You’ve probably already read Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s open letter, written from Penal Colony No. 14 in Mordovia. If you haven’t yet, you absolutely should—it’s an extraordinarily powerful document.
There’s a lot in that letter worth discussing, but right now I want to focus on just one line: "So, in June 2013 my wages came to 29 (twenty-nine!) rubles. Meanwhile, the brigade sews 150 police uniforms a day. Where does the money earned from them go?". Twenty-nine rubles a month*.* For working without a single day off. For 16–17 hours a day.* Of course, female prisoners are not ordinary workers, and labor in penal colonies is, after all, compulsory. But that should not mean the effective legalization of slave labor and the suspension of the Labor Code. My entire brigade in the sewing workshop 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 every Sunday is a workday. Convicts write requests 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 the administration and of inmates who relay the administration’s will. Prisoner Murtazalieva, who served time in the neighboring Penal Colony No. 13, describes her “labor” 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 to 20 old machines standing on either side. Between them was a long iron table. Lamps hung above the table. The floor was made of rotting wooden planks: it was always frightening to think you might fall through, break a leg, or crack your head open. Scissors would fall into 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 had been accounted for, we could not leave the sewing factory—even if that meant staying there until morning. There were cases when inmates 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 начальник deigned to forgive us. Unsanitary conditions, a leaking roof, broken ventilation, no basic working conditions at all… In the same area there was a cutting shop where fabric was cut. We sewed everything—from camouflage uniforms to mittens and padded quilted 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 expected to learn how to sew and meet the quota—200 items, which is what a very good seamstress can produce in eight hours. That means a newly arrived prisoner’s chances are effectively zero, and no brigade leader is going to give her ten days to learn. If the newcomer doesn’t learn to sew within two or three days, the other inmates will teach her very quickly. It’s simple: after a few days, the brigade leader starts screaming at her, calling her the filthiest names imaginable. If the newcomer still doesn’t get it, then either the brigade leader herself or her “lackeys” will take over. They’ll drag the newcomer into the bendyak (a room where finished products are stored). There she’ll be beaten and clearly shown how she is supposed to sew. Complaining anywhere is useless.
Doesn’t look bad. For example, a police uniform costs 2,500 rubles. A brigade sews 150 uniforms a day, which comes to 4,500 a month if they work without days off, each one selling for several thousand rubles. Meanwhile, the person sewing that uniform earns 29 rubles a month.
So who are these remarkable people who set up such a high-margin dream business?
Meet the Vostok-Service holding company—the largest private client of Mordovia’s prison camps. And its owner, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Golovnyov, who owns 90% of the holding (through Perspektiva CJSC).
A wonderful businessman, a member of United Russia (because of course he is), 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 election list, in the Magadan regional group (symbolic, isn’t it). As befits a member of United Russia, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Golovnyov is intensely patriotic and has a whole pile of awards:
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.
Who else should receive a “National Greatness” award if not a businessman who built his enterprise on slave labor and joined United Russia? Now let’s take a look at where this wonderful patriot, United Russia man, and embodiment of “national greatness” invests his money. Once again, as with old Pekhtin, we find ourselves very far from Magadan. In the U.S. state of Florida: in June 2003, Ivetta Golovnyova, the wife of Vladimir Golovnyov—the Honorary Citizen of Vladivostok, recipient of an order from the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement Problems, and future State Duma deputy (here she is among the founders of one of her husband’s holding companies)—buys an apartment at 18911 Collins Ave, North Miami Beach, Florida, for $518,900.
Not a bad place, right on the oceanfront. They don’t 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.
Apparently the patriotic Golovnyov spouses have absolutely no faith in the future of the Russian market. They just keep investing and investing in those disgusting United States, which is 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 (Moscow’s elite suburban enclave), you’d 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) are 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’s take a look at his declarations from that period.
His 2006 pre-election declaration: no American apartments.
His 2010 anti-corruption declaration: no American apartments.
Even when running for the State Duma in 2011, Golovnyov—the United Russia slave-owner—deceived us and again failed to disclose his U.S. real estate.
This is probably the only time I deeply regret that one of these disgusting crooks from United Russia didn’t make it into the Duma and become a deputy. That means we’ve been deprived of the wonderful opportunity to kick him out, as happened with Pekhtin or Malkin, for lying on his declarations. The ACF will still organize formal appeals to the State Duma so that Golovnyov’s violations and deception are at least officially recorded. Legally, nothing can be done here, but politically we have all gained yet another argument for always campaigning and voting against the “Party of Crooks and Thieves.” 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, in fact: *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, paying them 29 rubles a month, and having them earn a Miami apartment for a United Russia politician. PS Naturally, sharing this is encouraged. PPS Thanks to the volunteers and allies of the Anti-Corruption Foundation for helping gather materials, and also to Furious George.