"Where have you been?" Ex-political prisoner writing poetry for prison guard

Mikhail, a former political prisoner from Minsk (name changed for security reasons), was detained in early 2024 as an independent observer of the 2025 presidential elections. Later, he was found to have pictures from protests and was sentenced to several years of home confinement. The man decided not to serve his sentence and went abroad.

Mikhail told Viasna how his cellmate flirted with a female prison guard in the pre-trial detention center, how Mikhail wrote poems for her, and also why Valadarka is better than Kaliadzičy.

"The KGB officers asked if I had contacted Viasna"

This year, Mikhail was visited by KGB officers who had questions about the presidential elections in 2025. Allegedly, the man registered to be an independent observer. First, he was placed under administrative arrest, and then a criminal case was initiated under Article 342 for participating in protests.

"Actually, I didn't register as an observer. I just actively participated in all the marches and put protest newspapers to mailboxes in my neighborhood. The KGB officers asked if I had contacted Viasna, if I knew that is was recognized as 'extremist'. It seems that the security forces were just checking everyone on the list. In the temporary detention facility at Akrescina and later in the pre-trial detention center, I met independent observers of the 2020 elections."

12 people in a one-person cell and a toilet without a curtain. The worst day of detention

After serving his administrative arrest, Mikhail was re-detained as part of a criminal case. Photos from a 2020 protest were found on his computer. Before being transferred to the pre-trial detention center, the man spent ten days in a punishment cell at Akrescina. He calls this time as the worst days of detention in his life.

"The punishment cell is a single-person cell, but there always were six or more of us there. 12 prisoners maximum. The cell was two steps wide and five or six long. The toilet is a hole without a curtain. We planned to take turns sleeping, but realized that it was inconvenient. People slept half-sitting as close to each other as possible."

Of five months in imprisonment, Mikhail had a cold for four months. It was all because of the poor conditions of detention, he says.

The windows of the cell were at the ground level

The building of the old pre-trial detention center No. 1 on Valadarskaha Street

Mikhail was doing time in a basement cell. This is one of the biggest cells in Valadarka prison: 26 beds, says the interlocutor. A maximum of 31 people were kept there.

"After the punishment cell, the Valadarka cell felt like a fairy tale. But the windows of the cell were at the ground level, so all the dust and dirt from the street got inside.”

Mikhail spent the rest of April 2024 in the Valadarskaha pre-trial detention center, and then all prisoners were transferred to a new pre-trial detention center in Kaliadzičy near Minsk, and the old center was closed.

Kaliadzičy is like four Valadarkas or two Žodzina prisons

Pre-trial detention center No. 1 in Kaliadzičy

The employees of the pre-trial detention center told the prisoners that the facility is designed for 4,000 people. Mikhail says the number of beds there can be compared with four pre-trial detention centers in Valadarka. Or with two Žodzina prisons, Mikhail says.

The shortage of employees affected the work of the pre-trial detention center. According to the schedule, the breakfast starts at eight in the morning, and it was sometimes brought at nine o'clock. The doctor came directly to the cell, as there was no one to escort prisoners to the medical unit.

The cells in Kaliadzičy were quite spacious, Mikhail says. The number of beds corresponded to the number of prisoners.

The administration is worse, the conditions are better

Mikhail says that the administration became significantly worse with the transfer to the new pre-trial detention center, but conditions have improved slightly.

"You could sleep for hours at Valadarka, because no one cared and there were no surveillance cameras. But the air was very bad there, there was no ventilation. There was hot water in the cell in Kaliadzičy, which helped a lot. But there were worse mattresses and beds. You sleep on iron there. When you get access to those basic things that you have been deprived of for a long time, you are very happy at first. But when the guards start harassing you all the time for no reason, all the joy goes away. It's very depressing."  

In addition, the cells of the new pre-trial detention center were searched once a week, which almost did not happen in the old pre-trial detention center, the former political prisoner recalls.

Mikhail adds that it was easier at Valadarka. There was an opportunity to sleep during the day without punishment. And the hot water that appeared in the new detention center could always be warmed up with a coil heater.

"When there is nothing to do in the cell, there are no normal books, when the TV brainwashes you, then it is better, of course, to go to sleep in order to somehow kill the time."

"Do not provoke the guards watching camera feeds." More surveillance cameras, more violation reports

A young guard Mikhail communicated with, said that with the transfer to the new pre-trial detention center, prisoners began to get much more violation reports than at Valadarka.

In the old pre-trial detention center, in cells without video surveillance, prisoners got used to sleeping during the day. Many surveillance cameras were installed in Kaliadzičy, and it became possible to track all "violations".

"The guard told us so: 'Do not provoke the guards watching camera feeds. Even if you just sit with your back to the camera, the guard may think that you are asleep, and they will draw up a violation report'. It was obvious that she didn't like it herself."

During the month that Mikhail stayed in Kaliadzičy, he received two violation reports for sleeping in the afternoon. And in four months at Valadarka, he got only one report, says Mikhail.

A similar situation was with smoking at night, says the interlocutor. It was officially banned in Valadarka, but the prisoners smoked without attracting much attention anyway. In Kaliadzičy, the old habit was immediately caught on video cameras, and the men received violation reports.

"Where have you been?" A political prisoner writing poetry for a prison guard

Mikhail's poems that he wrote to the prison guard. Photo from the interlocutor's personal archive

One of the female prison guards liked Mikhail's cellmate, who was not a political prisoner. It was a young man from an orphanage who was sentenced to two years of imprisonment. Mikhail began writing poetry already at Valadarka. As he says, "Backgammon and chess became boring." His cellmate agreed with Mikhail that he would transfer poems for the prison guard on his behalf. 

"She took that prisoner to the trial. He asked her, 'Where have you been?' It seems that she even gave him her phone number," the source says.

It is not allowed to smoke at night, to lie down, to sleep

Once Mikhail saw information boards in a corridor of the pre-trial detention center, and they showed gyms and prayer rooms. But the prisoners were never told that they had such opportunities, and they were not taken there, the source says.

"The only thing we were constantly reminded of: it is not allowed to smoke at night, to lie down, to sleep. They didn't tell us about any gyms. Probably it was the employees of the detention center who used them."

The books were transported from Valadarka to the new pre-trial detention center even before the prisoners were transferred. For quite a long time they were not put in order, and the guards brought random books which the prisoners did not order.

"For example, I read Palm Beach Casino, although I did not order it. When we asked for a list of books from the library to place an order, we were told: 'Wait, we haven't ordered the books yet.' We were offered to write a request in free form, and they will bring us those books that they themselves deem necessary."

The security forces asked Mikhail's mother where her son had gone

As a result, Mikhail was convicted under Article 342 of the Criminal Code and sentenced to 2.5 years of home confinement. After his release, he immediately decided to go abroad. After leaving, security forces came to his mother's house and asked where her son had gone. Later, the inspector wrote to the man on Telegram and threatened to put him on the wanted list if he did not return. Now Mikhail is in a safe place, settling down in a new country.