrace each other longer before we part? Maybe my words will give you a little bit of strength, and you, no matter how long my sentence may be, would see me come back. And we’ll all be home, and you, my mommy, will be happy and at peace.’
On August 13, 2011, Dmitri Drozd was released. That same evening, he was hugging his mother.
Remain strong, all you mothers of political prisoners, and do not worry! Your sons will come home, too.
Vladimir Yeremenko: “Happiness means just being free…”.
Most people want to be happy. I would even say all of us want to be happy. Happiness is way more important than money, health and sex.
People are conscious of what happiness is. For most people it’s joy, for others – positive emotions, absence of fears, anxiety, depression. As for the scientists, for them the synonym of happiness is “subjective well-being”, which is not the same for all people.
Happiness depends on objective conditions and on how a person sees the world.
There is a link between happiness and freedom. Depriving a man of his personal, political or economic freedom will considerably decrease his level of satisfaction with life. And freedom, on the other hand, makes a man happy when he can use it properly. As studies show, in the countries with badly-developed democratic institutes and lower level of life, where the declared freedoms cannot always be so easily used, the level of happiness is also way lower. One of such countries is Belorussia.
Happiness, according to a renowned scientist Argyll, is a great wealth of the society. And it’s not personal business of each citizen. How can you make the whole country happy? – it’s an important question for each civilized country, for country leader and the government whose actions must be directed not at oppression of freedoms but at creating happier people in their country.
Imprisonment of a person, according to many, is a source of unhappiness. His loss of freedom affects all aspects of happiness: joy, satisfaction, negative emotions.
And still, is it possible for a man, even during long imprisonment, and especially by an unjust conviction, to be happy? What gives him strong positive emotions in prison? Formulas of happiness of the political prisoners after the events of December 19 locked up in prisons and colonies of Belorussia are what this section is focused on. We would like to start off with a letter by Vladimir Yeremenko.
Member of the Youth Front, he was arrested on 20 January 2011 for participation in a protest action against falsified results of Belorussian Presidential elections, and was imprisoned in Volodarsk Jail. On 14 May the court sentence Vladimir to 3 years of colony with a reinforced regime.
June 17, 2011, Volodarsk Jail
Being behind bars, it’s impossible to be happy in a full sense. With the loss of freedom you lose the opportunity to do anything, you lose your purpose of living for you can’t be with your family and loved ones. Even the simplest right and opportunity of being able to go wherever you want and whenever you want to, is taken away from you.
But in spite of that, in captivity I still have more inner freedom. Now I have time to be by myself, to analyze my earlier life, to find mistakes I’ve made. During this time, as weird as it might seem, at this place (jail) I’ve come closer to the Lord. Because of that, I can’t say that I’ve been altogether unhappy.
Of course in jail I’ve had some reasons to rejoice. Jail is really an interesting place. You’d think that behind these dim walls you couldn’t even think of talking about something like joy, but in some weird way you start finding joy in things that you wouldn’t have even noticed before.
I happily receive each letter from the outside world. You can’t express by words what an experience it was to hear my mom’s voice during visits, to see her smile instead of the tears that filled her eyes straight after my sentence. I looked forward to each court hearing because I had a chance to see my friends and relatives. I was grateful, and still am, for each coincidental meeting with the people I know within the walls of Volodarka.
Each minute of my walks is a joy, a joy to take in each gulp of fresh air after the musty, smoke-filled cell. I’m joyful each morning when I hear the birds singing through the window, realizing: I’M ALIVE…
As paradoxical as it may sound life itself makes my life happy. I’m happy when I wake up in the morning and know that I can do something kind and sincere.
True happiness is seeing your family, friends, i.e. those who are close and dear to me, to share joy and concern together. Happiness is just being free…”
“My dear son, I’m laughing, because I can’t cry any more…”
What happened on the square on December 19 strikingly demonstrated that President’s elections in Belarus are marked by more and more repressions with each pre-election campaign. Arresting presidential candidates and young people, putting them into remand prison and penal colonies is becoming more and more widespread. Adapting to prison life, which calls for considerable intellectual and emotional power becomes a burning issue for many people right after the elections. There are no suitable ways of behaviour in this awful reality, and this is followed by health deterioration. I wouldn’t be surprised if the authorities in power that position themselves as humanitarians, always expressing concern for the health of Belorussians, soon addressed us with a new appeal “Let’s put some hay on the bunk (bunkbed)!”: let’s actively help an individual adapt to life in prison.
Implementing this appeal into life can be initiated with development of specific recommendations. For instance, academic plans of educational establishments should include a course “Basic preparation for prison”. This course should be taught for all students: from elementary school children to graduates, the program would differ only by age. We need to discuss if this course should also be taken by presidential candidates. On the day of registration as presidential candidates the latter should receive a manual “Guidelines for the future political prisoner” which would include “the Penal code”, a booklet “Shape your future in prison, and then sign up” .
In order to effectively teach the course “Basic preparation for prison” teachers need to be re-trained at the Academy of post-graduate studies. A solution of how to develop all the necessary educational documentation should be found in shortest terms possible.
Aren’t these guidelines good? How about urgently developing didactic manuals taking into account day-to-day election realities in Belarus and calling them “Losing one’s own rights during protest actions”, “Special protection of rights of OMON agents”? One can also launch scientific research of the following subject, “Influence of an injury on witness statements made by OMON agents in court”?
One can also organise a series of events on adaptation in prisons as part of the action plan of all educational establishments. Working in this direction would mean publishing dictionaries with prison vocabulary and slang, books on determining the sense of tatoos, organising a competition for the best name for a penal colony, suggesting such names as “Bear’s lodge” and “Foxes’ burrows”. One can publish reference books like “Who shall I become? (specializations: electrician, electric welder, sewer that can be mastered in a colony)”, “Begging. How to avoid cheating in a colony?”, “Visiting lepila (a doctor in the colony)”.
Isn’t this guideline useful – organising children’s holidays in camps during summer, and making those camps function as similar to penal institutions as possible?
Ice palaces can be turned into convenient remand institutions since they proved to be economically unfeasible existing as palaces. This will help solve a row of burning issues, such as overfilled prison cells, as well as differentiating the arrested according to their profile: politics, economics, and finally, treating the arrested as individuals: Presidential candidates, party leaders, headquarters’ heads, ordinary participants of protests.
By the way, ice palaces can serve as a solid foundation for celebrating a new holiday in the country “Election dozhinki” named after L. Ermoshina.
The key guideline is to continue using the approach “Fake justice” that sees the proven innocence as an aggravating circumstance. Educational establishments should be the ones to try using this approach (they can organise open trials on “peoples’ enemies” in halls, or on stadiums of schools, colleges and universities if the weather is good), and they can also prepare the masses who would be shouting “Action. Remand prison. Colony”, “Suitcase. Railway station. Europe” or “Suitcase. Railway station. Russia” depending on the political situation. The main thing is not to mix them up!
The list of guidelines is not finished yet. They are actively discussed at forums and this will help finalize the document that will need approval.
decembrist 