Undeserved Punishment – Solitary Confinement in a Russian Prison – Torture, pure and simple

I never imagined that I would end up in a Russian prison, but I did.  I was prohibited from contacting the Australian Embassy and incarcerated without been told when or if I would ever get out.

Why? You will have to read my book, For the Love of Russian Gold. All I can say is that in 1980 the Communist regime prohibited foreigners from fraternising with Russians, living in Russian apartments, and overstaying their visas. 

One sunny hot day, at the tender age of twenty, I was stopped by the Russian police on the street in Moscow, arrested, interrogated for hours, accused of being a spy and jailed.  The KGB took me to a prison called “Rehabilitation Centre No.2” in the Severny District, north of Moscow.  I was in solitary confinement as I wasn’t allowed to talk to the other Russian prisoners.  I slept on a bunk bed with a dirty thin mattress and had to pee in a trough in the corner of my cell.  I was fed through a small opening in the cell door twice a day – tasteless porridge for breakfast and a soup called Ooha, normally a lovely Russian fish soup, but this was just a fish head floating in hot water. I was allowed to walk around a tiny open courtyard on top of the prison for fifteen minutes a day.  I was not allowed to shower in the communal bathrooms.  A naked light bulb hung from the ceiling of my cell and was left on all night.  Outside, dogs howled all night.  It was hell on earth. 

At times I thought they would never let me out. Foreigners and Russian dissidents disappeared regularly.  No one knew where I was.  None of the guards would tell me how long I would be incarcerated for. And worse – I had absolutely nothing to do.  The excruciating boredom and not knowing if I would ever get out - drove me to wanting to kill myself.

Professor Wes Boyd, a psychiatrist on faculty at Harvard Medical School said: " Placing prisoners in solitary confinement causes such severe psychological damage that it is tantamount to torture. It needs to stop."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/almost-addicted/201801/solitary-confinement-torture-pure-and-simple

This is exactly like my prison cell with peep hole and small opening in door for meals. It is also exactly what the Russian guards looked like. Russian prison torture 'growing worse' Zhanna Nemtsova 09/13/2018, September 13, 2018, dw.com Image: Getty Images/AFP/N. Kolesnikova

This is almost identical to inside my cell. ID 20434529 © Attila Jandi | Dreamstime.com

This is similar to the small courtyard I was allowed to walk around in for 15 minutes a day.  Psychology Today, Solitary Confinement: Torture, Pure and Simple Posted January 15, 2018  J. Wesley Boyd M.D., Ph.D.Prof. Photo / Herald file