In the Prisons and Camps, October 1976 (42.4-1)

<<No 42 : 8 October 1976>>

4-1 A Visit to Mustafa Dzhemilev; Vladimir Prison; Mordovian Camps
4-2 Perm Camps; Diary of Camp 35. Camps for Common Criminals
4-3 Political Prisoners Letters & Declarations. In Defence of Political Prisoners
4-4 Releases

1. A Visit to Mustafa Dzhemilev

MUSTAFA DZHEMILEV has been sent to the Far East to serve his sentence (CCE 40.3). His address is: 692710, Primorsky Region, Khasansky district, Primorsk rail station, PO Box 267/26.

This district is part of the border zone, so that it can only be visited with a pass issued by the police of the area where the traveller is registered as a resident, and if one has an invitation.

In the middle of September Mustafa’s relatives received a letter from him, asking them to come and visit him soon, as his health was very bad. Soon an invitation from the administration arrived. However, at the Tashkent city police station they would not make out a permit for the journey, stating that some point in the invitation was wrongly formulated.

On 29 September this telegram was sent to Moscow:

Moscow K-9
9 Ogaryov Street
Minister of Internal Affairs
Shchelokov

Tashkent police do not allow Mustafa Dzhemilev’s relatives to travel to visit him. They refuse them pass for Primorsky Region despite invitation from administration of corrective labour colony. Mustafa’s state of health desperate. Their last meeting perhaps. We ask your help to obtain quick permission for journey.

Bonner, Velikanova, Lavut, Sakharov

*

The next day, Mustafa’s relatives received an assurance from Imanov, an official of the Uzbek SSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), that they would soon get the pass.

Immediately after this conversation they were received by the city’s police chief Malyushko. Forgetting any irregularities in the documents, he said that the pass would not be issued and that Imanov was not fully informed: “he doesn’t know everything”. “Anyway, Dzhemilev has no need of a visit,” Malyushko said.

On 30 September A. Sakharov issued a declaration addressed to Amnesty International, the UN, government leaders and political parties, also to all those fighting for human rights.

Recalling Dzhemilev’s ten-month hunger-strike and his conviction on fabricated charges, Sakharov appealed: “Demand that the Soviet authorities release Dzhemilev immediately for medical treatment in conditions of freedom; only this can save him.”

At the beginning of October Mustafa nevertheless received a visit from his brother and sister. They found that his condition had improved.

2. Vladimir Prison

On 2 May, as a sign of solidarity with those taking part in the ‘Freedom March’ in the USA, the political prisoners held a one-day hunger-strike.

Similar action was taken by political prisoners in the camps of Mordovia and Perm (this issue, also ‘In the Perm Camps’ in CCE 40.9-2).

The prisoners learned of the forthcoming ‘Freedom March’ ahead of time from the newspaper Pravda.

On 26 August the prison was visited by Drozdov, the deputy Procurator of Vladimir Region, and Obraztsov, the procurator in charge of ensuring legality in places of imprisonment. The political prisoners in one of the cells began to talk to him about observing legalities. Drozdov said that this would be too much of an imposition, and would cost the State too much money.

At the end of the summer the political prisoners started to be transferred to Block 4: until then they had been held in all four blocks.

The prison radio has announced a new procedure for dealing with complaints.

From now on, complaints about prison situations will be sent only to the Vladimir Procurator’s Office and the departments to which it is subordinate; complaints concerning investigation, trial and sentence will be sent only to the procurator’s office in the place where the trial was held and the relevant higher organs; other complaints will go only to those organizations which the prison administration considers competent to deal with the questions brought up in the complaints [correction CCE 43.18].

(Clarification in CCE 43.3: ‘Apart from the procuracy and MVD agencies, complaints to the Party Central Committee are also permitted. Forbidden are complaints to the deputies of soviets at all levels, to the Council of Ministers, to the press, and to social organizations.’)

Since April they have started to hand out bowls of hot soup on the mornings of the ‘hungry days’ in the cooler [correction CCE 43.18]: ‘In the cooler, as before, nothing is given on the “hungry” day except bread and hot water. The improvement (achieved after a two-year struggle) consists only of this: since spring 1976 they have started, on the “food” day, to give out food three times a day instead of twice.’]

