OpenDemocracy.net has published translations of correspondence between Mikhail Khdoorkovsky and the famous novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya, which was originally featured in Novaya Gazeta.  The conversation is suprisingly frank and full of personal insights.

Khodorkovsky: “The experience of prison is not that unusual for a member of the
intelligentsia in Russia. This is unfortunate, because it is not a
great experience. I feel closer to Shalamov than Solzhenitsyn here. I
think the difference between them goes back to the fact that
Solzhenitsyn believed in authoritarian rule, and that included prison.
But as a “humanist” he thought that he had to experience it for
himself. I respect this viewpoint, but I don’t agree with it.

Prison is a place of anti-culture and anti-civilization. Good is evil,
and lies are the truth. Here the dregs educate the dregs, and decent
people feel deeply unhappy, as they can do nothing inside this
revolting system.

No, perhaps that’s going too far, of course they can do something, but
it’s terrible to watch how a few people manage to survive each day,
while dozens go under. And how changes go round in circles, moving
ahead, but so slowly.

My own recipe for survival is to learn to understand and forgive. The
better and the more deeply you understand and put yourself in someone
else’s place, the more difficult it is to condemn and the simpler to
forgive.”

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