The Eve of Halloween

Oct 30 2022 The Washington Post

Why Political Prisoner Day matters around the world — and in my Moscow prison by Vladimir Kara-Murza

*****

Halloween is when people dress up in scary or funny (or funny and scary) costumes and go trick-or-treating from door to door, in the hope of getting candy and other treats. It is a fun tradition that has spread around the world, and apart from the amount of sugar in the candy, it is mostly harmless. Halloween is play-scary.

The previous day, the Eve of All Hallows’ Eve, on the other hand, is The International Day of Political Prisoners. Being a political prisoner is seriously scary, does not include candy, and usually includes sinister tricks by the authorities.

The original Political Prisoner Day was born in the Soviet Union on Oct. 30, 1974 with hunger strikes by prisoners in political labour camps and other detention facilities.

It was marked (celebrated is not exactly the right word to use here) every year until the end of the Soviet Union. It then morphed into the “Remembrance Day for the Victims of Political Repression”.

And in Russia today, quoting Vladimir Kara-Murza: “No one could contemplate that Political Prisoner Day would ever regain its original meaning.”

Next time you shop for candy and costumes for Halloween, buy a candle, and light it on the Eve of Halloween. The political prisoners may not all be saints, but they should not be in prison either.