Time to read: 12 minutes(s)

"Those around us are fed poison and a lack of dreams..."

Barnaul resident Artem Sakharov suffered for his beliefs for the first time, like his famous Soviet pacifist namesake, speaking out against the war. He was detained and given a citation. The second time, he was fined for a poetry reading that turned into a spontaneous anti-war protest. The third time, he was sent to pretrial detention for 30 days, the maximum sentence for an administrative offense for violating public events. The arrest occurred after the death of Alexei Navalny. Artem wanted to lay flowers at the monument to the victims of political repression, but he didn't have time. He was detained and tried the same day, bouquet in hand. NeMoskva met the young man and tells his story.

"The main image is fighters for justice"

Artem Sakharov is a native of Barnaul. His mother is a doctor, his father a soldier. He's "unaware" of his father's occupation, only knowing that he never saw combat. The family's political views, which were always broadcast on television, were always similar to those of the current government: his parents always supported the current government and had no sympathy for the opposition.

Artem himself began thinking about politics in sixth grade, when his peers showed him videos of popular political bloggers—Mikhail Svetov, Alexey Shevtsov, Ekaterina Shulman, and Alexey Navalny. The latter, in 2017, had just released his blockbuster investigation, "He's Not Dimon to You." Artem recalls that back then, large rallies were still allowed, individuals couldn't be classified as foreign agents, and the terms "extremism" and "terrorism" weren't used to describe bloggers, journalists, or politicians. The lively and not yet marginalized opposition debate attracted his attention, and he began discussing the situation with his peers.

Navalny was intriguing because he spoke about complex topics in simple language and had already faced repression for actions that Artem did not consider reprehensible.

"Most boys my age at the time watched various films and TV series, like Transformers and Avengers. And the main characters there are fighters for justice, who, no matter what, risk their lives, fight for freedom, for good. And that's what always appealed to me," the young man explains.

Artem also became such a "fighter for justice." A desire to understand, a newly critical attitude toward what his parents and television were saying, and a youthful maximalism all played a role. For example, when a teacher gave unfair grades and brought his classmates to tears, he went from classroom to classroom collecting signatures.

"I thought, 'The teacher has really gone nuts, let's do something about this!' I took the signatures to the head teacher, and they sent me packing. I contacted the principal. We managed to fix the situation," Artem recalls.

Riding the wave of vlogger popularity, a career nearly every teenager dreamed of at the end of the last decade, Artem also started a YouTube channel. Admittedly, it wasn't focused on a specific topic: he talked about video games, shared his opinions on the news, tried to become a rapper, and dabbled in composing music in various genres. He still enjoys this passion, but now he creates music "for himself" and doesn't post it anywhere, and he considers his older videos "childish" and has deleted them. Currently, the channel only contains two recent videos about Boris Nadezhdin's campaign headquarters, where Sakharov worked and collected signatures.

During the 2018 presidential election, Artem closely followed the campaign. He says that if he'd been eligible to vote, he would have voted for Navalny. But the opposition figure was barred from running. "I thought I'd be able to vote for Alexey in the next election," Artem recalls.

Student life, love, poetry and activism

When it came time to choose a career, his mother jokingly suggested becoming a doctor, while his father, more seriously, discussed military service. But Artem chose to study political science. He says he was drawn to the opportunity to understand complex processes. His parents, who were paying for his education, ultimately supported him—they saw his "interest and aspirations," explains Artem's mother (she asked not to be named in this publication).

Conflicts over political views with his parents occasionally arise, but they never go beyond arguments; they quickly make peace. His mother, however, says she feels "hurt and sad" that as a teenager, her son "fell into this online environment, got hooked, and believed it." 

"At first, there were heated arguments. When he was a schoolboy, he was hostile to everything. Now he's so mature and independent, it's hard to convince him of anything, although he's started listening a little," the student's mother shares. "We have different views on patriotism. For me [my father and I], it's being with our homeland at any time—even in difficult times, and especially during wartime. But he thinks patriotism is whatever suits him and benefits him, so that everyone supports his views. We really hope that this will change over time."

