OUR FOUNDERS
Different paths.
A shared purpose.
ProtoMetanoia was co-founded by Stanislav Osherov and Aleksey Dyakov. Their relationship began decades before the project itself. Their experiences—first as family, and later through incarceration and the development of ProtoMetanoia—shaped many of the questions the project now seeks to understand and address.
Their roles today are different but complementary: Stanislav develops much of ProtoMetanoia's philosophy, research, artwork, writing, and long-term direction from within significant constraints, while Aleksey provides the outside support and practical execution necessary to turn ideas into action.
CURRENT PHASE — FOUNDATION
Ideas. Research. Preparation. Documentation. Practical execution.
Stanislav Osherov
CO-FOUNDER · ORIGINATOR & ARTIST
Stanislav Osherov is ProtoMetanoia's originator and primary philosophical architect. His experiences, artwork, research interests, observations, and efforts to prepare for a productive future form much of the project's foundation.
Stanislav was born in Belarus in 1991 and immigrated to the United States as a child. Aleksey entered his life when Stanislav was very young, after meeting and later marrying Stanislav's mother. Several years later, Stanislav's younger half-brother—Aleksey's son—was born.
Following that birth, Stanislav's mother developed postpartum psychosis. Her condition deteriorated over many years. From early on, her illness included severe delusions, aggression, emotional absence, frightening behavior, and periods in which her delusions directly targeted Stanislav and his younger brother.
Both children grew up in an environment marked by fear, instability, and trauma.
Aleksey repeatedly attempted to obtain treatment and outside intervention. The family encountered numerous failures involving law enforcement, the mental-health system, the courts, and other institutions that were expected to help. Their mother was unwilling to accept sustained treatment, her condition continued to deteriorate, and the children remained exposed to the consequences for years. Only after a long and difficult process did court intervention finally remove her from the household.
By then, much of the damage had already been done. Stanislav and his brother had spent important developmental years living with circumstances that created problems they continue to deal with as adults.
That history is important to understanding Stanislav. It is not presented to excuse what came later.
Stanislav's later life included addiction, serious personal failures, criminal behavior, and incarceration. ProtoMetanoia distinguishes between explanation and excuse. Trauma, environment, addiction, mental health, institutional failures, and other influences can help explain how a person develops and why problems occur. They do not erase individual responsibility for the harm that person later causes.
Incarceration eventually forced Stanislav to confront characteristics and behaviors he had previously rationalized, ignored, or failed to understand. Over time, he increasingly turned toward self-reflection, self-education, artwork, research, and the practical question of what a person with his history could still constructively contribute.
His studies have included economics, financial markets, investing, technical analysis, business, psychology, neuroscience, and other subjects. At the same time, limited access to education, technology, information, and realistic post-incarceration opportunities became problems he began examining beyond his own circumstances.
Stanislav's experiences inside the correctional system also became important to his thinking. He has repeatedly confronted what he considers abuses of power, unnecessary cruelty, violations of rules and law, and other institutional misconduct. He has used complaints, grievances, correspondence, and other available processes to challenge those actions.
Doing so has repeatedly brought retaliation, obstruction, and additional obstacles.
Rather than convincing Stanislav that accountability is unrealistic, those experiences strengthened a principle that became important to ProtoMetanoia: accountability cannot operate in only one direction.
People who commit crimes must be accountable for their conduct. Institutions, officials, organizations, and other people entrusted with authority must also be accountable for theirs.
ProtoMetanoia is not built around hostility toward correctional institutions, government, or law enforcement. It is built around the more demanding position that authority and accountability should coexist—and that misconduct should not become acceptable merely because the person experiencing it has a criminal record.
Artwork became another part of Stanislav's development. Working with limited materials, he returned to drawing and began contributing artwork to charitable efforts. For ProtoMetanoia, artwork remains creative expression, communication, and observable evidence of constructive work under constraint.
Stanislav does not ask his history to be overlooked or trust to be granted because he says he has changed. Trust has to be earned through behavior over time.
"What can a person do now?"
Because Stanislav remains incarcerated, his current ProtoMetanoia participation is limited to permitted personal, artistic, educational, research, writing, and conceptual contributions. He does not administer the website, control its accounts, manage money, negotiate transactions, or operate an outside enterprise.
AREAS OF CONTRIBUTION
Artwork
Creative work and visual communication
Research & Analysis
Education, economics, systems, and practical barriers
Writing & Communication
Long-form ideas, observations, reflection, and project development
Problem Identification
Lived experience used to identify practical problems
Long-Term Philosophy
Accountability, education, opportunity, and contribution
Aleksey Dyakov
CO-FOUNDER · EXTERNAL ADMINISTRATION
Aleksey Dyakov's relationship with Stanislav began decades before ProtoMetanoia.
Aleksey met Stanislav's mother when Stanislav was very young. They married, and Aleksey became part of Stanislav's life. Their family later grew with the birth of Stanislav's younger half-brother, Aleksey's son.
The birth was followed by a crisis that changed the family.
Stanislav's mother developed postpartum psychosis. Her condition became increasingly severe and remained unresolved for years. Her delusions, aggression, emotional absence, and frightening behavior had a profound effect on both children.
Aleksey tried repeatedly to obtain treatment and intervention while holding the household together and protecting the children. He sought help through the mental-health system, law enforcement, the courts, and other available channels.
The systems that were supposed to help repeatedly failed to resolve the situation.
Their mother remained unwilling to accept sustained treatment. Her condition deteriorated. The children continued living with severe instability and trauma while Aleksey continued trying to obtain effective intervention.
After years of difficulty, the courts finally removed her from the household.
