Pencil Letter
by Irina Ratushinskai︠a︡
Category: Poets, Russian

Irina Ratushinskaya was only 28-years-old when she was sentenced to seven years' hard labour and five years' internal exile, accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Her crime: writing poetry.She was held for three years in a "strict regime" labour camp, in a special unit for women political prisoners where she suffered beatings, force-feeding and solitary confinement in brutal, freezing conditions. But her poems were smuggled out of the camp, and published in 1986 by Bloodaxe in No, I'm Not Afraid, the book which spearheaded an international campaign which eventually secured her release. Pencil Letter, a compilation by various translators, followed after her release in 1988.