…, Germans, Pentecostalists, Those who have left

(Moscow, Leningrad, Voronezh; Yarym-Agayev; Women and Russia).

GERMANS

For two years Alexander Bous, a resident of Chelyabinsk, has been trying to emigrate with his father, mother and brother.

On 1 and 2 April an article entitled “Spiritual emigres” was published in the newspaper Chelyabinsk Worker. The main attack in the article was directed against Bous. Here is an extract from the article.

“A man with a broad forehead, with thinning hair tinged with red and bright blue eyes… And suddenly I remembered my war days. Even now I remember those other helmets. The dark, poisonously green colour, the brims slightly lowered and bent at the back. With a swastika… And the eyes under those helmets. The eyes which went especially well with those helmets were blue like ice… Nordic eyes — an attribute of the master race.”

Anatoly Arendar (CCE 56) and Ya.I. Bekker sent letters to the newspaper and to the Party Regional Committee in defence of Bous. On 16 July the newspaper Chelyabinsk Worker stated, in an article entitled “Our Life Position”, that “A. F. Arendar has come forward in defence of spiritual emigres”.

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PENTECOSTALISTS

On 1 July 1980, B. Perchatkin (CCE 56.19) was arrested in Nakhodka [Soviet Far East].

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N.G. Bobarykin from Starotitarovskaya Village (CCE 56.19), on behalf of Pentecostalists who had renounced their Soviet citizenship and submitted papers for emigration from the USSR, has sent a letter to participants of the Madrid Conference with a request for help.

The letter recounts how the people summoned to the KGB for interrogation after the arrest of N. Goretoi (CCE 56.19) were told that they too would be tried if they continued to appeal for help to foreign governments and organizations and to the people of the world; and also how they have been forbidden to leave their village, especially during the Olympics.

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T.V. Ivanova of Leningrad, who has on several occasions handed in applications for emigration from the USSR, had talks, on 5 and 10 January, with KGB officials about these applications. The talks took place at her home. Her visitors introduced themselves as Sasha and Yura, and Yura said that he was a believer.

They wanted to know why she wished to emigrate, her attitude to registration of her community, who was the community’s administrator, who was the leader, who taught, and who had connections abroad. Not receiving the desired information, her guests turned to threats and talked of the misery, unemployment and hunger which prevailed in the West. Nor did they steer clear of rudeness. They then started to talk of the necessity of having an invitation from close relatives abroad. During 1979-1980 two invitations were sent to Ivanova from Israel, but she did not receive either of them.

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THOSE WHO HAVE LEFT

In May 1980, the Muscovites Sergei Alexeyev (CCE 56), the son of Lyudmila Alexeyeva (CCE 44), and Yevgeny Nikolayev (CCE 56.19), member of the Council of Representatives of SMOT, the Free Inter-trade Association of Working People (CCE 51), with his wife Tyan Zaochnaya, left the USSR.

From Leningrad the poetess Yulia Okulova-Voznesenskaya (CCE 43, 46, 55 and 56) and Dzhemma Kvachevskaya (CCE 6 and 9), with her husband Pavel Babich emigrated in May. The German Genrikh Reimer (CCE 44 and 54) left the USSR in May.

In June 1980, L. Olkhova (CCE 45) from Voronezh, her son G. Olkhov (CCE 47 and 52) and T. Samsonova (CCE 56), wife of member of the editorial board of the journal Poiski (Searches) P. Egides (CCE 56), left the USSR.

In July 1980, former political prisoner Vyacheslav Repnikov (CCE 47) left for the West. In July Vasily Aksyonov (CCE 52, 54 and 55), one of the compilers of the Metropol almanac, left to lecture in the USA for two years.

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Yury Yarym Agayev

On 2 May 1980, member of the Moscow Helsinki Group Yury Yarym-Agayev sent a statement to the State Committee on Science and Technology, the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet.

He had been dismissed from his post as a research officer at the Institute of Chemical Physics on account of his activities as a defender of the rule of law, he wrote, and had been unable subsequently to find permanent work in his field. He then said that he had had several invitations from American universities, and that so far as he could see, his only chance of continuing his scientific work lay in accepting one of these invitations. In view of this Yarym-Agayev asked to be allowed to visit the USA for two to three years.

Yury Yarym-Agayev, b. 1949

On 28 May Yarym-Agayev received a post-card with no return address, asking him to telephone “Dergachev”. It turned out that Dergachev was Head of the Science Department of the Moscow City Party Committee, and he had been sent one of Yarym-Agayev’s statements. Yarym-Agayev could not be sent to work in America, said Dergachev, because he had no permanent post and because there was no one to send him. Yarym-Agayev objected that he was asking to visit the USA precisely because he could not find a permanent post in the USSR and he did not need anyone to send him, he just needed an exit visa. Dergachev replied that he would have to apply to OVIR for that.

On 30 May Yarym-Agayev was detained on the street by KGB officials (including B. B. Karatayev — CCE 32, 45, 47, 51 and 54). He was taken to the police station near his registered place of residence. At first the station chief tried unsuccessfully to accuse him of parasitism. Then a KGB official interrupted and said that now he would have a talk with Yarym-Agayev. “Should l leave?” asked the chief. “You can stay,” was the reply. The KGB official then said to Yarym-Agayev:

“As you know, Tatyana Osipova was arrested on 27 May. You were, and are still, engaged in the same activities as she, and we have all the grounds for your arrest. We won’t discuss your views now; we know that you stick hard to them; but you won’t be able to live here with them. We know that you’ve submitted a statement in which you say that you want to go and work in the USA for two or three years. You won’t leave here that way. However, you may leave in the usual way. Only we’ll have to agree right now on the date — you mustn’t be here when the Olympics start. We’ll say 1 July, provisionally. If you have any problems, let us know.”

Afterwards, “so that all this doesn’t remain just words” (this from a KGB official), Yarym-Agayev was issued a caution “in accordance with the Decree” (see “The Group receives a Caution”, CCE 57.2, in this issue). After Yarym-Agayev had signed the paper stating he had been cautioned, KGB officials advised him not to discuss their conversation and released him.

On 3 July, when Yarym-Agayev went to OVIR for his visa, he was met there by Karatayev, who told him that he would have to be interrogated before receiving his visa (see this issue, “The Arrest of Osipova”, CCE 57.2).

On 8 July Yarym-Agayev flew abroad. After his departure five members of the Moscow Helsinki Group remained at liberty: E. Bonner, S. Kalistratova, Ivan Kovalyov, N. Meiman and F. Serebrov.

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Women and Russia

When the almanac Women and Russia (CCE 55.11) came out in December 1979 its editors were warned that, in the event of a second number being issued, a criminal case would be brought against them under Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code.

On 5 May 1980, the almanac Maria appeared in Leningrad. In April S. Sokolova (see CCEs 55 and 56) was detained and searched several times; at one of the searches a mock-up for the almanac was confiscated.

Just before the Olympics T. Goricheva (CCE 55 and 56) was told that if she did not leave within a few days she would be arrested. They gave her a visa the next day. (Earlier she had applied to emigrate.) She left the USSR, with T. Mamonova and N. Malakhovskaya, during the first days of the Olympics.