I am well aware that there are prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union, including some who have said they have chosen to resist the law because of religious reasons.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Everybody seems to be imprisoned in their own sectarian or political affiliations. They don't seem to be able to rise above these things.
Not all political prisoners are innocents.
In modern Russia, you have no official, formal assessment of this past. Nobody in any Russian document has said that the policy of the Soviet government was criminal, that it was terrible. No one has ever said this.
Homosexuality in Russia is a crime and the punishment is seven years in prison, locked up with the other men. There is a three year waiting list.
We've grown accustomed to injustice in Russia. People are constantly being arrested unlawfully.
If anyone has a conscience it's generally a guilty one.
There is nothing you can do to assuage your conscience when you commit sins. Crime is a spiritual assault on the soul.
When men are arrested without any legal basis and for political reasons, it's merely a routine, everyday occurrence in Russia, and hardly anyone has any sympathy.
Having spent the greater part of my life under a Communist dictatorship, I am very familiar with the Bolshevik mentality according to which an author in general, and an eminent author in particular, is always guilty, and must be punished accordingly.
I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.