A-Infos (en) UK, AFED, organise magazine - Solidarity Is A Stream Of Sparks

"Now and then the flame dies down, but solidarity is a stream of sparks" ---- 
ILYA SHAKURSKY, an antifascist political prisoner in Russia, appeals to you in 
this interview to write to him, and to others imprisoned in the infamous 
"Network" case. Please see a note at the end about where to send messages. ---- 
Tomorrow, Tuesday 19 January, is the anniversary of the assassination of 
antifascists Anastasia Baburova and Stanislav Markelov, who were shot dead in 
broad daylight in central Moscow in 2009. People will gather - in Moscow, to lay 
flowers at the place where they were killed, elsewhere on line - and we publish 
this article on several web sites simultaneously, to express solidarity.
The "Network" case began in Penza and St Petersburg in October 2017, when the 
Federal Security Service (FSB) started detaining young anarchists and 
antifascists, who had supposedly participated in a terrorist group. The security 
services claimed that the young detainees were preparing terrorist acts, aimed at 
the presidential elections and the football World Cup in 2018[which was staged in 
Russia].

It soon became clear that this "Network" organisation had been dreamed up by the 
FSB, and the confessions extracted from the alleged participants with the use of 
the most barbaric tortures. Details of the methods used, including electric shock 
batons, were published widely before the defendants were tried.

Nevertheless, the defendants were found guilty and sentenced - in January 2019 in 
St Petersburg, Igor Shishkin to three-and-a-half years' detention; in February 
2020, seven defendants in Penza, including Ilya Shakursky, to between six and 18 
years; and in June 2020 in St Petersburg, Viktor Filinkov to seven years and 
Yulii Boyarshinov to five-and-a-half years.

In October 2020 an appeal by the Penza defendants was heard and rejected. An 
appeal by Viktor Filinkov is in progress.

All ten defendants are included in a list of 61 political prisoners compiled by 
Memorial, Russia's largest human rights defence group.

This interview with Ilya Shakursky, who is serving a 16 year sentence, is by 
Dmitry Semenov. It was published by Free Russia House, an "alternative embassy 
for Russian civil society" based in Kyiv, Ukraine, and by the Rupression 
collective that supports the "Network" case prisoners. (The questions were sent 
via Yelena Shakurskaya, Ilya's mother, and answers received, via Yelena, in 
written form.)

Question: Do you feel the support from outside the prison system, and how 
important is it? Could you say something briefly to our readers and to people who 
support you?

Ilya Shakursky: It feels good to realise, every morning when they call out my 
surname and hand over letters I have received, that people remember me and 
continue to support me. At those moments, the grey monotony of imprisonment is 
broken up by different colours. It doesn't matter whether the letter is a couple 
of lines or goes on like a whole essay. Just getting some news gives me strength 
and happiness. When I see photos of solidarity actions all over the world; when I 
read interviews with well-known people who speak about the absurdity of the 
criminal case against us; when I hear the drums and voices of 
friends[demonstrating]on the other side of the[prison]wall; when I think of the 
concert, at which the whole hall sang "It Will All Pass"["Vse proidet"](a song by 
the Russian punk group, Pornofilms, about the "Network" case), or of the 
rap-battle, where verses were read in support of our case, or of the street 
artist who used graffiti to speak out about repression in Russia today - I feel 
like it wasn't all in vain.

If this means that people start paying attention to things that were previously 
out of their reach, or unclear, or that they didn't need to think about - then 
this could become a way in which everyone can contribute to the struggle against 
the absurdity, the violence and the injustice. Now and then the flame dies down, 
but solidarity is a stream of sparks, that stops them from putting the fire out 
all together, that stops us losing heart - or, to put it another way, stops us 
from bowing our heads and submitting to evil.

If any of you suddenly thinks of writing to a political prisoner, don't abandon 
that thought. Don't hide it in your "to do" list among your other worries. Do it, 
right at that moment. Write about your dreams, about what you love, share some 
memories that make you laugh, or your impressions from a book you have read. 
Please be assured that your letter is more important than it can seem to you. It 
can save a political prisoner from the awful monotony of another day behind bars 
and walls. And that really is very important.

I am very grateful to each and every person who supports political prisoners, who 
fights for their release, and for justice, and who conveys those sparks that 
light the fire, that prevent evil from consuming our lives.

Q: After you heard the verdict, and the long, severe sentences, at the court of 
first instance, how did you react? What has helped you not to give up, not to be 
overcome by depression, to hold on?

ISh: When I heard the sentences being read out, I took them as final confirmation 
that this was nothing more than punishment for recalcitrance. It's difficult to 
believe what's happened, and even now I try not to dwell on it. Such thoughts can 
gnaw away at you and drive you out of your mind.

We live in a world where the life of any one of us can be destroyed, on the whim 
of those who have power in their hands. What's most terrifying of all is that 
people get used to this - to everything that is happening now: demonstrators and 
young politicians being beaten up; criminal cases under terrorism laws being 
opened against underaged children; the poisoning of undesirables, absurd 
sentences, and much, much more that is unjust, cruel and brutal, that could 
become the norm, if society just accepts it as the new reality. I fear that, 
above all. Really, that would be totalitarianism with the silent acquiescence of 
the majority. And then it might be too late to start saying that that was not 
what we wanted.

