Vladimir Semyonovich SLEPAK (b. 1927) has been a refusenik since April 1970. He has been actively involved in the Jewish emigration movement and is a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group.
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On 1 June Slepak was arrested in his flat and taken to the police station (CCE 50.8-1 [7]). Criminal proceedings were instituted against him under Article 206, pt 2 (RSFSR Criminal Code). On the evening of 2 June, he was taken from a detention cell to the Butyrka Prison.
On 6 June Maria Slepak who was released from custody on the night of 2-3 June (trial, CCE 50.8-4) sent a telegram to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, that read:
“In accordance with Article 58 of the Constitution of the USSR I am appealing to the highest organ of government authority concerning the patently illegal actions of officials who have begun to fabricate a false case which threatens Vladimir Slepak and myself with unjust punishment, as well as harming the prestige of the Soviet Union in the eyes of the world public. I appeal to you to give Vladimir Slepak back his freedom, and to prevent my unjust punishment.”
On 7 June she sent the following statement to the Procurator of the Frunze district of Moscow:
“I ask you to change the degree of restraint imposed on my husband, Vladimir Semyonovich Slepak, who is in Butyrka Prison, on the grounds of his bad state of health (chronic choleocystitis, varicose veins in the lower limbs, hernia of the diaphragm).”
Frunze district deputy procurator M. I. Chernov replied, refusing her request.
On 8 June Maria Slepak publicized an “Appeal to the Public” which ended with the words: “Save us! Demand the release of Vladimir Slepak! Help us to leave this country!” On 10 June she sent a plea for help to the US President, J. Carter.
18 Jews in Leningrad appealed to the USSR Procurator-General:
“… We express our solidarity with Vladimir Slepak and his wife Maria, who are courageously lighting for their right to emigrate to Israel.
“We urge you to intervene immediately in order to put an end to the criminal actions of the KGB against this family. Freedom to Vladimir Slepak!”
Vladimir Slepak (1927-2015)
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THE TRIAL
On 21 June 1978, the peoples court of Moscow’s Frunze district examined Vladimir Slepak’s case. The chairman of the court was E. M. Kiselev. The prosecutor was Procurator N. V. Kholyavchenko. There was no defence counsel.
None of Slepak’s relatives or acquaintances were allowed into the courtroom. Maria Slepak was in hospital at the time (her case was separated from their ‘joint’ case on 9 June). On the morning of 21 June an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs went to the hospital and Maria was taken round the doctors’ offices all day long so that she would not run off to the trial.
The sentence reads in part:
“The accused, V. S. Slepak, on 1 June 1978, committed malicious hooliganism of a particularly impertinent content, in the following circumstances:
“on 1 June 1978, at approximately 4 pm, V. S. Slepak, together with M. I. Slepak, motivated by hooliganism, hung out on a balcony overlooking a street in the centre of Moscow — Gorky Street — on the balcony of his flat, No. 77, at No. 15 Gorky Street, several sheets with provocative inscriptions, and continued to display these sheets, holding them in his hands, notwithstanding repeated requests by police officers and officials of the Housing Allocation Bureau to cease these activities.
“When police officer V. S. Marinchenko attempted from the adjacent balcony to remove the sheet with the provocative inscription, using a pole, Slepak seized the pole and broke it, accompanying his actions, which were of a prolonged and persistent nature, with threatening gestures and impertinent and provocative shouts, showing open disregard for the public. By his actions Slepak caused a crowd to gather on both sides of the street and in the street itself, as well as causing a temporary interruption of the normal functioning of public transport, serious disruption of order in the street, and disturbance of citizens.
“V. S. Slepak pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him and explained that he had displayed the placards in order to attract as many people as possible, not out of motives of hooliganism, but wishing thus to obtain for himself and his wife specific results concerning the actions of administrative organs.”
The court applied Article 43 (RSFSR Criminal Code) without any explanation and sentenced V. Slepak to 5 years exile.
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On 23 June Maria Slepak sent a telegram from hospital to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, that reads:
“… It goes against human conscience to keep silent when such monstrous tyranny is inflicted on an innocent man.
“Therefore, I again appeal to you publicly, from my hospital ward, to put an end to the undeserved persecution of my family, to show humaneness and permit us to leave the country in order to re-unite our separated family.”
On 19 July, the Moscow City Court rejected the appeals of Vladimir Slepak [1] and the lawyer D.M. Akselbant, leaving his sentence unchanged.
At the end of July Slepak was sent under escort into exile in east Siberia. On 28 August he was released from the escort (thus his term ends in December 1982). His address is: Chita Region, Aginsky district, Tsokto-Khangil village. He is working as a mechanic on a collective farm.
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