Seviarynets: The sounds of blows were so heavy that the Akrestsin detention center building physically trembled

«What was happening at Akrestsin for several days in a row after the 2020 elections is impossible to describe in words.

Even in our cell on the third floor, stacked to the ceiling with mattresses that muffled the sound, these four days merged into a continuous nightmare.

Sometime after midnight on August 10, the measured noise from the Akrestsin courtyard, the unloading of detainees from the protests, and the roar of paddy wagon engines suddenly gave way to a rumble of blows and a terrible, merged scream of people. They screamed wildly, it seemed, from the courtyards, then the screams spread into the building's interior, into the corridors — apparently, a massive, brutal beating had begun.

The impression that overwhelmed me then was that an order had come. I don't recall any resistance from the detainees, any isolated incidents or fights, preceding this horror. I thought about it many times afterwards. Purely by sound — the walkie-talkies crackled, and a minute or two later, it was as if some colossal machine had switched on and started grinding people.

The sounds of blows were so heavy that the Akrestsin detention center building physically trembled. The thick stone walls, solid iron doors, bars, wooden floor shook as if a giant threshing machine was operating downstairs, on the first floor.

And the screams. They screamed from pain and horror so loudly that it made your ears ring, men, sometimes a continuous roar was cut through by savage female shrieks, sobs, groans. Hundreds of people.

The screams spread to the stairwells, somewhere cells began to be unlocked and people led out, beaten in the corridors on the second floor.

In 11 years in prisons, I have heard many things, but those terrible nights and days were something different by an order of magnitude.

The informants froze in their corners, I prayed to God. And all around, hour after hour, it hummed and trembled with blows, screams, and groans — sometimes in the courtyards, then again in the corridors, then on the stairs.

A lull, full of groans and wails, a breather — and again the sound of footsteps, Russian obscenities, doors unlocking — and again the roar.

Someone was shouting out of windows or from the courtyards that they were being killed. And more thuds of 'bulls', and more blows. They screamed about blood, broken arms, and "Mama!", and "Fascists!" and "Why?!" And from those who "worked" — heavy panting, swearing, and blows.

In the morning, when a new shift of Akrestsin staff arrived, everything seemed to quiet down for a few hours. The special forces probably changed too.

But then — again paddy wagons, a new wave of detainees, a new order — and again blows and roars.

Sometimes I had the impression that I was sitting in a corner in the middle of a giant slaughterhouse — waiting for them to come for my soul," wrote Pavel Seviarynets.

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