«The teacher handed it directly to the FSB»

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Masha lived with her father Alexey Moskalyov in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region and was in the sixth grade of ordinary secondary school No. 9. As she recalls now, the start of the war scared her like any other child, but at that time her peers were mostly indifferent to what was happening in Ukraine. She mostly talked about it with her father—and both of them saw the war primarily as a tragedy.

As Maria recalls, at eleven years old she did not intend to specifically express protest and simply drew what she felt. This happened in April 2022.

“The teacher herself gave us the assignment—to draw something that could support our military. My classmates indeed started drawing tanks and similar things. I just drew what I thought was right. How could I support the killing of people? I wrote the truth because I simply couldn’t draw anything else on this topic,“ Masha says.

According to the girl, the teacher initially didn’t even see her drawing because she usually didn’t collect students’ work. That was the case this time as well. But the image of a Ukrainian family defending themselves from Russian rockets and the inscription “No to war” caught the attention of classmates—and they reported on Masha.

“I don’t think they wanted to stand out in front of the teacher on purpose. It all comes from the family, and the parents really instilled in these children that Russia is a wonderful country and Ukraine attacked it first. At least, they sincerely believed this and, by reporting on me, thought they were doing the right thing,“ she recalls.

Interrogations and “political talks”

The teacher immediately reported the “terrible incident” of a child’s drawing to the principal, after which the girl’s life turned into a nightmare.

“That same day, as I was leaving school, I saw police officers, the deputy principal, and teachers at the doors. It surprised me greatly because I had never before seen police come to our school. I suspected it was because of the drawing, so I decided not to go out to them and only went home after the crowd dispersed. At home, my dad told me that when he came to the school to pick me up, the police were talking to him. They showed him my drawing and started a conversation about how he had “unpatriotically” raised his daughter,“ Masha recounts.

After that, the authorities seriously targeted the Moskalyov family. Following monitoring of the father’s social media, law enforcement found a comment on “Odnoklassniki” which they considered “discrediting” the army. Alexey Moskalyov was fined 32,000 rubles, and FSB officers began taking the sixth-grader from lessons to interrogations.

“There were three such interrogations in total. Sometimes they took me from after-school care, sometimes directly from lessons. Even though I was a minor, they spoke to me separately, without adults present. Dad was interrogated at the same time in a separate room,“ Masha recalls.

It seems the agents themselves didn’t quite know what to talk about with an 11-year-old: they asked what Masha wanted to be, whether she wanted to work in the police after school. Meanwhile, the pressure on Alexey intensified, openly threatening to take his daughter away. The persecution by the security services truly frightened the girl. The worst part was that teachers openly helped the FSB, creating all conditions for psychological terror.

“Once the teacher tricked me into staying at after-school care when I was already about to go home—on purpose so the FSB officers would have time to arrive at the school. She unusually gently asked me to cut out some pictures from paper, and then, when they arrived, took me out to the porch and handed me directly to the FSB. After the third interrogation, Dad and I decided there was nothing left for us at that school,“ Maria says.

Shelter

After Masha switched to remote learning, family life seemed to improve. But before the New Year, a case was opened against Alexey for “repeated discrediting” of the army. On December 30 early in the morning, police, emergency services, and firefighters arrived at the Moskalyovs’ home. Twelve masked people, armed with an angle grinder, began cutting the door to the apartment where father and daughter were. When Alexey opened the door, they forced him face down on the floor and started a harsh interrogation. Meanwhile, Masha was taken to another room.

“I started having a panic attack and couldn’t say anything. Then they called child protective services and began searching the apartment. It was a real nightmare: they overturned furniture, beds, and sofas, threw all documents on the floor, and trampled on them. They took Dad’s passport, my birth certificate, apartment documents, and phones. Dad was arrested then, and I was taken to a shelter. I remember how Dad, before leaving the apartment, had to let our cat outside because he knew she would starve in the empty apartment. That cat had lived with us for three years and was a true family member to me,“ the girl recalls.

So, on the eve of 2023, Masha, who was not yet twelve, was placed in a shelter for the first time. Today she notes that the staff’s attitude and living conditions there were quite good, but being separated from the closest person didn’t help. Masha was completely in the dark about what would happen to her and her father. She didn’t even have a phone to call anyone she knew. Meanwhile, Alexey was taken to a police station and beaten during interrogation.

“Later Dad told me how after the beating they played the Russian anthem at full volume and locked him in a room. He had to listen to the anthem for two hours, after which he felt unwell with his heart and an ambulance had to be called,“ Masha recounts.

