On 23 April 1977, members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (CCE 43.6 [2]) Myroslav MARINOVICH and Mykola MATUSEVICH were arrested, and a search made in their flats.
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The same day searches were carried out at the flat and dacha of Matusevich’s parents (in Vasilkovo and the village of Shevchenkovko) and the home of his sister; at the home of Marinovich’s mother (Drogobych) and the home of his sister (Rovno); at the home of Mikhailina Kotsyubinskaya, granddaughter of the well-known writer; at the home of the writer Antonenko-Davidovich (the search lasted 17 hours); and at the homes of Lyubov Kheina, Yevgeny Obertas, Oleg Lapin and Anna Kovalenko.
All whose homes were searched were summoned for interrogation.
Mykola Matusevich, b. 1946
On 26 April 1977, Matusevich’s wife Olga Geiko and Marinovich’s wife Raisa Sergiichuk were told in reply to their questions that their husbands had been charged with having committed “especially dangerous State crimes” and were being held in an investigation prison of the KGB.
On 14 May 1977, Olga GEIKO joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
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On 29 April 1977, an article by Gornovy appeared in the newspaper Literary Ukraine.
“You don’t Get Money for Nothing” contained crude attacks on Kotsyubinskaya and Antonenko-Davidovich, accusing them of receiving ‘handouts’ from the West. Both wrote refutations. Receiving no reply, they went to the newspaper’s editorial office. Here no one, including the chief editor, was able to show them the letters from ‘indignant readers’ to which the author of the article had referred.
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Boris Dmitrievich ANTONENKO-DAVIDOVICH is 78 years old. He was in camps and prisons from 1934 to 1954. After legal exculpation (rehabilitation) he was allowed to publish one or two pieces.
In 1970, Antonenko-Davidovich was called as a witness in the case of Valentyn MOROZ (CCE 17.2). He refused to give evidence at the trial, after which he was almost expelled from the Writers’ Union (CCE 27.1-2).
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