I admit, honestly, that holding on, not getting depressed, gets harder. 
Especially in the context of what is happening in the country. But I am still 
alive, I have friends and family waiting for me outside these walls, they believe 
in me and sincerely love me - and so I have to hold on. I must not give up, for 
the sake of those people who are dear to me, for my own sake, for the sake of the 
stars in the sky and the fresh air, for the sake of freedom and love.

With smiles they were breaking my wings,

My scream sometimes was like a wail.

And I was numb from pain and helplessness,

And could just whisper: thanks to be alive! (Vladimir Vysotsky.)

Q: You practically all received exactly the sentences that the prosecution asked 
for - evidently, in large part because you refused to admit guilt and you 
publicly denounced the torture. With the benefit of hindsight, do you now regret 
that?

ISh: To regret the course we have taken would render worthless all that we have 
lived through, and are living through now. The very worst time for me was when I 
gave up to weakness and fear, and betrayed myself by doing so. I felt that I had 
just stopped being human; hatred for myself overshadowed all my thoughts. But 
today, although I am in prison, actually behind four walls, I now remain the 
person that I really am. If I had[approached the trial]differently, my life would 
have been mere existence. Why talk about freedom, equality and fraternity, and 
then betray all of that? What would these words mean for people, if each one of 
us could just turn our backs on them when the executioners demand it?

The more that people betray themselves and others, the more often they carry out 
criminal orders in spite of their conscience, the sooner we will all become 
slaves, deprived of our free will, whose lives are mere existence.

Maybe I am guilty for silence,

Guilty for unnecessary words.

At moments of fear and desperation

My guilt can be hidden.

I constantly expect reproach

Even from those who are indifferent.

I, like everyone, am not free of defects,

But I am constrained by my conscience.

That's what calls on me at times

Not to shut my eyes to evil

And to stand by those who suffer.

Otherwise, the burden of guilt will suffocate us.

Q: If you could make time go backwards, and return to some point before your 
arrest, would you change anything cardinal in your life?

ISh: I already look at my past from a different, probably more grown-up and 
aware, viewpoint. So of course there are things in the past I would like to 
change. For example, I would value more highly the people around me, not make 
mistakes or take wrong turnings, be less bitter, less naive - and much else, 
maybe some completely personal stuff. But I take my fate as it is - although of 
course there's much I could regret, as there is for many people.

My behaviour, my mistakes, my action and my views and aims made me what I am now. 
That's what makes our lives interesting, full as they are of happiness and pain, 
of light and dark. All the more often now, I realise that I took the road leading 
in the necessary direction. When I see those who hate me - Nazis, propagandists, 
Chekists[i.e. those in the Russian security services], thugs - and those who 
support me - the defenders of Shiyes, musicians, artists, political prisoners, 
teachers, people from my town, comrades all over the world, family and loved ones 
- I understand that I am on the right side, the bright side. And that 
understanding justifies, in many ways, the road I have taken, which is short but 
from which I have drawn definite conclusions and ideas.

What's there to say about life? That it turned out to be long.

Only with grief do I feel solidarity.

But whilst my mouth is not yet packed with clay,

It'll only resound with gratitude

(Iosif Brodsky.)

Q: Finally, I would ask you to formulate some sort of phrase or slogan that in 
the current situation helps you to overcome all the difficulties and to believe 
that justice will soon be achieved.

ISh: When I write that good will prevail, I don't have in mind worldwide peace, 
however much I would like that. The point is that good prevails every day, thanks 
to sincere, good people. Good prevails when doctors save people's lives, when 
people adopt a child from an orphanage, when a taxi-driver saves a demonstrator 
from sadists with truncheons, when eco-activists defend forests from destruction, 
when political prisoners are released in court, when human rights defenders 
protect prisoners from torture, when solidarity and love make us smile, and make 
us believe that we are not alone, that we are together and that we will win. Good 
will prevail!

PS[from Dmitry Semenov, freerussiahouse]. At the end of his letter Ilya Shakursky 
sent a message to the interviewer, not for publication. At the end of that 
message he again expressed thanks for the interest shown in the case, and best 
wishes. From my side I would like to send Ilya and his friends rays of support, 
for their freedom. "For sure, this will all pass." ?

? Note. Please send messages to Ilya Shakursky and the other prisoners in English 
to peoplenature[at]yahoo[dot]com, and I will see that they get translated and 
passed along. Our friends in Russia say that there is no point in sending letters 
written in English (or other languages except Russian) to prisoners in Russia, as 
they will not receive them.

? A list, in English, of the "Network" case defendants is here, and other 
information from the Rupression collective is here.

? The English translation of Interrupted Flight, the song by the Soviet-era 
Russian bard Vladimir Vysotsky, is from an article by Elena Dimov on the 
Contemporary Russian Literature site. The translation of the last lines of "I, 
Instead of a Wild Beast, Entered the Cage" by Iosif Brodsky is by Valentina 
Polukhina and Chris Jones, from: L. Loseff and V. Polukhina (eds.), Joseph 
Brodsky (Palgrave Macmillan, London: 1999).

https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2021/01/18/solidarity-is-a-stream-of-sparks-international/
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