A new story from prison entitled ‘The Father’ has been written by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and published by Russian magazine The New Times.

The story centres around Konstantin, the father, who when free used to work at the local state farm.  Now, in prison, he works as the manager of ‘quarantine’ – a separate barrack where newly arrived prisoners are isolated to detect those with infectious diseases as well as to test their strength of character.

Konstantin was imprisoned for selling off some of the farm’s lambs on the black market and, when caught, refused to return the money. Instead, he used it for his daughter’s education. Konstantin doesn’t regret anything.

“We sit there drinking our tea – two men, neither one of us young any more, both of whom have chosen to go to jail of their own free will.  There are people waiting for us at home, but we’re here, and this has been our choice.  Was it the right one?  Who knows?  I’m certainly not one to judge Konstantin…” writes Khodorkovsky in his story.

The full story in Russian is here.