Cosmetic bag protest: What to bring to the rally
Rallies are expected in Moscow in the coming weeks - including the memorable May 6th. We all know how it turns out: detentions happen even at authorized events, and there is no guarantee that they will be released politely in 24 hours. It scares the few, but in any case, before leaving the house, it is better to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances. We asked five girls who participated in opposition rallies, about the conditions of detention in special receivers, how to deal with the complete lack of comfort and how to assemble an emergency cosmetic bag in case of long-term detention in the cell.
On the actions I was detained several times. I'll tell you about the last case - it is typical. I arrived at the gathering place, and then everything happened very quickly. A police officer in a megaphone said that the action was not coordinated, and asked to disperse - however, I did not even listen to him, as I was far away and communicated with friends, but this text is always the same. Then the fighters of the Rosguards took us into the ring. There were few people, they surrounded almost everyone, put them on buses. According to the article, which is usually imputed in such cases - 20.2 h. 5, “Violation of the rules for holding a public event,” the police have three hours to draw up a protocol. This is often not respected. Until the protocol is completed, the detainees are in some of the premises of the department. The last time was the assembly hall. At this time, you can use the phone, things are not taken away. Otherwise, the conditions of detention depend on the human factor.
In the toilet, of course, lead. Once it was that they even took out a smoke, but not this time. The time of my maintenance in the department was greatly exceeded: they detained me around 2:00 pm, and by one o'clock I was still in the department without drawing up a protocol. Therefore, the police had to think of a reason for my further detention. For this, a protocol was drawn up under article 19.3 - "Disobedience to the lawful demands of a police officer." This actually was not, but this article allows you to delay by forty-eight hours. I began to draw in the camera. Before that, they conduct a personal search, take away personal belongings, force them to pull the laces out of their shoes. I had boots with a complicated lacing, the investigator even advised me to take a picture before pulling out. So I advise you to go to the stock in shoes without laces.
At 2:43, I was sent to the camera. Of course, I understood that this would not be a hotel room, but I did not expect this. It was a room about two meters, in the corners of a puddle of urine, garbage. The smell is appropriate. On the sides are two narrow wooden benches. I lay down on the bench and tried to sleep. After some time, my defender managed to get me a mattress with a pillow, a blanket and two sheets. I put it all on the crap floor. At eleven in the morning I was taken to court, and I left the court at eight in the evening. There is a toilet in court, it is dirty enough and there is no toilet paper. While you are not in the cell, you can carry anything with you. But when they send it to the cell, not everything is possible there - toilet paper or napkins are allowed. Even in the ATS there is no shower: there is only, as a rule, a heavily dingy restroom and tap water. You will not be provided with any hygiene products, unless they can be taken to the toilet - everything you need is better to have with you. This time I didn’t have my period, so I wasn’t able to check if I’d be allowed to have gaskets with me in my cell, but I think so.
Take with you: toilet paper or paper wipes, wet wipes, if you have monthly, then the appropriate hygiene products. Dress as comfortable as possible. Water is obligatory: in the latter case, a pipe burst in the section and there was no water. For me, all of the above is a sufficient hygiene kit. Well, maybe you can take another antiperspirant: in the morning you will get your things back and you can use it. Instead of a toothbrush, you can take chewing gum. Incidentally, the conditions of detention also depend on outside support. We have a group of help to detainees in St. Petersburg, among the activists there are many of my friends. They were on duty at night at the department, got to let a lawyer, transfer food and water. They don’t feed me in the department: in case of spending the night in the cell, the department’s staff must provide hot meals, but they didn’t give it to me.
Sometimes it begins to seem that in our country, if you participate in opposition actions and movements, you need to be ready for detention at any time. Even if it seems very absurd. The March 26 rally was one of the few when I was not in the thick of things, on the square itself. The whole team of detainees in the FBK office, including I was, was broadcasting protest actions across Russia for the Bulk LIVE channel. Early in the morning of that day, sitting in a taxi and watching the morning Moscow landscape through the glass, I threw to my boyfriend, who was on the air with me, the phrase that it was unusual to be outside the rally, but this is a plus - we are unlikely to be detained. So I have never been wrong.
