Letter to Workers World from Mikhail Kononovich and Alexander Kononovich. Translation by Steve Gillis.
Dear comrades,
We would like to first draw your attention, comrades, to the fact that we, communists and anti-fascists, brothers Mikhail Kononovich and Alexander Kononovich, were arrested for our many years of “Komsomol [Communist Youth League] for Peace” actions, which we held in all cities of Ukraine, starting in 2014.
The last action was two weeks before the full-scale war of 2022 began, held near the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine with the main slogan “No to NATO – Peace for Donbass!”
Only communist anti-fascists advocated for peace in Ukraine. We tried to prevent the “Third World War.” That is why being a communist and anti-fascist in Ukraine is already a crime.
Since our arrest on March 2, 2022, we have been in the dungeons of the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) and prisons for eight months, subjected to beatings, torture, abuse, deprived of sleep in solitary confinement and in inhumane conditions like in Guantanamo.
Now we are under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The Zelensky regime has deprived us of our livelihoods; we cannot work while under arrest and criminal prosecution; they want to bring us to a bestial state and poverty so that we surrender!
Beaten like George Floyd
We were arrested without trial or investigation, without a lawyer, kidnapped and beaten to an animal state during the arrest, strangled until unconscious (like George Floyd). They brought us to the basement of the SBU where for four days from March 2 to March 6, 2022, they brutally tortured us. They beat us in handcuffs every two hours, beat us with rifle butts and kicks. They broke our ribs, knocked out our teeth, broke our noses and tore Aleksander’s nose.
Comrades, what is the most terrible thing for a person and a man? It is the torture of his family and children! The special services of the SBU regime threatened to rape Mikhail’s thirteen-year-old daughter in front of his eyes if he did not agree to their conditions. There were no rules there at all!
Friends, can you imagine what really happened there?! When we were brought in for interrogation for the first time after several days of torture, they carried us in, because we could not walk or even sit on our own. We did not recognize each other, although we are twin brothers and have lived together our whole lives. Instead of my brother, there was a piece of meat in front of me, disfigured by blood and bruises.
The goal of the special services was to discredit the Communist Party and the Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine. As leaders of the left-wing movement in Ukraine, they demanded we slander ourselves and our party comrades.
According to the [Kiev] regime, if we are communists and anti-fascists, then we are definitely working for the Russians, but this is not so! We understood that the lives of hundreds of communists and anti-fascists all over the country depended on us, and we could not commit such a vile betrayal, even under threat of death. Better death than dishonor and betrayal!
It was precisely such torture and abuse in a Ukrainian prison that U.S. citizen Gonzalo Lira could not withstand, and he died from injuries. (workers.org/2022/04/63662)
After bold and decisive mass statements and speeches around the world by the World Federation of Democratic Youth, leftists and anti-fascists, the Zelensky regime was forced to tell the whole world that the communist brothers Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich were alive and arrested by the authorities. We were then transported from the “SBU dungeon” to a prison, where we were kept for two months in solitary confinement without medical care and practically without food.
The Kiev pre-trial detention center initially refused to accept and process us, fearing that we would die, and the prison would be blamed for our deaths, not the SBU. On our prison cards we had a terrible mark, “especially dangerous criminals,” and therefore we were treated like cruel terrorists. We were kept in prison without a court decision, since we were so beaten and maimed that they could not show us to anyone.
While the regime waited for two months for the traces of torture and beatings to heal, we lay on the concrete floor of the prison cell like animals without medical care and hope for life.
For the first time in May 2022 we were taken to court, where we saw our lawyer. All this time they tried to break us and force us to confess to non-existent crimes against the Zelensky regime. When this did not work, we were thrown into an overcrowded cell with Nazis and murderers.
We will never forget this day. In the cell hung the flag of Nazi, Hitlerite Germany, and on the bench lay Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf.” The goal of the regime was still to finally break us. Zelensky’s regime failed to do this with beatings and solitary confinement, so they decided to break us communists by putting us into Nazi and racist cells with repeat offenders.
The cell was not large, made for 12 people, but there were 20 people in it. We did not have our own bed (bunk) for more than three months, so we slept in turns. Alexander was in the same conditions, only in a different building. We were constantly attacked, starving and deprived of sleep. But we are communists and could not give in to the Ukrainian regime.
