Imprisoned political activist Ildar Dadin reported this week that he has suffered torture and brutal conditions while incarcerated at Penal Colony 7 in the northwestern town of Segezha. Dadin, who was sentenced last December to three years under a new law that criminalizes “repeated breaches of public-assembly rules,” reportedly dictated the letter to his lawyer and addressed it to his wife. The independent Russian news website Meduza published the letter on November 1, 2016. The letter, which is graphic and may be disturbing for some readers, describes the systematic torture and abuse of prisoners under the guidance of prison head, Major Sergey Kossiev. In his first week at penal colony 7 (the same facility that once held former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky), Dadin says he was beaten by about a dozen people at once, suspended by handcuffs for half an hour, threatened with sexual assault, and told that he would be murdered if he complained about his conditions to the outside world. This treatment of prisoners will be familiar to anyone who has read the canon of Soviet-era GULAG literature—including classics like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s GULAG Archipelago, Varlam Shalamov’s Kolyma Tales, and Vasily Grossman’s Everything Flows, all of which detail life in Soviet prison camps. While citizens of the USSR interested in the topic had to rely on samizdat (illegally printed and distributed publications) to read these stories, modern Russian activists use social media to share such information. And some are even using technology to take matters into their own hands, in a way. Russian political activist Vladislav Zdolnikov, who is active with the oppositionist Progress Party and the protest- geared Newscaster.TV, has been targeting the prison director himself with the help of social media. Since the release of Dadin's letter, Zdolnikov has been tweeting information about Major Kossiev, whom Dadin named as being complicit in his torture. He has also been pointing others to Kossiev's Vkontakte page: Кажется, настоящая страничка начальника ИК-7 https://t.co/LxEOdQBP1k Давайте расскажем ублюдку, что с ним случится после смены власти — Vladislav (@unkn0wnerror) November 1, 2016 This appears to be the real social-media page for the head of prison colony 7. Let’s tell the bastard what’s going to happen to him after a big changes politically. Russian opposition leader Aleksey Navalny also shared the link to Kossiev’s Vkontakte profile, including a few photographs of him in normal situations—relaxing, and spending time with his family on the beach—juxtaposed with Dadin’s description of Kossiev ordering the prisoner to be tortured. А вот вконтакт палача Коссиева https://t.co/0QwRqqHCjP pic.twitter.com/gQJxnVNlz3 — Alexey Navalny (@navalny) November 1, 2016 Here’s the Vkontakte page of the torturer Kossiev. Zdolnikov has publicly identified members of Kossiev's family, including his wife and children, and pointed to their social media pages. He has urged his followers to contact them and write that Kossiev is a “bastard.” @nemtsovmost конечно считаю. Писать родне о том, что их муж или отец — ублюдок — это хорошо и правильно. — Vladislav (@unkn0wnerror) November 1, 2016 [In response to being asked: “Do you consider yourself better than the torturer?”] Of course, I consider myself better than him. Write to his relatives about how their husband or father is a bastard. This is the right thing to do. RuNet Echo's Aric Toler spoke to Vladislav Zdolnikov and asked him what he hopes to accomplish by exposing Sergey Kossiev's personal information. RuNet Echo: Why did you decide to bring attention to Kossiev and his family on social media? Vladislav Zdolnikov: When we're talking about massive violence against prisoners that has clearly been organized by the prison colony administration, one of the few ways to affect change is to publicize the event widely. I think that it's important to bring this information to the attention of those close to the administrators who committed the crimes, including their friends and family members. They should know what this person, with whom they're living and socializing, is doing. So we're translating what has happened from the professional to the personal realm. I'm sure [the prison administrator] doesn't come home and say, “Today, I tortured a prisoner, suspending him in the air by his handcuffs.” He doesn't say to his wife, “Today I threatened to rape a prisoner,” because he knows she won't understand why. I think this kind of moral pressure should positively influence Dadin's situation. But I should clarify that I don't think that his family should be held responsible or suffer for his actions. I would never call for them to be “poisoned” by this information or negatively affected in any way.