They detained us with all the honors: the whole outfit of the staff, the service dog, and the noble cause in the form of a "fire" in the building. Then, however, the "fire" turned into a "bomb", but this is not so important. It was terrible, at least I didn’t: it was not my first visit after the rallies under escort to the police station, but for the first time it ended with an administrative term. We were brought to the police station in the Danilovsky district, where we had to spend the most terrible hours of detention.
After the accusations were filed, we were placed with the girls in the "aquarium" behind glass and with grates. There were already two women who were waiting for the deportation to their homeland. There was no place to sleep or lie down - there were only narrow benches, and sometimes cockroaches ran along the floor. We somehow settled, of course, but had to go to the toilet when it was convenient for the duty officer. Shower, normal hand washing or washing was not provided. Later there was a feeling that we were just overgrown with dirt. After a day and a half, a court, a disgusting ATS, where we would not even eat anything without volunteer assistance, we were taken to a special reception room. There we were frightened by the fact that you can go to the shower only once for the entire term - and this is seven days! But then it turned out that the guards are completely allowed to go to wash on demand after the release. There were no problems with various jars and tubes: practically everything is permitted from hygiene products, even safety razors. But the terrible taboo is a mirror. With its splinters, prisoners can open their veins or attack the warden, so they are strictly prohibited; day on the fourth you start to forget what you look like.
When you are deprived of your will and lose your sense of time, it helps to keep your normal routine so as not to lose touch with reality. For example, it is possible to try to repeat the daily procedures for the care of themselves. It is difficult in the conditions of special receivers, but it is fragmentary quite possible: rubbing the face with micellar water, using different creams, you can even make exfoliation. Morally it helps a lot to stay afloat. Such "spa on the zone", of course, are very different from home daily care, but deliver an incredible joy. A hike in the shower, of course, is not worth comparing. First of all, we didn’t wash every day, and this is very unpleasant. Secondly, even when I am very late for work, I spend more time on the shower than in the special receiver: I don’t want to be there for a long time, and you know that the girls in the queue are waiting. Still, the feeling of a clean head in such circumstances is priceless. There is a sink and toilet in the cell (it is a fenced hole in the floor); so, above the sink, everything was made up of bottles and bottles; on the daily round, the warders laughed out loud at this.
The first thing that should be with you is a disinfecting gel. Sometimes he wanted to swim. From the optimal set: toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, small bottles of shower gel, shampoo and hair balm (yes, it was given to me), cotton pads, hand cream, lip balm, micellar water, safety razors, cleanser , face cream and wet wipes. All this is not necessary to carry with you if you think that there is a threat of detention, but it’s really worth writing a list to a friend just in case.
I was detained at the Gorkovskaya metro station: there we had a gathering of people who would like to take letters to the President’s reception. We planned to approach the embassy and leave our appeal addressed to Putin in the waiting room or in a special box, but, unfortunately, right at the exit of the metro, a huge crowd of Rosguards in helmets lined up, which physically prevented us from passing. They detained almost everyone who moved to the side of the underground pedestrian crossing. I was among these people: we were put on a bus, and we rode around the city for two hours before we were sent to the police station. I and seven more people were in the office number 33 in the Moscow district of St. Petersburg - it is quite far from the center. I spent about 24 hours there: at first we sat in the assembly hall, and then we were sent to a cell, where I stayed for about fifteen hours. Not the most pleasant memories, but I know that many people have much worse.
Issues of personal care and hygiene are not so acute when you spend the whole day in the department. For example, now our activist Dasha Kulakova is sitting in Kazan - she was given ten days of arrest. She can use the phone for fifteen minutes a day and writes about her impressions of the special receiver. Today she said that they are allowed to go to the shower once a week, the cell has only a tap with ice water, there is no hot water there. Yesterday, she poured herself some water in a basin, all the day she stood up to room temperature, and today Dasha will finally be able to wash her hair.
