In issue 9 the Chronicle reported (CCE 9.10 [2]) that 68-year-old teacher Boris V. Talantov was sentenced by a court in Kirov to two years in ordinary-regime camps. In this issue some details of his trial are given.
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TRIAL
The trial opened on 1 September. A group of religious believers, who sympathized with the accused, tried to get into the courtroom; the seats, as usual, had been filled in advance.
Talantov was charged under Article 190-1 (RSFSR Criminal Code) with writing a number of articles of religious content, an article on the nature of the Soviet State, and various draft notes, including comments in the margin of a speech by L. I. Brezhnev. He pleaded not guilty (CCE 9.10 [2]). Only four witnesses were summoned in court, among them Gleb Talantov, son of the accused, and Nikodim Kamenskikh, a former seminarist: all gave evidence in favour of the accused.
Boris Talantov (1903-1971)
In addition to the Procurator, a former pupil of Talantov’s (who is now a teacher of dialectical materialism) spoke at the trial as a prosecutor for the public. Talantov’s defence was conducted by the lawyer V. Ya. Shveisky.
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PROSECUTION & DEFENCE
The Procurator agreed with the defence lawyer that the draft notes should not be held against Talantov, but otherwise he upheld completely the charge laid against him, saying that he considered all Talantov’s articles, including those of religious content, to be “deliberately false statements defaming the Soviet political and social system”. The Procurator demanded three years in the camps for Talantov.
The defence completely refuted the charge relating to the articles of religious content.
Concerning the article on the nature of the Soviet State, which contained some sharp criticisms, the defence lawyer, while he did not agree with the views expressed in the article, maintained that its author sincerely believed in the correctness of his statements, and consequently there was no element of deliberate falsification in the document.
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In his final plea, B. V. Talantov reaffirmed his allegiance to his convictions, although he allowed that he might have shown a subjective approach in certain of his judgments. He said farewell to his relatives, since, in view of his age and the state of his health, he had no hopes of regaining his freedom.
On 3 September 1969 the court pronounced him guilty.
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NOTES
Talantov died in the Kirov prison hospital in 1971 (CCE 18.12).
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