Aleksey then assumed sole responsibility for raising both boys.
That experience created a strong bond between Aleksey and Stanislav. Their relationship was shaped not simply by Aleksey's marriage to Stanislav's mother, but by years of shared adversity, responsibility, and Aleksey's decision to remain present when circumstances became extraordinarily difficult.
Aleksey brought his own very different background to that responsibility.
Born in the Soviet Union in 1963, he developed as a competitive fencer and earned the Soviet athletic distinction Master of Sport in fencing. He also earned a degree as a Teacher of Physical Education — Coach of Fencing.
After immigrating to the United States, Aleksey developed interests and experience in several fields. He became involved with stocks, options, and day trading and introduced Stanislav to financial markets when Stanislav was young.
He later became a licensed massage therapist serving high-end private clients and obtained certifications in multiple healing methods.
The fields are different, but several qualities connect them: discipline, patience, adaptability, continual learning, attention to detail, and practical problem-solving.
Those qualities also characterize Aleksey's role during Stanislav's incarceration.
He has remained a vital source of personal and practical support. He has helped Stanislav obtain books and educational materials, research subjects that are difficult to access from prison, maintain communication with the outside world, investigate opportunities, and work through practical problems created by incarceration.
That relationship eventually became part of the infrastructure that made ProtoMetanoia possible.
Today, Aleksey is ProtoMetanoia's operational founder and external administrator. Because Stanislav cannot directly operate the website or other outside systems, Aleksey provides the bridge between ideas developed under incarceration constraints and actions that can actually be carried out in the outside world.
His responsibilities include website and account administration, communications, logistics, technical implementation, research assistance, and practical project continuity.
AREAS OF CONTRIBUTION
External Administration
Outside-world operation and account management
Implementation
Turning developed concepts into practical action
Communication
Maintaining connections that incarceration makes difficult
Research & Logistics
Obtaining information, materials, and outside resources
Continuity & Support
Keeping work moving despite practical limitations
Practical Perspective
Experience spanning athletics, financial markets, client service, and hands-on work
LONG BEFORE PROTOMETANOIA
A Shared History
ProtoMetanoia's founders did not meet because of a project. Their relationship was formed decades earlier through family, adversity, responsibility, and persistence.
Stanislav and his younger brother experienced a childhood shaped by their mother's severe mental illness. Aleksey spent years attempting to obtain treatment and intervention, dealing with failures of the mental-health system, law enforcement, and legal system while trying to protect the children and keep the household functioning.
By the time their mother was finally removed from the home through court intervention, the family had already endured years of instability and trauma.
Aleksey assumed responsibility for both children. The problems did not simply disappear when the immediate crisis ended.
Stanislav carried many of those problems into adolescence and adulthood. Aleksey remained part of dealing with their consequences. Later came addiction, criminal behavior, incarceration, and another long period in which the relationship between the two would be tested.
Understanding why something happened is not the same as excusing it.
Problems have causes.
Trauma matters. Mental health matters. Environment matters. Addiction matters. Institutions matter. Opportunity matters. Personal decisions matter.
Understanding those forces can produce better solutions.
But explanation does not eliminate responsibility.
That principle applies to individuals. It also applies to institutions.
Two Roles. One Project.
ProtoMetanoia exists partly because its founders have spent much of their lives encountering difficult problems from different positions.
Stanislav's experiences include childhood trauma, addiction, serious personal failures, incarceration, self-education, institutional conflict, and direct exposure to the barriers faced by someone attempting to build a different future while carrying a criminal record.
Aleksey's experiences include raising a family through prolonged crisis, repeatedly attempting to navigate institutions on behalf of that family, developing several different areas of practical expertise, supporting Stanislav throughout incarceration, and doing the outside work Stanislav cannot perform himself.
Neither perspective is sufficient by itself.
STANISLAV
- Identifies problems
- Develops ideas
- Researches
- Creates artwork
- Writes and communicates
- Challenges assumptions and systems
- Develops long-term philosophy
ALEKSEY
- Provides external access
- Administers the website
- Implements developed work
- Coordinates communication
- Researches outside resources
- Handles practical logistics
- Maintains continuity and support
- Tests ideas against outside-world reality
Their current division of responsibility is also an important operational boundary.
Stanislav contributes permitted ideas, research, writing, communication, and creative work from within a correctional setting.
Aleksey controls external implementation.
Shared Principles
Accountability
A person's circumstances can help explain behavior. They do not eliminate responsibility for the harm that behavior causes.
Context Without Excuse
Trauma, addiction, mental health, environment, institutional conditions, and opportunity all influence human behavior. Understanding those influences is necessary if problems are going to be addressed intelligently. Understanding is not absolution.
Accountability of Authority
Accountability should not apply only to people who have failed or committed crimes. Institutions and people entrusted with authority should also follow the rules governing them and be accountable when they do not.
Education & Opportunity
Education can expand what a motivated person is capable of contributing. Its value increases when people have realistic opportunities to apply what they learn constructively.
Practical Execution
Ideas have little value if they cannot survive contact with reality. ProtoMetanoia begins with practical actions that can actually be taken under present constraints.
Different experiences. A shared commitment.
ProtoMetanoia did not begin as an abstract theory.
It grew from decades of experience with personal failure, family crisis, mental illness, institutional systems, incarceration, education, persistence, and the practical difficulty of trying to change direction after serious mistakes have already been made.
Those experiences do not prove ProtoMetanoia's ideas are correct.
They explain why its founders believe the questions are worth asking.
The project remains in its Foundation Phase. Its credibility remains something to be earned through what it actually does.