Anastasia, 29, has revived a form of protest and defense that was very popular during the years of the Soviet Union. “I write to everyone on principle, I want to convince more and more people to do so.” There are already more than a thousand people convicted of war resistance articles since the beginning of 2022.
Moscow () – With continued repression against opponents and “foreign agents”, Russia is returning to the systems of the Soviet totalitarian past, and with it to some forms of protest and support that were very much in vogue in the 1960s. 1970, such as sending letters to prisoners of conscience. Currentime told a very moving example, that of Anastasia, 29 years old, who also wanted to react 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 beliefs. Reluctant to leave Russia, she looked for reasons not to feel useless and marginalized, and began writing “old-fashioned” letters on paper to those condemned for their pacifist beliefs and against the Kremlin’s decisions.
As she herself tells journalists, “I write to everyone out of principle, I don’t choose who is better or worse, I don’t look at their judicial stories in detail and I don’t know exactly what they did, I just write… I’m afraid of discriminating against someone, I don’t care if they are for fake news or terrorism.” Anastasia explains that the war has completely changed her life.
Before 2022 I did not consider myself fit for anything, I lived without interests, I even tried to go to a psychologist to understand what I wanted from existence,” says the young woman. Today Nastja works at a humanitarian foundation and participates in initiatives in which activists bring together all those who wish to write to political prisoners or help them with material needs. In his apartment in the suburbs of Moscow, he keeps the books of the murdered Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov, and remembers that he met the activists precisely at the memorial of the murdered politician. by Chechen gunmen near the Kremlin in 2015.
She and other members of the group also send many food packages to prisoners, especially those locked in solitary confinement. He says 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 to the line in time”, and today he corresponds with about 300 prisoners, including among them the opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has responded to him since his first letter.
Anastasia also asked the main dissident after Naval’nyj’s death for advice on her love life, “I consider him a moral reference, and he comforted me a lot.” In addition to letters and groceries, twice a month she sends crossword puzzles and Sudoku puzzles to the inmates for entertainment, as she believes that any form of attention helps people not 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 packages and more letters and convince many people to do so”, without taking into account all the forms of censorship and the many dozens of laws that restrict all forms of freedom of expression and anti-war speech. According to various statistics, there are already more than a thousand people convicted of war resistance articles since the beginning of 2022.
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