Alyaksandr Atroshchankau: How I was convoyed to colony

Alyaksandr Atroshchankau, a political prisoner, a spokesperson of the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, is serving a 4 years’ imprisonment term in a medium security penal colony “Vitsba-3”.

On request of his wife, he has written recommendation to families of other prisoners of conscience: what should be brought to them to the remand prison before they are sent to a colony. The text of the letter has been passed by Darya Korsak to charter97.org website.

“As in many other spheres, there are two opposite approaches here: an approach of a prisoner and of a dilettante. A dilettante approach is to take along a carryall and a kind of a gipsy camp. Minuses of this approach are that it is very hard physically, and besides, handles of a carryall, or your hand, in which you are carrying it, can come off in the moist unfavourable moment, at the most inappropriate moment, for instance, during a sprint race from the paddy wagon to the Stolypin car, which is taking place in the dark, or to be more exact, in the dazzling light of a searchlight, while dogs are barking and guards shouting. As you can guess, no one would help you to collect your scattered things in such a situation.

Besides, in the train car you are staying with 10-13 fellows in misery, who are also travelling with their knapsacks, and for some of them there is no room except for placing them over one’s head. One more important disadvantage of such an approach is that you have to go through an endless number of searches. For instance, within 36 hours which passed from the moment I left “Amerikanka” (the KGB jail) and till I arrived to the quarantine in the colony, I was searched at least 6 times, but I do not remember exactly. Every time everything is emptied, shaken out, all seams are felt, and so on. It means, every time you have to pack everything back again, and every time this makes prisoners almost hysterical, as the room and time are limited, and the atmosphere is far from being calm. Besides, every person who searches you, has his own views about what is forbidden and what is not. At every search something is not allowed on more or less legal grounds, which is challenging and demoralizing. And it should be taken into account that all the searches during my being transported under guard, except for the one in the KGB jail, were so to say, “with a human face”, and guards were very polite. Finally, some things had not been allowed to be taken to the colony. In short, I used such an approach, and I did not like it.

The other approach is an approach of an experienced prisoner. Usual prisoners, when they are transported to prison, put on a leisure suit and take a little knapsack or even a little duffle bag, where cigarettes, tea, food (lard, chocolate, some packages of instant noodles), a water-heater and a change of underwear are neatly packed. I would add a few plastic plates, a plastic cup, minimum of drugs (aspirin, coldrex, analgin, and the drugs taken by a prisoner daily if he needs them). It is better to have a leisure suit on. That’s all needed in a quarantine cell, and the rest one can exchange, after the prisoner would be admitted to a prison party. If one eats a lot, all things are better to be sent in a parcel with things, and food – in a parcel with food. These are my recommendations. The main thing is to listen to what your prisoner is telling you, and not to listen to the advice from outside, thinking that someone knows better.”