Prisoners on strict regime have swollen fingers from undernourishment, as well as swellings and red rashes on their bodies.

On 18 August Vladimir Bukovsky ended a six-month term on strict regime. He ended his term in the cooler.

On 19 August he received a visit from his mother. In a press release Nina Ivanovna Bukovskaya wrote:

‘… His appearance was awful, he was so dreadfully, inhumanly thin. I have only seen such faces, with the skin literally stretched over the bones of the skull, and hands and neck resembling those of a five-year-old child, on newspaper photographs of prisoners in Auschwitz … From this same ‘educator’ Doinikov I got to know that my son was put in the cooler for trying ‘by illegal means’ to send me a letter. As is well known, by ‘legal’ means (i.e. through the prison censors) he has not been allowed to do this for ten months …

‘He told me that he was allowed to inform me only that he was not at present on hunger-strike and that he was not in solitary. My son also told me that recently he had been completely cut off from the outside world: all his complaints to the supervisory authorities had unfailingly been confiscated (in one month alone, 15 complaints were confiscated). He was not even allowed to write to his lawyer, Vladimir Shveisky. During my visit I was, however, astonished by my son’s cheerfulness, his amazing calm, the liveliness of his eyes …

‘How long are they going to go on tormenting my sick son merely for openly expressing his personal opinions and defending other people?’

Nina Ivanovna told her son during the visit that the parliaments of three countries and the Pope had spoken out in his defence. Bukovsky’s prison term is due to end in May 1977, his camp term in March 1978. After that he still faces 5 years of exile. For some complaint of his he has been deprived of his next visit, which was due to take place in six months, in February 1977.

From the end of April Nikolai Bondar (CCE 33.6-2 [78]) spent a month in hospital.

After his stay in hospital, he was put in the most crowded cell (eight persons). Bondar asked to be transferred to solitary because of his weak state of health. At the end of May he went on hunger-strike. On 7 July, after a 40-day hunger-strike, he was transferred to a cell with one other prisoner in it.

On 26 August Superfin ended a three-month term on strict regime. In the evenings his legs swell up, he has stomach and liver trouble and is in constant pain.

In August a large group of political prisoners who had refused to work were transferred to strict regime for two months, after first spending 10 to 15 days in the cooler. They were Abankin, Safronov, Davydov, Shakirov, Rode, Afanasev and Lyubarsky [¹].

Arie Khnokh was transferred to strict regime, but it was soon necessary to move him to the hospital. (Both statements are incorrect: he was in fact given 7 days in the cooler [correction CCE 43.18].)

Yakov Suslensky’s state of health remains very serious (CCE 41.6-1).

At the beginning of September, he was taken to hospital. He was taken straight from there to the cooler [correction CCE 43.18]. His 7-year sentence ends on 29 January 1977; nevertheless, he feels so ill that he is asking for support in obtaining a premature release.

In July and August, Mikhail Makarenko was deprived of access to the prison shop.

In the middle of August, after spending ten or fifteen days in the cooler, he was transferred to strict regime. His term is due to end in May 1977. He is being constantly threatened with prolongation of his sentence.

In June Konstantinovsky (CCE 40.9-1) was on hunger-strike for 20 days.

In the middle of September Yevgeny Pashnin went on hunger-strike in the cooler [addition CCE 43.18].

Among his demands were: the removal of Captain Doinikov, as being a provocateur and tormentor, and the normalization of the question of correspondence.

Vasily Fedorenko is continuing the hunger-strike he began on 10 December 1975 [²]. He is being force-fed.

In summer 1976 he interrupted his hunger-strike for ten days, during medical treatment, but he gave a warning beforehand that the interruption would be temporary.

Budulak-Sharygin has very high blood pressure, up to 220. The saltless diet he needs is not given to him.

Alexander Sergiyenko has a constantly high temperature. CCE 41.6-1 reported that he been taken off the register of those suffering from tuberculosis.

After Georgy Davydov had been forced to rewrite a letter to his wife several times (CCE 40.9-1), he wrote her a short letter on 1 April.

