OPEN LETTER/ Come to the dialogue and listen to me speak, otherwise I will cut off your scholarships, you will rot in prison. Please!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

"The horror is not endless"/ The letters of the Russian activist comfort the political prisoners!

2023-07-25 08:38:42Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"The horror is not endless"/ The letters of the Russian activist

Since she was a teenager in the Soviet era during the 1970s, Yelena Sannikova has devoted herself to writing letters to political prisoners.

Now, nearly 50 years later, amid the Russian state's crackdown on dissent, which has escalated during the war with Ukraine, she remains just as committed to continuing her writing.

In her twenties, Yelena Sannikova, poet, translator, publicist and dissident, experienced imprisonment and internal exile.

Throughout her life, she has devoted much of her time to writing letters and postcards to inmates, which she fondly refers to as "little greetings from the free world."

She also provides support to individuals she believes have been imprisoned for their political activism or ideals.

"When I was in prison myself, I learned what solitary confinement really is and how important papers are when you're there," she told Radio Free Europe.

"When I was in exile, I received letters from strangers and I know how much support and help they offer. So, today I consider it my duty to write to the prisoners".

According to Memorial, the now-banned human rights group, the number of individuals identified as political prisoners in Russia has tripled in the past five years, reaching a total of 554.

Since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the number of those subjected to repression has risen sharply, with dozens of people convicted of engaging in anti-war activities and statements against the occupation, as well as facing charges of "treason", or "justifying terrorism".

Additionally, many others are currently either under investigation or in custody awaiting trial on similar charges.

On July 16, Sannikova sent 23 letters to the prisoners, "with postcards, cute stickers and good wishes." Over the years, she is sure she has sent thousands of letters.

"Now, when the number of political prisoners is very high, it is not possible to write to everyone," said the 63-year-old. "But you can try to involve friends and acquaintances. I am very happy to see that more and more initiatives of this type are appearing. People understand that prisoners need words of support."

"Tomorrow is the first day of summer," reads a letter that recently arrived from respected historian Yury Dmitriyev, who is serving a 15-year sentence that his supporters say is punishment for his research into the crimes of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, "but flies and mosquitoes have already been munching on the deserted prisoners for about three weeks."

"We live a little more peacefully here than you outside the walls," Dmitriev continued. "At least we have some clarity - a sentence, a beginning, an end...But, like you, we are waiting for this to end."

"I hope you survive the 'last phase' of the Putin regime," he concluded. "Take care of yourself".

Sannikova says she is deeply impressed by the resilience of many prisoners who, like Dmitriyev, manage to maintain their optimism and even offer comfort to those outside of prison. As an example, she cited the case of opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April.

His conviction stems from charges of treason and other offenses related to his vocal criticism of the Russian occupation of Ukraine.

"He writes a lot," Sannikova said, "saying not to lose optimism and hope."

In June, Kara-Murza said prison authorities were illegally preventing him from receiving papers.

Ilya Yashin, another opposition politician who is serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence for opposing the invasion of Ukraine, recently wrote a similar message on a postcard from prison.

"Thank you for your sincere and warm message," he wrote. "I really enjoyed it. Keep your optimism and your faith in people. The darkest is before the dawn. Everything will be fine, Ilya Yashin."

During her days as a student, Sannikova was first introduced to the concept of political prisoners in the Soviet Union through foreign radio broadcasts. It was during her teenage years in the 70s that she had the opportunity to meet the family of the imprisoned dissident Kronid Lyubarsky, and it was they who informed her about the possibility of writing letters to such prisoners.

"He received quite a few letters and I added my modest contribution," she said. "At some point, I became bolder and started writing my thoughts on papers, which only led to their confiscation and trouble for me at school and with the local authorities. I was in the ninth grade then and I didn't understand at all that this was my first serious encounter with the system," she emphasized.

After Lyubarsky was released and expelled from the Soviet Union in 1977, he began publishing information about Soviet political prisoners, including how to send letters to them.

"In the 80s, his list became a guide for me as I took on the job of gathering information about prisoners and trying to help them," Sannikova said. "I used this list when I gathered friends for New Years or Easter, to send a large number of cards to prisons, labor camps and places of internment."

"We chose beautiful cards and wrote kind words, good wishes, and three or four of us signed each card," she recalls.

Sannikova later realized that such efforts sometimes had a tremendous effect. Gleb Yakunin, a dissident priest who was jailed for seven years in the 1980s, never forgot the letters he received.

"Almost until the end of his days, every time he saw me, he remembered how our postcards cheered him up in prison and asked him about the fates of those who signed them with me," she said of Yakun, who died in 2014.

In 1984, the KGB arrested 24-year-old Sannikova and held her in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. She was later sentenced to a year in prison and four years of exile in Siberia for "anti-Soviet propaganda".

"I continued to write to political prisoners even when I was in exile," Sannikova said. "I also corresponded a lot with other people in exile."

During the time he was in prison. Sannikova received numerous letters from unknown individuals residing in foreign countries. Speculating how these people found out about her, she believes they could have been connected to Amnesty International, or similar organizations.

After her release, she returned to Moscow in late 1987 and resumed her human rights activism, including the practice of writing letters to political prisoners.

To this day, her activism remains largely unchanged, with a group of four or five friends diligently writing birthday wishes or sending greetings to inmates for various holidays.

"I like to buy postcards with classic paintings from museums," she explained. "Also landscapes with beautiful views of cities."

"I want to give them hope that this horror is not endless," she said, "and that things will definitely change for the better. I don't want them to lose hope. It's very easy to get depressed when you're in prison."

Although the growing number of people in prison alarms Sannikova, she is encouraged by the grassroots movement to support people considered political prisoners.

The Yabloko political party regularly organizes letter-collecting events in cities across the country.

Some ex-prisoners have taken up the cause of supporting others who are still behind bars for what they consider to be politically motivated reasons.

"All this is the work of volunteers who are benevolent," she said. "And this is a reason for hope. Such solidarity is in itself valuable and, moreover, it is the promise of change for the better", she said./ REL


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×