“The main thing is, study well”

After Alexey’s interrogation, he was released and able to take Masha from the shelter. All relatives turned away from them, and completely unknown people—volunteers and activists—began helping the Moskalyovs. They suggested the family leave Yefremov, and father and daughter moved to the nearby town of Uzlovaya. There Alexey found work at a local factory, but the Moskalyovs’ peaceful life didn’t last long. On March 1, police detained Alexey, and Masha was sent back to the familiar shelter in Yefremov.

“They brought me there only in the evening, and I was hungry all day. They broke into our apartment early in the morning when I hadn’t even had breakfast. At the shelter, complete isolation began again. Volunteers and activists were not allowed to visit me, I wasn’t allowed to receive a phone or parcels,“ Maria recalls.

For Masha, the torture of uncertainty began again.

“I didn’t know what was happening with Dad or if I would ever get out of there. I had a notebook with some contacts, and I approached caregivers asking them to make calls,“ Masha shares.

Only after she went to the shelter director was she allowed to make a call—but only in the director’s presence and only to her mother or other relatives, not to her father.

Masha’s mother disappeared from her life when she was three and showed no further interest in her daughter. According to Maria, her mother’s only “signs of attention” were New Year’s calls—and not even every year. She didn’t want to meet her daughter even when tearful Masha called her from the shelter.

“She always had excuses ready—that she was busy, working, and couldn’t come. At that time, I was so scared and miserable that I cried every day. Mom only told me: ‘The main thing is, study well there,’“ Masha recalls.

After the Moskalyov family’s story became public, government officials, including the Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, began visiting the girl at the shelter. From the officials, Masha learned that her father had tried to escape house arrest but was detained in Belarus and placed in a detention center.

“They tried to convince me that Dad wanted to abandon me, but I know that’s not true. He just understood he couldn’t help me from prison, and the activists helping us explained that they couldn’t evacuate both of us at once. If Dad had managed to leave, he surely would have found ways to help me,“ Masha explains.

Olga Sitchikhina, Masha’s mother, was reluctant for a long time to take her daughter from the shelter and only did so under pressure from officials, who used both carrot and stick: for example, Olga was helped to pay off loans. The girl agreed to live with her mother. According to Masha, her main priority was to get out of the shelter to access the internet and find lawyers and others who could help her father.

Thus, Masha found herself in a formally native but essentially alien family. Olga Sitchikhina and her household were pro-war and could enthusiastically discuss at dinner the latest “atrocities by Ukrainians against Russians.” However, life with the family was still better for Masha than the shelter. Most importantly, Maria gained connection with the outside world and the ability to correspond with her father.

Meanwhile, Alexey Moskalyov was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months in a penal colony for “discrediting the army.”

“Letters took a long time because Dad was constantly being moved from place to place. Once he wrote that his eyesight had worsened severely, and I started contacting all the acquaintances who helped us regularly to find ways to help him: to arrange a medical examination in the colony, get glasses or medicine. But it was still very hard to support each other through correspondence. To understand a person’s condition, it’s important to hear their voice,“ Masha shares.

After many months, Alexey managed to get permission to call his daughter. According to Masha, during their first conversation she could barely speak because of tears. At first, they talked almost every day, but then the colony administration again restricted calls. During a conversation, Alexey mentioned the name of a journalist or human rights activist who had written to him in prison, and the colony authorities decided he was “accustoming the child to politics.” Nevertheless, calls were occasionally allowed.

New life

Until the last moment, Masha didn’t know if her father would be released at the end of his sentence or if new charges would be brought against him. She insisted on personally meeting her father at the colony, and after several hours of waiting, she finally saw him—emaciated but happy.

However, the family was immediately made to understand they would not be left in peace. At the moment of Masha’s meeting with her father, police officers stood nearby, openly recording the license plate of the car that brought Masha to meet him. In the first days after his release, neighbors began reporting to the Moskalyovs that police had again tried to enter their apartment during their absence.

Father and daughter realized they needed to leave the country urgently. After their departure, the Moskalyovs’ acquaintances again reported that police and some people in military uniform were looking for them. Alexey and Masha had to flee hastily to a neutral country, but the family managed to take their beloved dog with them.

The Moskalyovs are now awaiting a decision on a humanitarian visa to Germany. Masha is already 15 years old and studied remotely until it was time to take exams for ninth grade. According to Russian law, this is only possible in person. But Maria cannot return home now. For the time being, she studies on her own to keep up with the school curriculum and eagerly awaits the moment she can attend a real school in another country. She is passionate about drawing and even tries writing her first stories—so far deliberately far from her real experience but helping her adjust to a new life.

Regarding Russia’s future, Masha’s outlook is not very optimistic: “Even if the state changes, I doubt people will change immediately. I’m afraid that even if something improves in our country, it won’t happen anytime soon.“

Photos provided by Masha Moskalyova