Dream of ballet, a well-fed cat challenge, and gender-sensitive language in pre-trial detention center. Curious things to know about Marfa Rabkova

On January 6, Marfa Rabkova, a political prisoner and Viasna human rights defender, turns 27. This is the second time in a row she has celebrated her birthday in pre-trial detention center. Viasna collected fun stories and facts about Marfa.

Marfa as a child

On this photo, Marfa is 11 years old. Back then she dreamt of going in for ballet. The dream has never come true, but she was only happy about it. She talked about this in a video for a project at the European Humanities University (EHU), of which she is a student:

As a child, she was very fond of reading:

"She said she could just hide away somewhere in the house and read for hours," says Vadzim Zharomski, Marfa’s husband.

Marfa also loves books as well as music by Andrey Lysikov known as the Dolphin.

How did she prefer to read books before being put into pre-trial detention center?

"While eating crisps," says Vadzim.

Marfa continues to read in pre-trial detention. Here are top three books she praised as worth reading in the recent six months:

1. Sotnikov by Vasil Bykov and the film The Ascent based on it. Marfa was fascinated by them even before her arrest. But she reread Sotnikov while in pre-trial detention, looking at the story with different eyes, after facing the same moral decisions taken by the people around her. Sotnikov is a story of two captured Soviet partisans who have to choose between heroism and betrayal, life and death. The novel makes one reflect on the moral side of human life under the burden of circumstances and draws parallels with the present day.
2. A collection of works by Ryszard Kapuściński entitled The Emperor. The Shahinshah about the collapse of empires and regimes in Africa. Marfa was moved by the documented accounts of the people constituting the entourage of Emperor Selassie, who ruled in Ethiopia for 40 years. "The stories taken from their life seemed absurdly familiar, with false denunciations day after day, the caste of the chosen, the vertical power system. The whole existence of the Emperor’s court was dominated by one thing only, the retention of power," Marfa wrote in one of her letters.
3. All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel by Erich Maria Remarque. This is an anti-war work about the lost generation of young people who survived the horrors of the bloody battles that left an indelible mark on their lives.

Pre-Trial Detention Centre No. 1 where Marfa Rabkova has been kept since September 17, 2020

During her imprisonment, Marfa Rabkova has always used gender-sensitive language and even got detention ercenter staff accustomed to it. Gender-sensitive language is an integral part of her statements in court and appeals, her husband said.

The detention ercenter staff laughed at first, but then they started using more sensitive language themselves, at least in their communication with Marfa. The same is true to Marfa’s cellmates, althought  they have never used such a language before.

Marfa and her husband Vadzim had their own tournament, the couple competed to see who could feed the most cats:

"IIf we traveled somewhere, we took a bag of dry cat food with us and fed all the cats we met on the way. Whoever sees the cat first, feeds it. There was usually a couple of dozen of them," says Vadzim Zharomski, admitting that Marfa was always the winner.

The challenge has the hashtag #sytykot [well-fed cat], which Marfa and Vadzim used in their private correspondence.

Marfa Rabkova is feeding cats. Collage by Vadzim Zharomski

Marfa loves cats and dogs; she has been a volunteer at an animal shelter. She told her colleagues from Viasna that going to the shelter and working there was a way for her to relax and recharge batteries. She has also participated in charity events to support shelters for stray animals.

Marfa Rabkova at a charity event. Photo by Vadzim Zharomski

Apart from that, Marfa picked up stray cats, took care of them, and found them a place at a shelter or a good home. She once had four cats living at her place at the same time. Now she has one regular cat waiting for her. His named is Morpheus.

Morpheus the cat. He also used to be a stray cat picked up by Marfa

Marfa once sent Vadzim a postcard Vadzim from the detention centre and said that the cat on it looked like Morpheus:

Vadzim Zharomski, Morpheus the cat, and the postcard sent by Marfa

One day Marfa might have adopted a dog as well. Here is the story:

Marfa and Vadzim were walking down the street and saw a dog tied on a leash. They thought it had been abandoned. They waited for an hour, but no one came for the dog. So, Marfa decided to take it home – and suddenly the dog's elderly owner appeared. It  turned out to shopping took him, more time than he expected.

While in pre-trial detention, Marfa continued to care for animals. She was able to see through the "eyelids"–iron plates on the windows that make it almost impossible to see daylight–that cats were living in the detention ercenter's courtyard. During one of the cell rounds, Marfa asked the staff to give her bread to those cats so that they not starve. Vadim Zharomsky tells this story in the 16th issue of Viasna Pryidze podcast.

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