Teenage Letter From A Russian Jail: “Don’t Let Putin Scare Us”

-OpEd-

Daria Kozyreva is one of the youngest political prisoners in Russia. Two years ago, she was studying at St. Petersburg State University’s Faculty of Medicine and participating actively in civic life. That all changed last year when she was charged with an administrative offense for posting anti-war material on VKontakte, the Russian social media platform, and Kozyreva was expelled from the university.

Then in on February 24, on the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kozyreva was detained after pasting a leaflet onto a monument of the Ukrainian poet, artist and political figure Taras Shevchenko, which included one of his poems.

Kozyreva is facing five years for “repeatedly discrediting the Russian army,” currently held in a pre-trial detention center in St. Petersburg awaiting trial. From the detention center, Kozyrevo wrote a column for Holod, exploring questions about silence, fear and hope. Here it is below in its entirety:

Cocoon of silence 

Russia is ensnared in a heavy, impenetrable cocoon — a cocoon of silence. How many crimes have been committed by the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin, how many foreign cities has it captured and destroyed, how many murders and how much torture have been meted out by its own hand? And yet, the response to all these crimes — a deafening silence.

Many people prefer not to know what is happening, to close their eyes, to cover their ears. Many are deceived, wanting to be deceived — indeed, it is so easy to blindly believe what the television says, even if it broadcasts the most blatant and heinous lies.

Any dictatorship is maintained thanks to the silence of the people.

But many know well what this villainous government is creating, and they are holding their disagreement, their outrage, their rage in their hearts. And yet somehow, they are silent. Just as any crime is committed with someone’s tacit consent, so any dictatorship is maintained thanks to the silence of the people. A colossus with feet of clay will mean nothing if all those who disagree speak out.

Little people getting involved 

But instead, they are silent.

It happens when an individual believes that everything has been decided and there is no point in him, a little person, getting involved. They hope that others will say everything on his behalf — only those others are finding excuses of their own to remain silent.

And yet the real reason for this silence is human fear, a wild fear. No dictatorship can make each and every person believe in it — that is why it constantly resorts to fear, to its first and last means of subjugating the people.

Germans in the era of Hitler obediently shouted “Heil,” understanding what might happen to them if disobedient; Soviet people during the Stalin era were even afraid to whisper in their own kitchens for fear of facing an accusation. The steamroller of repression does not even need to crush all those who disagree — just enough to set an example, and the rest will shut their mouths.

Time to speak up

The absurdity of Putin’s repression has reached such a degree that any trifle can become cause for persecution, and no one knows exactly what they can say anymore. The Kremlin villain is happy as long as everyone is silent, which assures that his own skin will be safe.

Everyone who disagrees with the Moscow regime should speak.

And that is precisely why you cannot remain silent. People’s fear is understandable, whether you are scared to risk your professional position or prospects or personal freedom. It is also true that people also worry about the consequences on their own families. But will it be easier for your family members to live under a dictatorship, behind a new Iron Curtain?

A dictatorship can continue to commit its villainies, its injustices, as long as it feels strength and power. And those feelings won’ change as long as everyone is humbly silent.

Not enough prisons

So, maybe it’s time to speak up?

Everyone who can speak out must try their best to do so. Right now we have so few who’ve dared to speak that we will remain too few to move anything along. Everyone who disagrees with the Moscow regime should speak. It’s easy to put a few behind bars for words — but only because they are few. But for all those in Russia who disagree with Putin, there are not enough prisons to hold them all.

The moment when the masses have overcome fear, and everyone speaks out, Putin’s pack will try to sabotage it. But no evil lives forever, and any dictatorship must fall. It may fall under its own weight like the USSR collapsed, or thanks to the people who, finally, rebelled.

Don’t allow this dictatorship to survive longer than it should survive. Speak up, people!