Stanislav Asejev, a Ukrainian journalist and author, wrote about his experiences in prison after being arrested in 2017 for reporting on Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine. He was sentenced to 15 years and imprisoned in Isoleringen, a torture prison for political prisoners. His writing helped him endure and survive the unbearable conditions, and after being released in a prisoner exchange in December 2019, he wrote a book about his experiences called “Hell on Paradisgatan.” Aseyev believes the war crimes committed in Russian-controlled areas are not a coincidence, but a tactic, and has founded the organization Justice Initiative Fund to bring war criminals to account in Ukrainian or international courts. He also criticizes the belief that only one layer of leadership is responsible for the war in Ukraine and calls on Russians to take responsibility for their role in the conflict. Despite his experiences, Aseyev hopes to move on from the subject and focus on something completely different.
In the beginning, Stanislav Asejev wrote with a blunt pencil on pieces of cardboard. He himself was surprised that he was allowed to keep the short texts.
It was also a matter of time: after the transfer to another prison, Isoleringen, all his papers were taken away from him. When several months later he was allowed to write again, he used memory to reconstruct his descriptions of the prison. It took three days.
– Putting into words what I was involved in was a way to endure, to survive, says Stanislav Asejev, on a short visit to Stockholm, including for a performance at the Kulturhuset.
He was arrested in the early summer of 2017 in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, which had been under Russian control for a year, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
For some time he had reported under a pseudonym on what was happening in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine, including for the Ukrainian newspapers Mirror Weekly, Ukrainska Pravda and US-funded Radio Liberty.
In captivity, the world was cut off. The isolation is the name of a torture prison housed in an old factory where insulation was once manufactured, and which has since been converted into a cultural and artist center, but whose premises are now used by Russian forces and security services. There, political prisoners were kept under unbearable conditions and subjected to systematic abuse.
Officially, the prison does not exist, and it is located in an area where normal life goes on around. Stanislav Asejev says it is just one of many, many Russian-controlled prisons.
– What the Russian security forces do is something that has been developed over decades, from the Soviet era onwards. Nothing there happens by chance, and that includes the torture methods as well. Everything is part of a system. There are no coincidences.
He has clear vision, his face is incomprehensibly young.
Foto: Creative commons
The release came in form of a prisoner exchange, on 29 December 2019. It had then been 962 days.
“Hell on Paradisgatan” was published not long after and received worldwide attention for its raw depiction of a prison that is still in use.
The book is a precise, factual account of circumstances and environment, transparently written also about the process. The text contains hope in time and in thought, so it turned out: prison is a different world, with a different logic, different rules, constant fear.
The writing process itself, putting into words what he has been through, and then telling about it, over and over again, has been an absolutely crucial part of the processing that is still ongoing, alongside psychological contacts.
He tells how the prison also affected the language, condensed it, made the sentences shorter, straighter, more concise.
The years after 2014 have also meant a new language for Stanislav Aseyev – his first language was Russian, and it was in Russian that he wrote his first novel. As a matter of principle, he now only uses Ukrainian, a language he was not as fluent in at first.
Attention helps. In my case, it kept me from being murdered
In the last chapter of his book, he talks about the difficult adjustment to a life of freedom, and how to deal with the post-traumatic stress that takes time to heal.
Neither are the war crimes committed in Russian-controlled areas a coincidence, he believes, but a tactic. The same applies to the many arrests of people who do not bow to the Russian regime – in public administration, the university world, in culture and journalism. Many disappear, some are released.
– Attention helps. In my case, it kept me from being murdered, and the international community’s pressure on Russia meant I was treated better.
Foto: Creative commons
Aseyev knows how long the war will last as little as everyone else, but for him the war crimes are central to how Russia should be treated.
– It’s about morality: can you have a conversation with a party who is currently guilty of this?
He speaks calmly, the questions are ones he has answered before.
– As I see it, the Ukrainian leadership has no plans to negotiate or enter into any agreements with Russia. But Ukraine is dependent on arms supplies from the West, and if they stop coming – well, then our government is forced to negotiate, but I hope that situation never arises.
The ability to survive in prison was fueled by a longing to see those he loves again, a desire to tell and a desire to bring the guilty to justice. And since his release, Stanislav Aseyev has created an organization with the aim of bringing more than those who are part of the Russian leadership to account, in Ukrainian or international courts.
To me, the situation is identical to what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s
The Justice Initiative Fund platform collects and publishes information about suspected war criminals – at all levels – and promises a reward to anyone who can contribute to the arrest of a person.
– When I get a question about the Russian population’s responsibility for the war, I always answer the same thing. This is not Putin’s war, it is the war of the Russian Federation and the war of the Russians. To me, the situation is identical to what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
He means that the reporting often rests on a false assumption that only one layer of leadership is responsible for the war, when large parts of the Russian population turned a blind eye for a long time.
– How you express yourself affects the possibility of claiming damages for the massive destruction that took place. So if you describe the war as “Putin’s war” – yes, then in a way you are helping Russia.
Until the end of the year, Stanislav Asejev is a visiting researcher at the Hamburg Foundation for the Politically Persecuted, but he divides his time between Germany, Ukraine and other places where he is invited to lecture.
But really, he longs to devote himself to something completely different.
– I barely remember what life was like before the war – but I know that when it’s over, I don’t want anything to do with what happened after 2014. Maybe I’ll leave the public eye, maybe go into business, what do I know? I am mentally completely exhausted by the subject, by these questions.
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