‘We will not surrender’
Under no circumstances did we have the right to surrender. We decided this back in the SBU basement — no matter what they do to us, we will not surrender and would rather die than admit to the fabricated charges against us, the Communist Party and the Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine.
As a result, we were officially charged under Article 109, Parts 1 and 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (armed rebellion and attempted overthrow of power.) Allegedly the two of us, with weapons in hand, wanted to overthrow Zelensky and seize power in Ukraine! Russia has been fighting in Ukraine for the third year and cannot do this, but we, two communists and anti-fascists, the Kononovich brothers, wanted to do this on our own. The history of mankind has never known a more stupid accusation!
Under pressure from the communist international and actions in our support — #FreeKononovich” — around the world, as well as thanks to the unprecedented help of anti-fascists in Europe, we were released under 24-hour house arrest with the wearing of an electronic [GPS] bracelet.
Now there are trials on a fabricated criminal case against us, the Kononovich brothers. The government wants to put us in prison for 10 years with confiscation of property just because we are communists and anti-fascists.
Look, our American comrades, at the “democracy” that the U.S., EU and NATO authorities are imposing on Ukraine! Human rights do not exist in Ukraine now. People are disenfranchised like cattle. The people of Ukraine want peace, unlike the corrupt government.
We would like to draw the attention of U.S. communists and anti-fascists to the fact that hundreds of thousands have been repressed in Ukraine, with tens of thousands in prison, including thousands of communists and anti-fascists of Ukraine, all those who fought for peace.
We can name several specific comrades, those who like us have nothing to lose or fear. We are all being tried or have already been convicted exclusively under political criminal articles. In particular, there is the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Head of the Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine, Georgy Buiko, accused under criminal article 110, facing10 years in prison with confiscation of property, “encroachment on territorial integrity.” The case is completely fabricated.
Komsomol member Sergei Novikov was sentenced to five years, under article 436, for allegedly “recognizing NATO as the culprit of the start of the war in Ukraine.” The case is completely fabricated.
Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Yuri Petrovsky was sentenced to 15 years in a strict regime prison with confiscation of property, under article 111, “subversive activity,” having advocated for peace. The case is completely fabricated.
Member of the anti-fascist committee and communist Anatoly Miruta, disabled (heart disease), was sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property, under Article 111, “subversive activity,” having advocated for peace. For him as a disabled person, this is a severe sentence. The case is completely fabricated.
If we were to list all the convicted, repressed communists, Komsomol members, anti-fascists, it would take months. Not all of our comrades were lucky enough to survive this struggle, like our friend, anti-fascist Vladimir Novikov, who was unable to withstand the torture and abuse in prison. He hanged himself in his cell with a sheet through the window bars. He left this life as a true anti-fascist, not defeated by the fascists and not betraying his comrades and his ideas! Eternal memory to the anti-fascist heroes who fell in the struggle!
Communist Party banned
We, the anti-fascist communists of Ukraine, are outlawed for the first time in post-war Europe. The Communist Party of Ukraine is officially banned as in Nazi Hitler’s Germany. We are being physically exterminated, destroyed to the applause of the Western world.
Ukraine is a testing ground for the implementation of modern colonial policies of external control and enslavement. The next victims of colonial policies and the cleansing of the left flank will be you, comrades, communists and anti-fascists of the United States of America.
We, communists and anti-fascists of Ukraine, call on you to take action and fight, be active and strong. You have nowhere else to retreat, only your physical extermination and the repetition of the fate of the Ukrainian communists.
Friends, you are stronger than you think! Thanks to you and your support, specifically we — communists Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich — remained alive. Without any pathos nor loud words, we owe you — communists and anti-fascists of Europe, South and North America — our lives.
Comrade communists and anti-fascists of the USA, we appeal to you for help. We communists of Ukraine ask you to help us and support us. Our lives and the lives of our comrades depend on it. We ask you to come out to actions in our support —#FreeKononovich —at the embassy and consulates of Ukraine in the U.S. Be brave and honest! Be real communists and anti-fascists!
P.S. Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich: We are communists, we cannot lose! And if we lose, then we are not communists!
