Letters to Russian Prisoners of Conscience

29-year-old Anastasia has revived a form of protest and support in vogue during the Soviet Union years. 'I write to everyone on principle, I want to convince more and more people to do it'. There are now over a thousand people convicted of articles of war resistance since the beginning of 2022.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - With the continuing repression of opponents and "foreign agents", Russia is returning to the systems of the Soviet totalitarian past, and with it some forms of protest and support very much in vogue in the 1960s-1970s, such as sending letters to prisoners of conscience. A very moving example was reported by Currentime, that of 29-year-old Anastasia, who also wanted to react in this way to the horror of the invasion of Ukraine and the endless war.

In March 2022, Anastasia divorced her husband who supported the military operation, and later also lost her job because of her convictions. Unwilling to leave Russia, she looked for reasons not to feel worthless and marginalised, and began writing 'old-fashioned' letters on paper to those who were condemned for their pacifist beliefs and against the Kremlin's decisions.

As she tells reporters, 'I write to everyone on principle, I don't pick and choose who is better or worse, I don't look in detail at their court stories and I don't know exactly what they did, I just write... I'm afraid to discriminate against anyone, I don't care if they are in for fake news or terrorism'. Anastasia explains that the war has completely changed her life.

'Before 2022 I didn't consider myself fit for anything, I lived without interests, I even tried to go to a psychologist to understand what I wanted from existence,' the young woman recounts. Today Nastja works in a humanitarian foundation, and participates in initiatives where activists gather all those who wish to write to political prisoners, or help them with material needs. In her flat in the Moscow suburbs, she keeps the books of the murdered Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov, recalling that she met the activists precisely at the memorial of the politician killed by Chechen gunmen next to the Kremlin in 2015.

She and other members of the group also send many food parcels to prisoners, especially to those locked up in solitary confinement. She recounts that 'to deliver letters you have to go to Lefortovo prison very early in the morning, I also have to take my son to school and then try to get there in time for the line', and today she keeps up a correspondence with some 300 prisoners, including the opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has answered her since her first letter.

From the main dissident after Naval'nyj's death, Anastasiades also asked for advice on her love life, "I consider him a moral reference point, and he comforted me a lot". In addition to letters and groceries, twice a month she sends crosswords and sudoku puzzles to inmates for entertainment, believing that any form of attention helps people not to feel abandoned by everyone in such difficult conditions.

Anastasia concludes her story by stating that 'now I know why I live, I want to do more and more, I want to send more parcels and more letters and convince so many people to do it', heedless of all forms of censorship and the many dozens of laws that restrict all forms of free expression and anti-war speech. According to various statistics, there are now more than a thousand people convicted for articles of war resistance since the beginning of 2022.translator.