May 21, 2024

One Flower For Every Month In Prison


One Flower For Every Month In Prison
Maykop, the capital of Adygea. NJCHCI, Wikimedia Commons.

In December 2023, 18-year-old Kevin Lik became the youngest person convicted of espionage in Russia. The Russian-German citizen, who was 16 at the time, was accused of taking pictures of military bases and sending them via email to a foreign power. Sota visited his mother's house in Maykop, Adygea Republic, to see where the teenager lived.

Victoria had not entered Kevin's room until Sota visited her. A calendar with colorful illustrations on the closet was still open on the page for December 2022. On his bed were ecology certificates, frog drawings, documents of enrollment in university chemistry and biology courses. The room is filled with encyclopedias. Kevin kept a herbarium with local samples that he packed into a suitcase.

The bed is covered in diplomas from multiple language contests in English and German. He won an All-Russian German Language Olympiad in Moscow, for which he received an award of R200,000 from Murat Kumpliov, head of the Adygea Republic. A newspaper on the bed features a picture of him shaking hands with the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government, Dmitry Chenyshenko.

Lik was born in Montabaur, Germany, in 2005. His parents separated when he was a year old. His mother, Victoria, a caretaker of elderly people, yearned to return to Russia. In 2017, the Lik family moved to Maykop, the capital of Adygea and a bankrupt industrial town of 140,000 with a military base. Now, Victoria regrets that decision.

In the summer of 2022, Victoria wanted to return to Germany with her fiancee. Victoria applied for a short-term visa and Kevin went to the German Embassy in Moscow to receive a stamp confirming that he lived in Adygea. Kevin and his mother got plane tickets and began packing.

In February 2023, Victoria was summoned to the military enlistment office. She needed to obtain a seal saying that Kevin had been removed from the military register due to his permanent residence in Germany, which had been refused the day before. She was detained at the facility for multiple hours and then held in administrative detention for allegedly using obscene language. She was taken for a medical examination and spent 10 days in detention. 

On February 23, 2023, the Lik family was about to fly from Sochi to Frankfurt Am Main via Istanbul. Victoria told Sota that, on that day "We had just left the hotel [and] walked about 20 steps. A gray minibus stops. People surround us, start filming, and say that Kevin is accused of treason and we are detained."

A state-appointed lawyer insisted that Kevin plead guilty. After long hours of interrogation, the exhausted 16-year-old succumbed to the pressure. Victoria cannot discuss her son's trials, since she signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Victoria was "far from politics." But, after her son's imprisonment, she began meeting other imprisoned teenagers' parents. Victoria only eats when friends come over. Kevin, who is only allowed to receive visits twice a month, is frustrated that he could not finish tenth grade. The teenager has been deprived of his calculator and textbooks in prison. He has been beaten up by his cellmate.

There are flowers on the window sill. Kevin asked his mother to add one every month he is in custody. This month there are 15.

 

You Might Also Like

Student Sentenced for Spying
  • January 03, 2024

Student Sentenced for Spying

For the first time, Russia has sentenced a student for spying. The 18-year-old was a high-achieving student.
Espionage on Ice
  • July 03, 2023

Espionage on Ice

Poland has arrested a Russian hockey player for espionage.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955