🖌 What to write about

There is no single "right" answer; you should follow your own intuition and consider the prisoner's background. However, the range of topics you can discuss is endless. Here are some ideas: 

👌 everyday news 

👌 art and culture 

👌 books and literature 

👌 cultural events

👌 funny stories or situations

👌 movies

👌 music

👌 loved ones and family 

👌 childhood

👌 sport

👌 political events (be careful)

👌 hobbies

👌 vivid experiences 

👌 animals

👌 weather

👌 hometown

👌 work

👌 natue

Think about what might support and inspire the person you are writing to. You don't have to come up with everything yourself—for example, you can share passages from your favorite authors or transcribe poems.

🖌 How to write 

✏️ Introduce yourself and tell them about yourself: what you do for work or study, and what you do in your free time.

✏️ Explain why you decided to write to this person. If you read interesting facts about the political prisoner on the internet (for example, that they are a good artist or that they volunteer at a dog shelter) or if you have some common ground, you can start with these topics.

✏️ Keep in mind that your correspondent is a living person with their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This person is currently in a vulnerable position. It is important to learn to listen and hear them, rather than deciding for them what kind of letters they would like to receive. Therefore, be sure to ask in what format and about what they would like to correspond. You should not maintain the same type of correspondence with different political prisoners without taking into account unique feedback from them.

✏️ Do not write anonymously. If you do not want to provide your real name, choose a pseudonym and use it. Otherwise, a prisoner who receives many letters might not remember that you have written to them before when reading your next letter.

✏️ If the prisoner has expressed a desire to receive any news, then write about anything: about local and world news, about what is happening around you and in the world, about movies, books, travel, nature. Tell vivid, emotional, or funny stories from life. Share your impressions about something. In dungeons, there is a great lack of information for the sense organs: everything is gray, monotonous, and formulaic, so prisoners need living images and feelings.

✏️ Ask questions: this will allow the prisoner to express their thoughts and experiences, and their views on certain issues. Many political prisoners are interesting and educated people, and they certainly have something to tell you.

✏️ You can send news articles and Wikipedia articles; short stories and excerpts from someone’s memoirs or even long posts by famous people; include stickers and prints with memes and pictures.

✏️ Upon request, you can send educational materials: for example, instructions on drawing or playing Go, mathematical problems, intellectual tests, etc. It would be appropriate to ask before sending what the prisoner would like to receive.

✏️ You should not express pity and sympathy, or write formulaic phrases (“hang in there”, “I’m worried”, “everything will be fine”). On the contrary, using words about something bright and kind will be a plus. You can use humor if you feel it would be appropriate.

✏️ Put the date the letter was written and number the sheets (if there are several); this will help the prisoner orient themselves in the chronology of your correspondence. You can even put letter numbers.

✏️ If you send emails, you will most likely have the entire correspondence history at your fingertips. If you use the paper version, either briefly record the content of your letters or take photos of them. Since paper letters arrive at long intervals, you may forget what you wrote last time. And you will definitely get confused if you are conducting parallel correspondence with several political prisoners.

✏️ Write in legible handwriting and clear ink on white paper. In many pre-trial detention centers, the lighting is very dim, and additional strain on the prisoner’s eyesight is unnecessary.

✏️ A postcard does not require long text, but a few short sentences can fit. In addition to expressing support, you can tell about the image on the postcard and the place from which you are sending it. A postcard can be sent either in an envelope or without one. But an envelope serves as additional protection — with it, there is less chance that the postcard will be spoiled or frayed in transit.

✏️ There is often a lack of bright colors in the cells, so prisoners are especially pleased to receive a letter with colored pictures, photographs, or drawings inside — they are pasted on with toothpaste or hung on the wall in the cell.

✏️ Many political prisoners will be especially pleased to receive a postcard for the New Year or their birthday, but do not forget that Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses, of whom there are many among political prisoners, do not traditionally celebrate these holidays.

🖌 Censorship

Prisoners are deprived of the right to the privacy of correspondence: all letters pass through a censor. This means that there are several unpleasant rules that, unfortunately, must be followed so that the letter reaches the recipient and does not harm him or her.

All sent letters and images are checked by a censor within no more than three days and then handed over to the addressee. In practice, censorship operates very differently in different pre-trial detention centers and colonies: the same letter may be passed in its entirety in one place, while in another, it may not be passed at all.

🖌 Rules

Here are some general rules you can follow:

✖️ The letter must be entirely in Russian. No exceptions are made: individual quotes, well-known English words, words and phrases in the languages of the peoples of Russia — all of these will be a reason not to pass the letter.

✖️ Do not write anything that could somehow compromise your addressee or yourself. In particular, correspondence about the criminal case can sometimes be harmful. If details of the criminal case are present, letters may be handed over to the investigator;

✖️ Do not use ciphers, incomprehensible symbols, or little-known abbreviations;

✖️ Do not use profanity, insults, threats, calls for violence, revolution, or other actions that could be considered illegal;

✖️ Do not use erotic or pornographic descriptions, and do not touch upon LGBT topics; remember that an association with LGBTQ is dangerous for a prisoner in a Russian colony.

✖️ Do not report information about the security of the pre-trial detention center/colony, about staff, or about methods for transferring prohibited items;

✖️ Do not write disparagingly about the government or other people. This will primarily harm you. Moderate political statements are usually not censored;

✖️ Occasionally, in some colonies, poems may not be allowed, and surnames may be crossed out;

✖️ Take into account the existence of military censorship: do not write about military actions, about weaponry, about the losses of the parties, or about anything that is officially associated with extremism and terrorism in the current RF.

Exercise caution and remember that the more well-known your addressee is, the more strictly these rules must be treated.

These rules apply not only to your texts but also to all other types of sent materials: memes, fan fiction, stickers, inscriptions, and images on postcards, etc.