Russia: Soviet anthem annoys prisoners

Prisoner abuse is part of the Soviet legacy in Russia

Inmates at a detention centre in Siberia have complained that the administration has been playing the Soviet anthem too often and too loud, reports say.

One of the detainees at Remand Centre No 1 in Ulan Ude reportedly called a local news website to vent his anger. "It reeks of Stalin... I'm a Russian patriot, and I want to hear the anthem of my country, not of the one that fell apart in the last century," he told BMK website. He added that he had a very good reason to dislike Stalin: the dictator sent his grandfather to the Gulag.

Contacted by BMK, the prison service admitted it played "good Soviet songs" over the loudspeakers. This was done "not just for entertainment", it said, but also to stop inmates from different cells from communicating with each other and also with friends on the outside.

Since 2000, the Russian national anthem has been set to the music of the Soviet anthem, but the words are different. The old tune was brought back at President Vladimir Putin's suggestion, but his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, criticized the move, saying that Russia should break free from its Communist past.

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