About the "dashing" 90s, when there were no political prisoners in the country, now one can only dreamily remember. The Kremlin and its attendants curse these times – not because there were no political prisoners then, but because they themselves did not then have a chance to gain political weight. They made every effort to push Russia off the democratic path, and they succeeded. Now they are in power, and there are political prisoners in the country again. This is inevitable in any tyranny.
On June 4, Alexei Navalny turns 47 years old. He celebrates his birthday in a prison cell. The judges and those who govern them have given Navalny a 9-year sentence and are preparing to add more. Many doubt the reality of these terms – the current regime will not have enough vital resources for such a long time. This is an optimistic view of the situation in the country and the fate of one of the most famous Russian political prisoners. But no matter how much we want to believe in the best, we must be realistic and correctly assess the risks.
For Alexei Navalny, they are unusually large. Much more than for most other Russian prisoners, including political ones. Navalny has become the focus of the repressive machine run by the presidential administration. Nothing good can be expected from this attention. This machine knows neither pity nor mercy; it obeys neither the requirements of the law nor the norms of morality; she is ready for any crime, if there is an indication from above.
What does the authorities want from Navalny? After, by a lucky chance (lucky for us, fatal for the authorities), they failed to kill him, there are very few options for reprisals against the oppositionist. Probably, the Kremlin would be happy to repeat the attempt, but after all the scandals and revelations, they hardly want to look like ordinary killers in the eyes of the whole world. The way out is simple – it is necessary to break the will of the political prisoner, to bring him to his knees.
In this case, they became adept at several decades of Soviet punitive experience. After Stalin's death, when the death penalty ceased to be the usual reprisal for political crimes, the Kremlin-controlled machine of repression has refined itself in search of ways to pacify dissidents. Executioner skills were honed in political zones and special psychiatric hospitals. The goal has always been the same: to break the political prisoner, to force him to false repentance, and even better, to full cooperation.
The goal has always been the same: to break the political prisoner, to force him to false repentance, and even better, to full cooperation.
In psychiatric hospitals, it was the hardest thing – according to the instructions of the Chekists, doctors and orderlies tortured them with neuroleptics, tortured, beaten, mocked with all the force of their morbid imagination. In prisons and camps, they were tormented by hunger and cold, endless punishment cells, deprived of meetings with relatives, forbidden to read and write, and if a political prisoner fell ill, he was treated only for appearances or not treated at all. And they demanded “nothing at all” – first to completely obey the prison authorities, and then to admit guilt and give a repentant interview on television. In psychiatric hospitals, they demanded recognition of the disease and the correctness of treatment.
According to the same scheme worked out back in the KGB and the Gulag, they are now breaking Alexei Navalny. One punishment cell follows another, and always for demonstratively insignificant reasons: either the top button on the robe was not fastened, or he introduced himself incorrectly to his superiors, or he washed his face at the wrong time. In one of the decisions on placement in a punishment cell, they wrote: “Convicted Navalny does not lend himself to educational work and does not draw the proper conclusions for himself.” In these artless lines, written by some ensign or officer on duty, the whole meaning of prison oppression is contained: the prisoner must draw conclusions and "succumb to education." That is, forget about your rights and human dignity and unquestioningly obey any requirements of a person with shoulder straps.
Navalny cannot be broken. He is saved by fortitude, irony and faith in higher justice, over which little prison wardens and big people in the Kremlin have no power. Someday, convinced of the absolute futility of their efforts, the tormentors will retreat from their victim. The problem here is only one thing – until this day you have to manage to live. It may not be easy.
So it was in Soviet times. I'll tell you from my experience. This is such a marathon: they are in a hurry to finish you off by all possible means, and you are trying to survive and run to that cherished line where the executioners will run out of excitement and they will spit on you and your invincibility. Unfortunately, not everyone and not always get to a happy finish – death is too frequent a guest in those parts.
It is generally dangerous to live in Russia, and it is doubly so in a Russian prison. For Alexei Navalny, whom the Russian authorities have chosen as their personal enemy, it is even harder. Health and good luck to him on the dark, dangerous and unpredictable prison roads.