I had everything easier. Of course, since I did not prepare to be detained, I did not have anything with me at all. When they told me that I would spend the night in the department, I thought, how would I do? I even wanted to wash the makeup off my face. In the compartment there was only cold water, a creepy dirty toilet and a small sink. When we were imprisoned, I was seized with a desire to not touch anything in this dirty concrete chamber. It was removed there, but on the walls there was obvious dirt and some kind of divorce: it is clear that there are more often people there for whom the hygiene of the content is not of particular importance. I just sat on the bench, afraid to touch something around with my hands. Then I was given a blanket, removable shoes and clothes. I slept on a narrow wooden bench, completely wrapped in a blanket. The next morning, I realized that I urgently need at least to wash, wash yesterday’s makeup, brush my teeth - but of course there was nothing. I just washed my face with cold water and sat until the trial - I looked, probably, terrible, but the photos turned out, they say, nothing.
To the girls who are going to protest, I would recommend taking with them a minimal amount of hygiene items - a toothbrush and toothpaste will definitely be useful. Even if they do not put you in for a day, they may well be left at night in the ward, and waking up with the feeling that you are unwashed is rather unpleasant. Wet wipes are definitely needed, decorative cosmetics are also allowed if you cannot do without it. It is necessary to negotiate that your friends and colleagues bring you towels, soap - some basic things that the police department simply does not have. For girls who have periods, you need to remember that no one except you will take care of you: if you go out to protest, it is better to have a large supply of pads or tampons with you. Although I can say that police officers are often attentive to detainees at rallies - they were quite polite to me. At the first request, they let me go to the toilet, but they didn’t give me food, but according to the law they are obliged to provide us with hot meals - perhaps they don’t have a budget for food. They hold no one for long, so that they do not have to take care of the detainees.
The detention was unexpected for me. We worked on the broadcast in the FBK office. My team performed from the technical side: engineers, directors, sound engineer. We were detained at the exit from the building after police officers asked to leave the workplace, and all were loaded into a paddy wagon. When they brought us to the department, they all put them in the first room, which they called the assembly hall, and then one by one they started leading them off behind the grating wall.
On the conditions of detention behind this lattice wall I can say a lot of unflattering. The smell was terrible. Apparently, the toilet there was rarely washed, so the smell spread to almost the entire compartment. Sit down was practically nowhere. Everything is dusty - so if someone is allergic to dust, I advise you to take antihistamines. There was no paper or paper towels in the toilet. As we found out later, in order for the paper to appear, you need to ask it from the police officers. We were not provided with food, water, too, volunteers helped with that. After the signing of the protocol, we were lodged in the "aquarium", where there were only benches along two walls - there we spent time before the trial. ATS employees issue disposable underwear, again if you ask. Bring warm clothes with you, because it can be cool. When we were put in jail, personal belongings were with us, but after moving to the "aquarium" everything was taken away. They were allowed to leave only food, water, clothes, and the person with asthma was allowed to take a can of medicine. Conditions were more or less decent in a special receiver: we were given to take a shower and were given disposable underwear. All hygiene products, except aerosols, are allowed there.
In principle, my standard procedures have changed little, except that we were allowed to visit the shower once every two days, but the wet wipes helped a lot. Not the most pleasant thing was only with the toilet, as it was right in the room, but everything can be used to. There was almost no smell from him, as according to the rules, cleaning is laid every day. Really missed the mirror. As far as I know, during pregnancy a woman is unlikely to be put in a special detention center. But with the menstruation more difficult. We didn’t provide us with any hygiene products other than soap, but we didn’t ask, since we already had everything with us. Still, women work there, and if you ask them, I’m sure they will help. I want to say more about people who have health problems. For example, I had problems with pressure on the background of my nervous condition. Employees special receivers very adequately respond to such things and help. If you have your own drugs that need to be taken, you can give them to employees, and they will give them to you as needed.
First of all, if you understand that you may be detained, then let us know where you are going, to a person who can quickly bring the necessary things. Take with you a bunch of wipes (dry, wet, for intimate hygiene), because they will never be superfluous. The female body on the background of nervous situations may behave unpredictably, so take pads or tampons, otherwise you will have to show a lot of ingenuity. Take spare underwear: for girls hygiene is very important. This will help you with a little more comfort to spend not the most pleasant time. Then it all depends on your preferences: face cream, hygienic lipstick and so on. In case you are suddenly put in a special reception room, collect the following things: bed linen, change of clothes, towels, favorite cosmetics, except decorative. Also do not forget about slippers, so that you can go to the shower without inconvenience. I really hope that you will not need these tips, but it is still better to prepare in advance. As our experience has shown, relatives and relatives, who will collect things for you, can put something not very necessary in the bustle - like a dress that you can’t wear without pantyhose, and just forget about pantyhose. Or do not remember about bedding or towels.
