"I repeatedly saw beaten women - young and old. Originally relieved that she had avoided the horrors of the sweatshop, Federova said she witnessed "really horrible things." She served part of that sentence from June 2007 to April 2016 at prison IK-14.įederova was quickly moved to work in the medical unit. Yelena Federova was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted on a murder charge when she was 20 years old. That means, in the evening after work, you cannot return to the barracks."Īrguing with administrators only got Krass thrown in the isolation cell for a few days. "They told me if I didn’t sew what I had to - and it was minus 20 outside - then I would stand in the ‘spot’ outside. Krass says once she complained to prison administrators that she couldn’t keep up with her sewing quota, a mistake she quickly realized. Like others, Krass complained that the conditions in the sewing shop were unbearable, with daily quotas constantly raised. During the trip no one answers any of your questions." As I was led out, I asked where I was going. "I was taken at midnight and they told me I should be ready to leave in 40 minutes. In the end, quite unexpectedly in the middle of the night, people are taken out," Krass said. They sit in their cells and nervously wait. "After the sentence is handed down everyone is very afraid about ending up in Mordovia. Krass explained that up till the last moment, she had no idea she was headed to prison IK-14. She was 41 years old when she was imprisoned at prison IK-14. She served part of her term in the Mordovian prison from October 2014 to March 2017. In April 2014, Krass was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty on narcotics and robbery charges. Everyone yells, ‘Fresh meat has arrived.’ The inmates react of course to this - they are afraid," Krass told RFE/RL. "At the entrance to IK-14 there is a sign: ‘Welcome To Hell.’ When someone enters the colony, there’s a lineup in the yard. When Veronika Krass entered prison IK-14 in October 2014, a few words scrawled on the wall at the entrance grabbed her attention. So, if you sewed badly today then we will burn the cats! They don’t punish one or two people - they punish a whole brigade," Alekseyeva said. But they can also be used for punishment. "There is nothing more dear to the inmates than these kittens and cats. "They are collected in a sack and burned in the furnace," Alekseyeva said, explaining the cats are used as a kind of bargaining chip with the prisoners. So that the rats would scatter, you understand," Alekseyeva recounted, adding that cats are also kept to hunt the rodents.Īs the felines reproduced, however, the prison found a cruel method to keep their numbers down. Before you went into the bathroom, you needed to knock - there were special poles for that. Rats lived with us in the industrial zone. Like others, Alekseyeva said conditions at the facility were downright medieval. I was saved by the cons themselves," Alekseyeva explained. This is definitely unsafe, requiring some training. I can say that fingers on the saw are chopped off, cut, blood flows. God forbid, if the saw cuts somewhere else, then all 100 cuts are ruined. "The saw cuts the fabric along a chalk line continuously. Alekseyeva was picked to work in the sewing shop, cutting fabric to size. Its reputation is known, especially after the letter by Nadia Tolokonnikova," Alekseyeva told RFE/RL. "When the girls find out that they’re going to Mordovia, they cut their wrists, do everything possible: get sick, swallow nails, just so they don’t have to go there.
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