Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 2 – Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn famously divided the Soviet Union into two “zones.” The GULAG about which he wrote was “the small
zone,” while the entire rest of the country under Stalin’s rule was “the big
zone.” And he documented the ways in
which these two zones interacted and affected one another in the most negative
ways.
Tragically, Moscow human rights
activist Lev Ponomaryev says, despite “all the enormous changes” from Stalin’s
times to Putin’s, these two zones still existence and interact, with no one
having the ability to defend his rights and everyone left feeling “complete
alienation from the authorities” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=559570C1822D6[NG1] [NG2] [NG3] ).
Again as in Stalin’s times, “citizens
believe” on the country’s leader, then the general secretary of the party, now
the president, “and those incarcerated a little of what the procuracy demands.”
In this situation, Ponomaryev continues,
“social processes like liberalization, corruption, property differentiation, a
harshening of morals and ever more frequent use of force by the authorities” in
the “big zone,” “inevitably are reflected in the life of jails, colonials and
investigative facilities” of the “small” one.
And conversely, “the camp ‘caste’
system and criminal ‘understandings’ ever more fully enter into” the lives of
people in society as a whole. Exactly as with regard to repressive practice.”
And consequently, when the jailors behave worse or encourage their inmates to
do the same, something similar will soon occur outside the barbed wire fences
as well.
Sometimes that happens because the
inmates reenter the larger society or their jailors change jobs and bring with
them the habits they acquired in “the small zone.” But sometimes it happens
because the Kremlin sees something that works in the jails and camps and
decides to copy it in “the big zone.”
That should make what happens in the
penal system a matter of priority concern for all Russians, Ponomaryev says;
but he points out that it is necessary to remember that with regard to what the
jailors do to the jailed, “the only restraining factor” is publicity, and he
notes that the authorities are doing everything they can to block information
from getting out.
In Russia today, “we already feel
the decay of the economy: unemployment and inflation are growing, production is
falling, and real incomes and pensions are declining.” Moreover, “corruption is
in no way decreasing. It is obvious that all these trends are felt in a still
more troubling way behind bars.”
Rights activists get reports on this
every day, Ponomaryev says. “Tension in the colonies is growing,” as four “so-called
bunts” in Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Chelyabinsk oblasts and in
Bashkortostan, show.
“What has been the reaction of the
authorities?” Ponomaryev asks. “On this side of the barbed wire, they are
preparing for mass protests and tightening the screws.” On that side, they are
imposing ever more draconian conditions on those incarcerated. And the two
trends are feeding on each other.
The crowning example of this
interaction was the creation of the Anti-Maidan, “the militants of which openly
attack on officially agreed to pickets and meetings” and go after journalists
and activists with impunity, just as trusties do in jails and camps, Ponomaryev
continues.
“How does glasnost look in the big
zone?” he asks rhetorically. The situation is not good. Anyone who speaks the truth
about the violation of the constitution and international norms is accused of
being “an enemy of the people” and part of “a fifth column,” just as he would
have been under Stalin.
“In general, everything is being
done so that both zones have become as closed as possible and a single
concentration camp” uniting the two zones into one “has taken shape.” That is
suggested by things like the “’law of sadists’” which gives jailors virtually
free rein to beat and otherwise mistreat prisoners.
To prevent the situation in the
small zone from becoming even worse and then spreading to the big zone,
Ponomaryev says, five steps must be taken at once. First, “’the law of sadists’”
must be annulled. Second, the government must eliminate all arrangements that
give power to some prisoners over others.
Third, arrangements must be put in
place so that investigative organs and procurators will respond quickly to “all
reports about crimes related to convicts.” Fourth, lawyers, activists, and
others must be given “free access” to prisoners. And fifth, Russia needs to
come up with a system in which prisoners are re-socialized before being sent
back into “the big zone.”
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