They detained me at the FBK office, from where I helped to broadcast. We were detained at about four o'clock: the fire evacuation from the building allegedly began, and we were asked to leave. At the same time recorded our passport data. Then we were asked to go to the bus - he was already waiting for us at the entrance to the business center. Then we ended up at the Danilovskiy OVD, where we spent three hours in the assembly hall, at this time the staff made out protocols and other endless papers, we thought that this would cost us and let us go. But, as it turned out, they decided to leave us in the department for a day, and only at 16:00 the next day we went to the Simonovsky court.
I must say that in terms of conditions, the ATS was the worst thing. We were placed in the "aquarium": the grate there was completely covered with hardboard and only a small piece near the floor was open - you could only breathe there. For the day we stayed there, we were not given any food or water. All that we ate and drank was brought to us by relatives, friends and volunteers, who responded very promptly. In the ATS there was a terrible toilet: it is just a hole in the floor located on the dais. Touching something was very unpleasant, but it saved a huge amount of wet wipes, which we also brought. The next night after the trial, we were sent to a special detention center. У меня сложилось ощущение, что для сотрудников полиции разницы между содержанием мужчин и женщин нет, но во время пребывания в ОВД в туалет нас выпускали по просьбе. Задержанных ребят оставили в полностью закрытом помещении, в каменном мешке за дверью под замком, и, чтобы выйти в туалет, им приходилось очень долго кричать и стучать по дверям. С нами это происходило проще - но, возможно, из-за того, что мы находились ближе и сотрудники нас лучше слышали.
Всех четырёх задержанных девочек из ФБК поселили в одну камеру. There were four wooden beds with iron frames bolted to the floor, a table, a bench next to it. The toilet was also a hole in the floor behind a small plastic partition to the waist's height. There was a sink, a small hanging cabinet and a window with a grate under the ceiling of the chamber. When we ended up in a special detention center, we understood that now we need to live here for a week. Naturally, we tried to somehow arrange life. We brought equipment for cleaning and cleaning products. We washed the sink, toilet, wiped all the tables, so that these comforts were not so unpleasant to use. The most difficult event was a shower: he, as we were told at the beginning, is supposed to be once a week. But we asked the staff to take us there - as a result, this week I took a shower three times. On the other days wet wipes were saved. I advise you not to hesitate to ask employees to allow you to perform hygienic procedures: they can allow, they can not allow - it depends on the institution and on the people who work there, but it’s worth a try.
I’ll tell you about what you don’t need to have when you are in detention: leave the chains at home, earrings and all sorts of jewelry - all this will be taken away during the arrest, as well as large sums of money and gadgets. Of course, you are obliged to return everything, but you should not risk it. You do not need to choose shoes with heels - you will be able to change the shoes, perhaps not at all. Again, dresses, tights, skirts are better left for another day and choose the most comfortable things. Immediately with you must take a wet wipe and sanitizer - at first it will be great to help keep your hands clean. The presence of hair ties was very important for me: I have them long and it was hard not to wash my hair for three days. Comb also useful.
You may need a spare underwear: you may be delayed for two days before the trial by a person at the ATS, they will not be allowed to take a shower at this time, and it is quite possible to live with napkins and linen change. Portable charging for the phone also saves: if they keep you in the ATS for a long time, the phone may not be taken away, but no one will provide you with an outlet, and at this time it is very important to be in touch with loved ones who need to know about your location and have the opportunity . Soap, toothpaste and brush, pads and tampons are all essential things, and we also managed to smuggle deodorant in an aerosol into the chamber. Personally, I also really needed a liquid for the lenses - it was resolved and everything was fine with it.
Photo: tarog8 - stock.adobe.com, ozaiachin - stock.adobe.com, pioneer111 - stock.adobe.com, Odua Images - stock.adobe.com
Revision thanks projectATS-info for assistance in preparing the material.