The letter was merely a list of the letters he had received. He also enclosed in his letter some pictures cut out of journals for his little daughter and a letter from his wife that had been checked by the censors. However, his letter was once more not allowed through. Then Davydov refused to continue the correspondence further.

Bagrat Shakhverdyan (Camp 35) and Stepan Sapelyak (Camp 36) have been transferred from the Perm camps to Vladimir Prison.

Shakhverdyan has been given 4 months on strict regime.

3. Mordovia

3.1: Camp 1 (special regime)

CCE 41.6-1 reported that at the end of May Ivan Gel went on hunger-strike.

He continued the hunger-strike until September. It was carried out in very difficult circumstances: he was not sent to hospital but put in solitary; he was forcibly fed once a week, from August on, twice a week.

By means of his hunger-strike Gel was trying to obtain an improvement in living conditions for his family: his wife Maria with her daughter and her brother Taras are living in one semi-basement room, with no conveniences and no kitchen.

At the beginning of September, Maria Gel was summoned to the Lvov KGB headquarters, where she was told that they had a photocopy of a declaration by her husband, written by him in the camp and copied out in her handwriting. Because of this Maria and Taras were subjected daily to interrogations lasting many hours, accompanied by threats and trickery. In particular, Taras was threatened with revocation of his newly-acquired university diploma and dismissal from his job, if he did not reveal his sister’s role in getting information out of the camp. As a result, Taras began to have a heart attack during interrogation and was taken to hospital, where he was diagnosed as having had a ‘minor coronary attack’.

Maria was warned not to say anything about her interrogations, but she refused to keep them secret and reported all the developments to the Group to Assist the Implementation of the Helsinki Agreements in the USSR.

Yu. Orlov, the leader of the Group, organized a press conference for foreign journalists at which he reported I. Gel’s hunger-strike and the persecution of his family, and it was stated that group members A. Ginzburg and V. Turchin would go to Lvov to visit Maria Gel on the group’s behalf. From the time of their arrival the KGB summonses to Maria ended, and a few days later it became known that Ivan Gel had ended his hunger-strike. Soon he was transferred from Mordovia to Lvov, where his wife and relatives were promised their next ordinary visit to him.

CCE 41.6-1 reported that Bogdan Rebrik had been beaten up and put in solitary for refusing to transfer to a cell of common criminals. When he came out of solitary, he was put in a cell with Ukrainian political prisoners.

It is known that camp commandant Kropotov had ordered the solitary cell to be prepared before Rebrik was asked to transfer to the criminals’ cell.

STROKATA

On 7 August Nina A. Strokata had a meeting with her husband Svyatoslav Karavansky. As she is under administrative surveillance (CCE 39.13 [12]), she had to obtain permission for the journey to visit him. She received permission from the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), after two refusals by lesser authorities.

Before the visit, Strokata had a conversation with First Lieutenant Tirin, the KGB representative in the camp. He told Strokata: ‘Your husband mustn’t say anything about the situation in the camp. If he talks about it, stop him,’ Tirin also declared: ‘We are ready to compromise in any way that will suit both you and us.’

Karavansky has been excused work because of his health (he has very high blood pressure), as any loud noise is bad for him. His prison term according to his last sentence will end in 1979.

YEVGRAFOV

Nikolai Andreyevich Yevgrafov (b. 1930, Ukrainian, three years of education) is serving his term in Camp 1.

In 1966-1973 he served a 7-year sentence under Article 62, pt. 1 (Ukrainian SSR Criminal Code (= Article 70, RSFSR Code). After his release he lived in Slavyansk (Donetsk Region), working as a stevedore.

On 29 April 1975 the Donetsk Regional Court, headed by chairman Zinchenko, sentenced Yevgrafov to 10 years in special-regime camps under Article 62, pt. 2 (Ukrainian SSR Criminal Code). The prosecutor was Procurator Yu. P. Noskov; the defence was conducted by Yu. P. Aleksebin. The trial was officially conducted in closed court (the reason is unknown to the Chronicle).

The indictment finds Yevgrafov guilty of writing the work The Truth about Injustice, of disseminating it (he gave it to three acquaintances to read) and of conversations expressing ‘anti-Soviet’, ‘slanderous’ views.

