Nikolai Markevich’s First Letter from Hard-Labor Colony :: Charter'97 :: News

On September 1 journalists Nikolai Markevich and Pavel Mozheiko of the Grodno newspaper “Pagonya” started serving their terms in the special institutions of the Osipovichi (Mogilev region) and Zhlobin (Grodno region). On the same day the editor of the newspaper Nikolai Markevich sent to his “Pagonya” colleagues his first letter from the Osipovichi colony, describing the living conditions there. Read below the full text of the message:

“Hello, friends!

Here I am, a prisoner. In the morning at the railway station I was greeted by Tatyana Brel and Levon Minov – members of the Osipovichi TBM branch. Awesome people! I learnt that in Osipovichi they have a strong unity among nationalistic people. They are members of different groups but are closely related to each other. They issue a newspaper “Panorama” (299 items’ print run), youth paper “Patriotic page” and have Internet access. The newspaper is designed by Igor Simbirov. I’m sending this letter through him. All people here are very nice, policemen included.

They registered me as a newcomer and put me into a room 430, where some huge guy from Soligorsk is already staying. The special committee’s office is empty – amnesty is round the corner. Everyone is amazed that I come from as far as Grodno. I’m the only one from there. Tomorrow I will travel to the leather factory, which is the necessary condition for me. Afterwards I’ll go to find job, which is a serious difficulty in this area. The confinement conditions are inhumane: dirt, stink and cockroaches everywhere… In total, there are 152 people in the colony, split into three groups. I’m in the second.

The third group consists of 50 females. One of them comes from Novogrudok. That’s a peculiarity of the Osipovichi colony, for others don’t have female department. At least that’s what the duty officer Vassily Nikitich Petrovich told me.

Love you all, friends!

Mikola

P.S. Given I behave well they may send me home for 3-5 days of vacation.”