His mother believes her son is becoming "calmer" with age. He partially agrees: he says he's stopped dividing everything into black and white: "I used to think everyone who was against the government was good, and everyone who was for the current government was bad." 

Some disappointment with my studies set in during my first year, along with the realization that the knowledge I'd gained would be difficult to apply in modern Russia: 

"It's hard to get ahead if you have an alternative point of view. But I'm only finishing my first year. So I hope that, as Pushkin wrote, Russia will awaken from its slumber during this time, and I'll be able to peacefully pursue my work and profession without leaving the country."

In April 2022, after the war began, Artem met Vika. It was she who gave him a volume of Brodsky, after which the young man became fascinated with poetry and began writing his own. "A sparkle appeared in his eyes. He became passionate about his work. He began to open up more. I witnessed the beginning of his creative journey, his development," Vika says enthusiastically about her boyfriend. 

The paths are burning
and fields,
gray threads of calendars,
fire
turn up the heat!
Palette of feelings
went into pictures...
Where we froze 
at the origins
roads still untraveled,
and by the climax they had cooled down,
closed the conscience
on the lock.
(excerpt from the poem "In the Spring. With You")

Vika says she was far from politics before meeting Artem. But on February 24, 2023, they went together to an anti-war protest. They left carnations and three framed sheets of paper with inscriptions about the victims of the war near the Altai Krai government building, next to the Lenin monument. The police arrived a few minutes later. 

"It was really scary," Vika recalled her emotions. "The unknown was the most frightening thing. I imagined all sorts of things—that Artem could end up in jail as the organizer..." 

Back then, the police merely drew up a report and let him go. A second time, he couldn't get away with just a scare. In October 2023, Artem self-published ten copies of his first collection of poems. To mark the occasion, he organized a poetry reading at the Pushkin monument, which turned into a spontaneous peace protest. The event was deemed unauthorized, and the police detained the poet for 24 hours, forcing him to pay a 75,000-ruble fine. The activist himself wasn't overly concerned, but his loved ones were. Vika recalls that "her whole family was very worried"—her mother treats Artem like a "son": "She supports me, never says anything bad." 

The boy's parents were also worried, but they also hoped the detention would force their son to reconsider his views. "We wondered how he was doing, how this might affect his career, his studies, his future work," his mother recalls. The risk of expulsion from the university was real; Artem was summoned to a disciplinary committee, but received only a warning. 

After this incident, some media outlets began calling Artem an “anti-war poet.”

Where am I, my sunshine, where?..
maybe he went to war
and fell into a week-long coma,
having repaid the debt to no one knows who.
Yes, as if I were outside the home,
and these eyes are so unfamiliar
There's talk all around about lies,
Where am I? Where am I? Where?
(excerpt from the poem "Where am I, my sunshine, where?..")

Deadline and tragic irony

On February 16, 2023, the day of Alexei Navalny's death, in his Telegram channel "My cat is 12 years old." (Apparently, he was already being tracked by security forces.) Artem called for people to come to the monument to the victims of political repression with flowers. Immediately afterward, the young man received a warning from a local police officer, but that didn't stop him. On February 18, Artem, along with Vika and another mutual friend, went to the monument. Police were already there, and paddy wagons were waiting. The activist didn't make it to the makeshift memorial—the young people were detained.

"The girls were forced to write explanatory statements and then released. I, as the organizer, was tried, holding flowers, and sentenced to 30 days. My friends, Vika, my parents, and I—were all shocked. No one thought they could give 30 days for flowers. We specifically chose Hyde Park, where up to a hundred people can gather, and where, as far as I know, no one has ever been arrested. At worst, I thought they'd give me five, but 30... Even the police officers who accompanied me to court were stunned. The staff at the special detention center also said they couldn't remember the last time they'd sentenced someone to 30 days, especially for such a reason," Artyom recalls, explaining: "Navalny has become a trigger for the authorities."

That month—in confined quarters, far from home, family, and Vika—was extremely difficult. What I missed most was communication, which 15-minute calls and late-arriving letters couldn't replace. But I quickly adjusted to the isolation ward's routine.

