they starve prisoners because a hungry person is easier to mine. molokans are 'milk drinkers' because they do not believe in fasting because they are conscientious objectors. 

if you cannot eat then milk provides fat and metabolic stress so you are not easy to mine. 

"to drink milk" is symbolism for dissenting against psychic mining. 

...

to block for someone subjected to starvation punishment is what my people did. and so do i.