9 – 14 January 2025
by Vera Vasilieva
Source: Facebook
Essay on the Topic ‘How I spent the holidays’
This post reminds me of that essay. It’s possible that I have never previously had such intense work as I did during this Christmas holiday. After I was fired, time didn’t free up, but rather paradoxically disappeared somewhere altogether (though indeed this work does not bring in any income). Much of it is now spent fulfilling requests for help from various unjustly convicted individuals. Unfortunately, there are more and more people like this….
At the request of Petyr Stakhovtsev, who spent 35 years behind bars for crimes he did not commit, I compiled and edited a lengthy, very well-argued, and detailed text about his criminal case. Notably, there is a phrase that reads: ‘I did not ask for clemency, because I did not commit the deeds I am accused of’.
Aleksei Pichugin held a similar view for many years: he believed that a person should not ask for clemency for something he is not guilty of. Things changed with time, and Aleksei, having spent over 20 years behind bars, has already applied for clemency three times, without admitting guilt. Unfortunately, it has been without success. It is not only fair justice, but considerations of humanity that seem to be foreign concepts to the current authorities. Indeed, what kind of humanity can be expected from the government after 24.02.22? Even 35 years did not make Petyr Stakhovtsev ask for mercy. It seems to me that any decent person should feel ashamed before him and other wrongfully convicted individuals for what they have had to endure, and for the fact that society has been, and is still in, such a state that it allowed this evil to happen.
I have carried out some requests from Aleksandr Markin, a man convicted in a fabricated criminal case. Once again, I sincerely thank those who are helping him – both morally and materially. The latter is especially important now in light of my concerns. Thank you, Liza Chernyavskaya, Marina Mirlina, Leonid Romankov, Lyudmila Goodman, Tamara Andreyevskaya, and everyone else (whom I don’t know whether I can mention publicly). Your help made it possible for Aleksandr’s lawyer to organise a trip to see him next week, in order to, among other things, find out whether he has indeed been released from solitary confinement, as he was supposed to be, and whether it is possible to visit him and bring him a parcel. Thank you to those who paid for this parcel.
There are still a great many debts to be settled in time to come. I need to write to political prisoners Evgenia Berkovich, Yuri Dmitriev, Mikhail Kriger, Aleksandr Shestun, Igor Puzanov… their letters, to my shame, have remained unanswered since the end of last year. Please, write to political prisoners! It makes their lives, and ours, a little brighter.
Source: Facebook, 9 January 2025
Letters
I sent letters to Yuri Dmitriev, Mikhail Kriger, Alexander Shestun, and Aleksandr Markin (a selection of new material, the first one this year). To Yuri Dmitriev, in addition to the letter, I placed a postcard in the envelope. His birthday is on January 28.
Source: Facebook, 14 January 2025
New Year’s, Long overdue
In the time leading up to the New Year, I often think of the celebration at the turn of 1999-2000. It proved to be a turning point, not only because of the turnover of centuries and millennia, but also because of the historical time periods for our country. I celebrated it, contrary to our established family tradition, not at home, but at a party, in cheerful company. For some reason, I don’t have any photographs from that New Year’s gathering, even though I usually take pictures of them (and I do have photos from the years before and after). We were all young back then, looking to the future with optimism, and not burdened by sad thoughts. At midnight, we turned on the computer and the television.
The computer was because we were interested in IT technologies, and we were concerned about the so-called ‘Y2K crisis’. It was claimed that some computer systems around the world were not equipped to input, store, and process data related to the 21st century. However, the owners of the personal home computer in the apartment successfully survived the date change, having not even noticed the milestone transition.
Meanwhile, on the television, there first appeared the aging Boris Yeltsin, and then the youthful Vladimir Putin. No one in that group was particularly interested in politics, or closely followed its key figures. But suddenly, the guy who had gathered us all at that table unexpectedly asked, ‘Are you scared?’
At that moment, I don’t think anyone (I think not even the one asking) understood that his words would turn out to be prophetic.
Source: Facebook, 14 January 2025
Translated by Annabel Pedgley
