I.
Article 209, “parasitism”
On 7 August 1975, the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet issued a Decree “On the introduction of amendments to Article 209 of the RSFSR Criminal Code” (Gazette of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, 1975, No. 33, p. 698).
At the same time, the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet adopted a resolution “On the procedures for applying Article 209 of the RSFSR Criminal Code” (CCE 37.15), the second paragraph of which laid down an interval of two months between a first warning and the bringing of criminal charges.
On 30 May 1977, the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet halved this period:
[1]
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
Resolution of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet
On the introduction of amendments to the Resolution of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet “On the procedures for applying Article 209 of the RSFSR Criminal Code’, dated 7 August 1975.
The Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet resolves that:
Amendments are to be made to paragraph 2 of the 7 August 1975 Decision of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet, “On the procedures for applying Article 209 of the RSFSR Criminal Code”. The following text will now be substituted:
“2. Persons leading a parasitic way of life (in the absence in their actions of evidence of vagrancy or begging) are summoned by the organs of internal affairs and officially warned that a parasitic existence cannot be tolerated. These persons are informed that, within a month, they must choose a place of work at their own discretion, and obtain employment, and that necessary assistance in obtaining work can be provided by the executive committee of the local Soviet of Workers Deputies.
“If a person continues to lead a parasitic way of life, one month after such an official warning, the organs of Internal Affairs will decide the question of bringing criminal charges against him in accordance with Article 209 of the RSFSR Criminal Code.”
- M. Yasnov, Chairman of the Presidium, RSFSR Supreme Soviet
- Kh. Neshkov, Secretary to the Presidium, RSFSR Supreme Soviet
*
II. REMOVING BOOKS FROM LIBRARIES, BOOKSHOPS & CLASSROOMS (2-5)
[2]
ORDER
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
From Glavlit] [1] at the USSR Council of Ministers
No. 31 DSP [2], 13 August 1976
The books of Alexander Pavlovich BERDNIK (Oles Berdnyk) [3] are to be removed from both ordinary and special libraries and from the booksellers’ network of the USSR.
*
[3]
ORDER
Concerning the centralized system of libraries in the Yalta area
No. 45, 24 June 1977
In spite of many warnings issued to the employees of the Centralized System of Libraries concerning the necessity of a timely purge from the book-stocks and catalogues of ideologically harmful literature, concerning responsibility for careless work with the lists from the Literary Publishing Department [4] the book The Gospel according to Robespierre by A[natoly] GLADILIN has been discovered in branch library 3 of the Yalta Centralized System of Libraries.
In this connection I order that:
Vanda Viktorovna STEPYAKINA, librarian of branch library 3, should be severely reprimanded for her irresponsible attitude to her work on purging the stocks of ideologically harmful literature.
S.I. Zamlinskaya, Director of the Centralized System of Libraries
*
III. VALERY SENDEROV and SCHOOL NO. 2 (4-5)
[4]
ORDER
No. 20, 25 April 1977
For disseminating literature of a decadent nature reproduced on a duplicator among pupils of Class 9, literature which had a negative influence on the character-development of the adolescents, Comrade V.A. SENDEROV is to be reprimanded and given a strict warning.
Evidence: admission of the fact by Comrade V.A. SENDEROV and voluntary surrender of duplicated texts of Gumilyov.
A.N. Rodionov, Headmaster of School No. 2 [5], Moscow
*
Extract from a decision of the trade union committee, 6 May 1977
“… 2. The school administration is asked to annul Order No. 20, as it contains a number of imprecise formulations, to reprimand Comrade V.A. Senderov for allowing educational errors which had a negative influence on the character-development of adolescents, and to give him a strict warning.”
*
Valery Senderov, 1945-2014
[5]
ORDER
No. 25, 10 May 1977
Comrade V.A. SENDEROV [6] is engaged in disseminating literature reproduced on a duplicator.
Comrade V. A. Senderov gave reproductions of Gumilyov’s anthology The Tent to L. P. Golovanova, the secretary of the Party organization. The Acmeists, like the Symbolists, the decadents and other representatives of decaying feudal-bourgeois ideology, were proponents of decadence, pessimism and other-worldliness.
The reactionary nature of the Acmeists, their hatred of the people, their extreme individualism, their flight from life into the field of ‘pure art’, was even more sharply expressed after the Revolution. Anna Akhmatova, the well-known participant in this movement, propagated pessimism and gloom in her aristocratic salon poetry. N. Gumilyov, the leader of the Acmeists, inspired and took part in a counter-revolutionary plot in Petrograd, which aimed at overthrowing the Soviet government, and for this he paid a harsh penalty [7].
The Resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of 14 August 1946 severely criticized the work of Akhmatova and Gumilyov and condemned it as “harmful to the education of our youth and not to be tolerated in Soviet literature”.
… Comrade V.A. Senderov does not appear at meetings of the pedagogical soviet, does not come to political seminars, and discloses trade union committee matters to pupils of Class 9.
Taking the above into account, I decree that:
- 1. V.A. Senderov shall be severely reprimanded.
- 2. Representations will be made to the district Education Department to relieve Comrade V. A. Senderov of his position as a teacher and to deprive him of the right to go on teaching children and young people.
Reasons: Request of the trade union committee, 6 May 1977.
A.N. Rodionov, Headmaster of School No 2, Moscow
*
Chronicle: The 14 August 1946 decision of the Central Committee did not even mention Gumilyov.
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NOTES
- Glavlit = the Main Administration for the Preservation of State Secrets in the Press (see CCE 14.9 on the origins of Glavlit).
↩︎ - DSP = For internal “official” use only («для служебного пользования»), the equivalent of NOT FOR PUBLICATION.
↩︎ - Oles Berdnyk was one of the founding members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (see CCE 43.6 and Name Index).
↩︎ - “[T]he Literary Publishing Department” — of the USSR Ministry of Culture?
↩︎ - For an earlier account of this once prestigious school, see “The End of Moscow School No. 2” (CCE 27.11), October 1972.
↩︎ - Valery Senderov was also co-author of an investigation into the blocking of Jewish school-leavers from admission to Moscow University’s Mechanics & Mathematics Faculty (//CCE) and helped them appeal against such obstruction (CCE 51.19-2 [19] and Name Index).
↩︎ - See the memorial outside Petersburg to Nikolai Gumilyov (1886-1921) and others executed in the Kovalyovsky Woods. It was created in 2001 (“Russia’s Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag”: https://en.mapofmemory.org/47-01).
↩︎
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