Natalya GORBANEVSKAYA was arrested on 24 December 1969.
Born in 1936, Natalya Yevgenievna Gorbanevskaya and graduated from the philological faculty of Leningrad State University in 1963. A talented poet, she took part in the 25 August 1968 demonstration on Red Square [CCE 3.3] against the sending of troops to Czechoslovakia, and is author of the book Noon, which brings together material about the demonstration. A member of the Action Group for Civil Rights in the USSR, she is the mother of two young children (the elder is eight years old; the younger, one year seven months).
Natalya Gorbanevskaya with her sons (photo Alexander Gribanov)
On 24 December 1969, a search was made of Gorbanevskaya‘s flat. The search warrant was signed by L.S. Akimova, Senior Investigator with the Moscow City procurator’s office; the search was carried out by Shilov, an Investigator with the office. Confiscated during the search were items of samizdat, the manuscript “Free Medical Aid” and a copy of Anna Akhmatova’s Requiem with a handwritten dedication from the author.
Friends present in Gorbanevskaya‘s flat at the time were also searched.
Natalya Gorbanevskaya has been charged under Article 190-1 (Russian Criminal Code). The investigation is being conducted by L.S. Akimova. Gorbanevskaya is at present in Butyrka Prison [Moscow].
As early as 1968 —after the demonstration of 25 August — Gorbanevskaya was declared to be of unsound mind, and now she is threatened with imprisonment in a hospital prison for an unlimited term.
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