writing postcards to political prisoners, “the last mode of action” in the face of Vladimir Putin’s repression

There are around fifty people seated around cards randomly presenting a political prisoner. Russians meet every month at the headquarters of the Yabloko political party in Moscow, the last liberal party “surviving” the repression and not banned by the government, to write to political prisoners. There are currently around a thousand of them, imprisoned for crimes of opinion. Some are famous, like Alexei Navalny, but most are anonymous people who opposed the war in Ukraine.

Other anonymous Russians therefore decide to get together to write them postcards. This tradition dates back to the Soviet Union and it constitutes the last act of opposition to power still authorized in the country. “I try to send cards to little-known political prisoners, because it seems to me that they write a lot to Alexei Navalny, for example. He will survive without my postcard”explains Natalia, who came with a bag already full of cards patiently written in recent weeks.

In the room, an activist reads into the microphone the responses of certain prisoners, and in particular that of Yuri Dmitriev, one of the most famous imprisoned opponents: “Dear friends of Yabloko, I have received your cards, and it is good to know that not all the kind people have been locked up”.

An old tradition dating back to the USSR

This type of phrase is rarely heard in Russia and these evenings therefore make it possible. “We can say that this is the last mode of action available to the Russians which has not yet been banned, believes Lilia Manikhina, one of the organizers of these evenings. We wanted a place where our citizens could support political prisoners, show empathy, as if there were normal Russians here.”.

Elena Sannikova knows this old tradition well. This 63-year-old woman spent three years in the gulag in the 1980s: “In my worst nightmare, I couldn’t have imagined that all of this would come back.”

“I remember how much letters helped me, how it supports, how it gives strength”

Elena Sannikova, who served three years in the gulag

at franceinfo

“And I consider that it is now my duty to write as often as possible, as much as possible,” she continues.

Every month, new political prisoners are added to the list. Among them, Konstantin Seleznev, a retiree recently imprisoned for denouncing the massacre committed in Boutcha by the Russian army on social networks. “Dear friends, I am very happy to be part of such a supportive community. My husband told the truth, bear with him, it will make him happy. Thank you”, confides his wife Elena, to the applause of the room. Between two poems, a cup of tea and a piano tune, a typically Russian evening ends in a Russia that still wants to resist.