2 August 2024
an extract from a podcast by Teresa Cherfas in conversation with Nadezhda Skochilenko
On 25 July, Teresa Cherfas spoke with Nadezhda Skochilenko, mother of Aleksandr Skochilenko (who at that time was still a prisoner of conscience held in a Russia prison – she was released on 1 August 2024) in the most recent of her series of Russian-language podcasts, Then & Now. What follows is what Nadezhda Skochilenko said about the importance of writing letters to those unjustly imprisoned in Russia (lightly edited for clarity).
If you would like to take part in a project by Rights in Russia writing letters to political prisoners / prisoners of conscience in Russia , visit our page Write to Russia
Yes, Sasha gets letters, it’s a very important support for her, and she thanks everybody, and especially in the first months she was in detention…[When you first find yourself in jail], you can’t accept the fact that you are a ‘criminal,’ as you’ve been told, but you get these letters from all over the world, it’s very supportive.
She’s written several times, and sometimes long letters. She’s also given interviews in this way by writing letters and she has spoken about the people who write to her, and she’s listed them, and there are so many she can’t list them all. But unfortunately political prisoners aren’t always in the right mood to write, not really to respond to a letter anyway, and we need to understand that when we write letters to them.
That means we won’t necessarily get a reply. For example, as one woman has written to me: ‘I’ve been walking up and down here for days now wondering when I’m going to be in the mood to write you a letter.’ Because they don’t want to write their sad thoughts. But in spite of all this, they respond to our letters and that gives us a great deal of support.
Everyone is sharing their impressions that the responses from people unjustly imprisoned are often the opposite of what you might expect. These people have become strengthened in their views that there should be peace in the world, and that things are straightforward in that way. Everyone is amazed that these people, when they go through these trials, become even kinder. It’s just amazing.
The only thing is that, unfortunately, some people in prison don’t have time to write because if they work for 12 hours, for example, in the penal colony, when are they going to have time to write? But they read the letters they receive, and it’s very important for them to read them, because this is, you know, a window to the world, especially letters from different countries. People write about what it’s like in their country, in another country.
The only thing is, we always ask people, not to write about [some things] for example sexual orientation, because in Russia now it’s all considered extremism and it’s forbidden. It’s considered LGBT propaganda. This is also a criminal offence. For example, someone has been sentenced to serve a term in a penal colony for one offence, and while they are there they are prosecuted for another offence…
They are serving their sentence, and they are already facing a new prosecution and a new trial right there in the penal colony. They’ll get an additional sentence to serve on top of the one they have already. That is terrible. So even in letters, unfortunately, you can’t write just what you want. You can write about kittens, about the weather, who went where, what film you saw, what book you’ve read, that kind of news, about things not related to the regime, or to the war. Those are the kind of things to write about.
Unfortunately, there have been cases, because they keep watch on the prisoners, when they have been deliberately sent letters to get them into trouble, and that is a terrible thing.
But letters are very important. And one thing I always suggest is to write postcards, because postcards are also like a little gift in their own way. They are nice and colourful. And after all, in prison, they don’t even have anything colourful. Sasha has only six coloured pencils. For about a year and a half she wasn’t allowed to have any coloured pencils at all.
So she only had a gel pen, black and blue. She could draw with that. And then she was allowed coloured pencils, six of them. […] Of course they have paper. And postcards, if you just send letters in an envelope, for example, you can put in blank postcards as well. That’s very good.
Because postcards in the penal colony are a kind of currency. They can exchange them for something, for example, or they can send a card to some of their loved ones for their birthday. They have no way of buying things, nothing is sold there. And if we are talking about postcards, it’s best if there is no foreign writing on them, because then they may not be given them. By law, everything has to be in Russian. If they don’t know what is written there, they think there might be some kind of secret messages.
Some people are not even given chess problems they are sent on the grounds that ‘what if there’s something there?’ …. And when Sasha went into prison, she wasn’t even allowed to be given sheet music, music written on paper, for the same reason… She’s not allowed to have musical instruments or sheet music, it’s all forbidden there. And even musical notes written in a notebook are forbidden too. That’s why it’s better without any writing [in foreign languages]. But beautiful postcards with views of cities, for example, or just festive ones, are great things to put in an envelope, as a gift, that is really good.
Translated and edited for clarity by Rights in Russia