"They treated me well, didn't pressure me. The food was normal. It certainly wasn't a torture chamber. Exercise helped me cope, I wrote poetry, and I read a lot. I read almost all of Shukshin's works, Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Likhachev, and Hugo's Les Miserables. I have a small library at home; they brought me books in packages. It all helped," Artem says. 

He also socialized with his cellmates. He met six people, five of whom, according to Artem, had previously served time for fraud, robbery, assault, and even murder. All of them, he says, had spent less time in the temporary detention center than he had, and were surprised when they learned how long he had been in prison and what he had been convicted of. The cell had four bunks, but they never allowed more than one person to share it. Artem jokes, "Maybe they were afraid I'd cause trouble if I had a four-person team?"

In the temporary detention center, he wrote several poems, including one about Navalny's return to Russia in 2021, with biblical motifs. However, the notebook containing the poems disappeared, as Artem puts it, "under strange circumstances." He clearly remembers taking it from his cell, but later found it missing.

"Either make money or lose your legs"
The majority, in fact, are not against it,
but tell me, friend, how can one be lonely,
having at least one volume of Blok on the shelf?
(excerpt from the poem "Loneliness") 

It was here, in the detention center, that Artem finally participated in the presidential election. The circle was complete. Six years later, the young man who had once wanted to vote for Navalny was able to cast his ballot for the first time in his life. However, during this time, his leading candidate had died, and his first polling station was not his school, but a temporary detention center.

Upon leaving the temporary detention center, the young man first met with his parents. They had dinner, and he talked about his daily life behind bars. "I remember what he said to my dad when he came to visit—that family was very important to him. He'd never said it out loud before, although perhaps he thought it," his mother recalls.

Artem spent the next two days with Vika. She supports him in everything, saying, "I'll always be with him, no matter what." He has no plans to leave the country, but admits that if he faces prison, he'll have to. In that case, he and Vika agreed to travel together. They've been dating for a year and a half. Artem is certain it's serious, especially after everything he's been through. Friends compare her to the wife of a Decembrist, and the young poet dedicates poems to her. 

No way..
I inhale the scent of your perfume
the scent of spring
and the palest wormwood.
Those around you are fed poison
and the absence of dreams -
we can't be with them.
(an excerpt from the poem "V. Ch." - the first letters of Vika's name)

New stanza

Now the student wants to start earning money so he can rent an apartment and move in with his girlfriend. He's already worked part-time at a bakery, but now he wants to write historical articles and earn royalties for them, though he won't disclose which publication. Artyom continues to write poetry and plans to release another collection, which he also hopes to earn a small profit from. He sold his previous collection for 850 rubles through a Telegram channel and at readings. 

On February 28, Artem was summoned once again to appear before the university's disciplinary committee. He was lucky again – he wasn't expelled. They only said he "didn't know what he wanted from life" and suggested he see a university psychologist, but he refused. 

His parents are proud of their son. His mother lists: he's very kind, creative, plays the guitar, writes songs and poetry, has no bad habits, doesn't drink or smoke, speaks well, has many friends, has many positive qualities and no negative ones... Only "one thing" lets him down—an excessive belief in fictitious ideals and values: "In all other respects, we're proud of him. We don't object to his development, even in politics. We want it to comply with the current laws of the Russian Federation."

Artem himself isn't against it—he says he might even try to become a deputy: 

"It's impossible to fight time. The people in power are seventy-year-olds who are stuck in the past and use the methods of that era. But there are us, there are people like me, millions of them. And they are much younger, more energetic, more talented, smarter, freer, and bolder than those who rule now. Sooner or later, their time will come. I don't think it's too long now. We will definitely live to see it."

At the same time, the young man says he'll try to be more careful and not get into trouble. After all, Artem already has two administrative violations. Another violation within the next six months could result in criminal charges. 

But stop it, I tell myself, 
astrologer.
Registered in dreams,
while life waits
return of the prodigal son
with his palest love -
I'd like to go back while it's still damp,
before the sea dries up
our dreams,
the most tender touches
guilty?
crucify me over the crosses!
I hold your hand,
after all, I don't need myself.
- Will you move away?
- I'm on the train,
It's time to grow up.
(excerpt from an untitled poem)