The above-mentioned work is described thus in the indictment:

‘The accused, making use of notes he had brought with him from places of imprisonment which contained anti-Soviet statements by foreign reactionary sociologists, philosophers and economists, wrote an anti-Soviet lampoon in 1974 … In it he falsifies the teaching of Marxism-Leninism, libels the Soviet economy, the nationalities policy of the Soviet State, and the world Communist movement.’

The indictment says about the ‘anti-Soviet statements’, among other things: ‘…he praised the Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists and also praised the structure and system of capitalist countries …’

The date of Yevgrafov’s arrest, and thus the date when his sentence is due to end, is unknown to the Chronicle.

3.2: Camp 3 (men’s zone)

Paruir Airikyan has been transferred here from Camp 17.

3.3: Camp 3 (women’s zone)

CCE 41.6-1 reported that in the middle of March Irina Senik was put in the cooler despite the fact that she was at that time suffering an attack of high blood pressure.

In protest at the detention of the sick I. Senik in the cooler the women political prisoners began a hunger-strike. After four days in the cooler (instead of the prescribed 15) Senik was sent back to the camp zone.

In April Stefania Shabatura was put in the punishment cells for six months.

Shabatura’s camp term ends in January 1977. She still faces 3 years’ exile after that.

Since July 1975 Irina Stasiv-Kalynets has been working as an orderly.

This work is paid at half rate, 15 roubles a month. After deductions for ‘maintaining the prison staff’, food and clothing, she had no money left to spend at the camp shop. Irina’s complaints to the Procurator’s Office and other Soviet authorities have yielded no results. Her complaints to international organizations are not allowed through by the administration.

3.4: Camp 17

On 2 May Vasyl Stus, Mikhail Kheifets and Azat Arshakyan participated in a one-day hunger-strike in solidarity with those taking part in the ‘Freedom March’ in the USA.

In May and June Stus, who was still feeling ill after an operation (CCE 39.2-1), was offered a bed in hospital for a prolonged period of invalid status, but conditions were attached: he was not to be allowed books and was not to send verses home. Stus refused. Then he was sent to the hospital in handcuffs. Stus wrote a complaint about the rough treatment he received.

In the summer Stus had over 300 of his poems confiscated, which he had written in the camp. When the political zone was abolished (below), 300 of his translations from Goethe, Rilke, Kipling and other poets were also confiscated.

From June to August three of Stus’s letters in a row were confiscated, for containing ‘hidden meanings’. In the first of these letters ‘hidden meanings’ were discovered in Stus’s own poetry, in the second, in Stus’s translation of a poem by Baudelaire, in the third, in verses by Shevchenko.

In August the ‘political’ zone in camp 17 was abolished. The political prisoners were transferred to camps 3 and 19.

3.5: Camp 19

Stus was transferred from the hospital to Camp 19.

Here he was handed a document informing him that the 600 poems confiscated from him had been destroyed, this meant everything he had written in the camp. He was now searched every day: he was stripped and made to squat. Stus made a protest and refused to get up and stand in line for roll-call. He was put in the cooler and kept there for 14 days.

Some political prisoners wrote a declaration to the Procurator’s Office and the KGB about the cruel treatment of Stus; they also went to the camp authorities. They asked that the sick Stus should at least have the punishment regime alleviated: that he should be given a bed and an improved diet. On receiving a refusal, four men (Soldatov, Penson, Kheifets and Yuskevich) went on a partial hunger-strike (refusing hot meals). The hunger-strike lasted for four days.

Vladimir Osipov, Alexander Bolonkin, Sergei Soldatov and Razmik Markosyan held a one-day hunger-strike in solidarity with participants in the ‘Freedom March’ in the USA.

For refusing to work Yury Khramtsov (CCE 39.2-1) is being put in the cooler, in spite of the fact that he is an invalid of the second group. In March he spent 10 days there, then 13 days in July and August.

His state of health is very bad.

For refusing to attend political lectures Osipov, Bolonkin, Soldatov, Markosyan and Vasily Dolishny have been punished.

Reinkhold (CCE 46.23-2) has been transferred to Camp 19 from Camp 17. In spring 1976 he was also put in the cooler for 14 days, for refusing to attend political lectures in Camp 17.

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NOTES