Hello!
My name is Artem Medvedsky. I am a former political prisoner.
For participation in protests I was sentenced to 3 years of “chemistry” with a referral* to IUOT 45 in Kamenets district, where I was forcibly assigned to the position of a 5th grade cattle breeder “MTK** Karolin”. I had worked in the restaurant business all my life, making sushi and was not going to work on a farm. However, I was forced to comply. My refusal to obey the order of the administration of the IWOT would have amounted to a violation, and could have been replaced by “chemo” with colony.
The prospect of being in the colony frightened me. But what I faced on that farm, I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams. There were unimaginable unsanitary conditions around, fallen animals were hidden right behind the cowshed. There was no drinking water. They deducted money for overalls from my earnings, even though they had no right to do so.
I did not know how humiliating, hard and thankless work was. With the allowed 70 working hours per week, we were forced to work 200 or more hours. The workday started at 04:30 and ended at 22:30 six days a week.
At the time of my arrest, I was 23 years old, young and strong. But in such inhumane working conditions I undermined my health, and my requests for medical assistance were completely ignored by the administration. When I was beaten up by the head of the operations department for poor performance, my body, exhausted by hard work, almost gave up. I realized that I could not stand the abuse and would simply die here. So I decided to run away.
However, I was caught soon enough. As punishment for my escape attempt, the “chemistry” regime was replaced by imprisonment. I was sent to the colony “Wolf's Den”, where I served my sentence to the end and more than ten times found myself in the punishment cell for various far-fetched reasons.
I never gave up the thought of going to Poland, realizing that this was my salvation from persecution in Belarus. After the liberation, I evacuated only at the second attempt. In Bialystok I was sheltered by an acquaintance with whom we were serving time. But I am ashamed to take advantage of the kindness of refugees like me for a long time.
I am working on legalization, I plan to find a job and a part-time job. But at the moment I am in a very difficult financial situation. I traveled light, I was able to take only the most necessary things. I need your help to rent a place for the first time, to buy clothes, shoes, and to take care of my health. Here in Poland I will most likely have a physical job waiting for me, and I need to recover from all the ordeals.
I really ask you to help me to organize my life in emigration!
I will be grateful for every donation!
*“Chemistry” with a referral is a type of punishment where a convict is sent to an open-type correctional facility. People live in housing units similar to dormitories. They are under constant supervision and are obliged to fulfill the rules of internal order, while paying for accommodation, buying food at their own expense, cooking, washing and cleaning themselves. At the same time, all convicts are obliged to work, often they are sent to low-skilled and low-paid labor.
** ITC — dairy-commodity complex
How much is needed?
€3000
€1500 — to rent an apartment for 3 months
€1000 — to buy things (clothes and shoes in season, dishes, household items, food)
€500 — medical examinations and doctor's consultations, medicines as needed (I don't have public health insurance in Poland yet).