You have, of course, read Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s open letter from Penal Colony No. 14 in Mordovia, where she is currently being held. If you haven’t yet, you absolutely should—it is a document of tremendous power.
There is a great deal in it worth discussing, but right now I want to focus on just one line: "So, in June 2013 my wages amounted to 29 (twenty-nine!) rubles. Meanwhile, the brigade sews 150 police uniforms a day. Where does the money paid for them go?" Twenty-nine rubles a month. Working without days off. For 16–17 hours a day. It is clear that female prisoners are not ordinary workers, and labor in penal colonies is, after all, forced labor. But that should not mean the effective legalization of slave labor and the suspension of the Labor Code. My entire brigade in the sewing shop works 16–17 hours a day. From 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sleep—at best four hours a day. A day off comes once every month and a half. Almost all Sundays are workdays. Convicts write applications agreeing to work on their day off, with the wording “of their own free will.” In reality, of course, there is no free will involved. These statements are written under orders, at the demand of management and of inmates who relay management’s will. Prisoner Murtazalieva, who served time in the neighboring Penal Colony No. 13, describes her “work” in almost exactly the same way: The industrial zone was a dilapidated building, crumbling on all sides. There were three sections, three sewing lines—with 15–20 old machines standing on either side. Between them was a long iron table. Lamps hung above the table. The floor was made of rotten wooden planks: it was always frightening that you might fall through, break a leg, or crack your head open. Scissors would fall through the gaps in those wooden floors, and we had to pry up the rotten boards and pull them out. The rules were such that until every tool issued to the brigade was accounted for, we could not leave the sewing factory—even if it meant sitting there until morning. There were cases when prisoners who wanted to make trouble for us stole scissors and threw them outside or into the toilet. Then we would wait for hours until we were taken off work and until the colony chief deigned to forgive us. Unsanitary conditions, a leaking roof, nonfunctioning ventilation, the absence of even the most basic working conditions… On the same grounds there was a cutting shop where clothing was cut. We sewed everything—from camouflage uniforms to mittens and quilted padded jackets. If you see products in a store labeled “Vostok-Service” or “Sirius,” know this: they are sewn by female prisoners in Mordovia. ... Within ten days, a newcomer is required to learn to sew and meet the quota—200 units, which a very good seamstress can produce in eight hours. This means a newly arrived inmate’s chances are effectively zero, and no brigade leader will actually give her ten days to learn. If the newcomer does not learn to sew within two or three days, the other prisoners will teach her very quickly. It is all very simple: after a few days, the brigade leader will start shouting at her, calling her the foulest names. If the newcomer still does not get the message, either the brigade leader herself or her “lackeys” will take over. They will lead the newcomer into the bendyak (a room where finished goods are stored). There she will be beaten and clearly shown how she is supposed to sew. Complaining anywhere is useless.
It looks pretty decent. For example, a police uniform costs 2,500 rubles. The brigade sews 150 uniforms a day, which comes to 4,500 uniforms a month (they work without days off), each costing several thousand rubles. Meanwhile, the person sewing that uniform earns 29 rubles a month. So what remarkable people have set up such a dream business with such enormous margins? Meet the holding company “Vostok-Service”—the largest private client of Mordovian prison camps. And its owner, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Golovnyov, who (through Perspektiva CJSC) owns 90% of the holding.
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A wonderful entrepreneur, a member of United Russia (well, of course), and a State Duma deputy from 2007 to 2011. He wanted to get elected again this time, but failed.
Here he is on the United Russia candidate list, in the regional Magadan group (symbolic, that). As befits a member of United Russia, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Golovnyov is intensely patriotic and has a whole collection of awards:
He has been awarded the titles “Honorary Citizen of Vladivostok,” “Honorary Worker of the Textile and Light Industry,” and “Honored Entrepreneur of Russia.” He has also received the honorary public award “Star of Russian Management-2005,” the “National Greatness” prize, and the “Patron of Russia” order from the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement Problems. And who else should receive a “National Greatness” prize if not an entrepreneur who built his business on slave labor and joined United Russia? Now let us see where this wonderful patriot, United Russia loyalist, and embodiment of “national greatness” invests his money. Once again, as with old man Pekhtin, we are very far from Magadan. In the U.S. state of Florida: in June 2003, Ivetta Golovnyova, the wife (here she is among the founders of one of her husband’s holding companies) of honorary citizen of Vladivostok, recipient of an order from the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement Problems, and future State Duma deputy Vladimir Golovnyov, buys an apartment at 18911 Collins Ave, North Miami Beach, Florida for $518,900.
Not a bad little place right on the oceanfront. They do not have those in Mordovia. In April 2004, Ivetta Golovnyova, now together with her husband, buys a second apartment in the same building for $829,000. In December 2005, Ivetta Golovnyova sells the first apartment, the one she bought in June 2003, for $980,000. In January, Golovnyova buys an apartment in the Ocean Four Condo residential complex at 17201 Collins Avenue, Sunny Isles Beach, Florida for $1.275 million.
The patriotic Golovnyov couple somehow seem to have no faith at all in the future of the Russian market. They just keep investing and investing in those disgusting United States, which are supposedly on the verge of bankruptcy (or so Channel One likes to tell us). In 2010, the rising wave of state-sponsored patriotism made the couple a little embarrassed about their foreign real estate. If you think they sold it and bought themselves a little house in Mordovia or at least on Rublyovka (an elite residential area outside Moscow), you would be mistaken. A man who found workers to service his business for 29 rubles a month is very resourceful: and on December 27, 2010, both of the Golovnyovs’ apartments (one, two) were transferred to Step L.L.C., which belongs to our old acquaintance (SURPRISE)
Ivetta Golovnyova! What a clever arrangement. While Mordovian prisoners were working to pay for the Golovnyovs’ Miami apartments, United Russia member Vladimir Golovnyov was elected to the State Duma. Let us look at his declarations from that period. His 2006 election declaration: no American apartments.
His 2010 anti-corruption declaration: no American apartments.
Even when running for the State Duma in 2011, the United Russia slave-owner Golovnyov deceived us again and once more failed to declare his U.S. real estate.
This is probably the only time I deeply regret that one of those disgusting crooks from United Russia did not make it into the Duma and become a deputy. Because that deprives us of the wonderful opportunity to kick him out of there, as happened with Pekhtin or Malkin, for lying on his declarations. The Anti-Corruption Foundation will still send appeals to the State Duma so that Golovnyov’s violations and deception are at least formally recorded. Legally, nothing can be done here, but politically we have all just gained one more argument for always campaigning and voting against the “Party of Crooks and Thieves” (a popular opposition nickname for United Russia). We must do everything possible to destroy this vile, thieving party. And I hope this story will also help draw attention to the fact that Russia’s penal colonies no longer come anywhere close to serving the purposes society actually needs them to serve. Let me remind you that, according to the law: Article 43. The Concept and Purposes of Punishment 1. Punishment is a measure of state coercion imposed by a court verdict. Punishment is applied to a person found guilty of committing a crime and consists of the deprivation or restriction of that person’s rights and freedoms as provided for by this Code. 2. Punishment is applied for the purpose of restoring social justice, as well as reforming the convicted person and preventing the commission of new crimes. http://www.consultant.ru/popular/ukrf/10_11.html It is hard to believe that the goals of social justice and rehabilitation can be achieved by turning prisoners into criminal slaves who earn 29 rubles a month and pay for a United Russia politician’s apartment in Miami. P.S. Needless to say, sharing is welcome. P.P.S. Thanks to the volunteers and allies of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, as well as Furious George, for their help in finding the materials.