Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina

Author:Maria Alyokhina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.

– Katya Samutsevich

‘Let’s go! Go! Go!’ a Spetsnaz officer barks. ‘Move!’ and he shoves us into the autozak.

spend a wild day among strong women

I don’t have any time to ask questions. In the autozak, the Spetsnaz officers take off their helmets and simultaneously exhale. One of them sits opposite us, holding a large video camera. Some are bound to us with handcuffs; the others surround us in a circle.

‘Are we really that dangerous?’ I try to strike up a conversation with my Spetsnaz companion to get him to loosen the handcuffs a bit.

‘Stop it,’ the officer says. ‘Can’t you see? We’re just following orders.’

clear the road

The road to the detention centre has been cleared of traffic, as though we were a cortege of high officials. We are crammed together. I feel the heat coming from under the multiple layers of the officers’ black uniforms and armour.

‘Girls, why did you have to go and force your way into the church?’ one of them asks indignantly, making Katya smile.

‘Do you really like what the Church is doing?’ Katya asks.

‘And the authorities?’ Nadya adds.

‘Of course not!’ the Spetsnaz officer bristles. ‘But you’re young women! So young! And such a long sentence!’

‘Well, that’s the one they gave us,’ Nadya says with a grimace, clearly expecting a sermon from the officer.

Our autozak resembles a boat cutting through the August heat, like a prow above the waves.

the more arrests, the better

‘Listen, girls, don’t you feel bad about wasting your youth?’ the officer asks after a short pause.

‘No,’ I say. ‘I don’t regret it.’

‘What is there to regret?’ Katya asks.

‘Would you have acted any differently?’ Nadya says.

‘They’re revolutionaries,’ the Spetsnaz chief cuts in. ‘Enough talking.’

‘They did the right thing to arrest them, the court did the right thing to convict them. You can’t undermine our moral foundations, you can’t destroy the country. What would we be left with then?’

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