On 20 April 1978, 26 days before the completion of his term of exile, Alexander A. BOLONKIN was arrested. In 1976 he had completed four years in the camps under Article 70, pt. 1 (RSFSR Criminal Code; see CCE 30.4).
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BEATINGS
On 6 May 1978, Bolonkin was taken in handcuffs by plane from Bagdarin to Ulan-Ude [1], the capital of Buryatia, where he was placed in Cell 74 of Investigations Prison No. 2/1 (CCE 49.7). During the two weeks Bolonkin was held in Ulan-Ude he was not once interrogated. On 15 May, however, Reshetnikov (a prisoner under investigation) beat him up, indicating to Bolonkin that he was acting on instruction.
On 21 May 1978, Bolonkin was taken back to Bagdarin in the Buryat ASSR.
On 30 May, Bolonkin was again taken to Ulan-Ude and placed in the cell he occupied before. Oleichik, a prisoner in the same cell, told Bolonkin that he was being held in an investigations prison used for special assignments.
On 2 June Oleichik returned to the cell after a long absence and said that he had seen the head of operations who had given him a special task and a bottle of vodka. Oleichik started beating Bolonkin up, because, he said, the head of operations had instructed him to do so.
Oleichik demanded that Bolonkin plead guilty and give the testimony the investigators were trying to extract from him. He threatened he would rape and kill Bolonkin. Telling him the head of operations had guaranteed him full immunity (as everything had been agreed in higher circles), Oleichik attacked Bolonkin with a knife.
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COMPLAINTS
On 3 June 1978, Bolonkin wrote about the above treatment to the USSR Procurator-General.
Up until 11 June at least, it is known that Bolonkin, once more, had no interrogation.
On 23 June 1978, Yury A. SHIKHANOVICH [2] appealed to the USSR Procurator-General, requesting his intervention in Bolonkin’s case. The reason for his request, he explained, was the methods used in the investigation. Shikhanovich’s declaration was forwarded to the Procurator’s office in the Buryat ASSR. A reply was sent on 26 July:
“… there was no infringement of legality in the actions of Investigator B.F. Alexandrov when investigating the criminal case regarding Bolonkin; the information about Bolonkin’s persecution by his cellmates has not been confirmed.”
In a letter of 8 November 1978 sent from camp, Bolonkin wrote:
“Tell Yura Shikhanovich I’m very grateful to him for coming to my defence. My situation improved a little after this …”
In July, the pre-trial investigation was completed.
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TRIAL
On 4 August 1978, the Yeravninsky district people’s court in Bagdarin, presided over by E.B. Zhanchipov, considered the case of Bolonkin.
He was charged under four Articles of the RSFSR Criminal Code:
- 92, pt. 2 (“Theft of State … property … effected through appropriation … or abuse of position at work”);
- 147, pt. 2 (“fraudulence”);
- 156, pt. 1 (“deceiving clients”); and
- 175 (“forgery whilst at work”).
The prosecutor at the trial was Procurator A.F. Baiborodin, the defence lawyer was barrister S.N. Ktoyan: they come, respectively, from Ulan-Ude and Bagdarin.
At the trial, as during the pre-trial investigation, Bolonkin categorically denied any guilt. His copies of the legal codes and the notes he had made from the case materials were confiscated. One charge was changed during the trial and another was dropped.
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SENTENCE
Тhe court sentenced Bolonkin to three years in strict-regime camps and repayment of the 1,340 ‘stolen’ roubles under three Articles of the RSFSR Criminal Code: 92, pt. 2 (“Theft of State … property, through fraudulence”), 147, pt. 2, and 156, pt. 1.
“I demand to leave the socialist paradise for the capitalist hell”
A.A. Bolonkin
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On 15 August 1978, Andrei Sakharov appealed to the participants of the International Mathematics Congress in Helsinki to take up the defence of their colleague Bolonkin. He wrote:
“In exile, Bolonkin worked in a radio repair workshop and, by agreement with clients, occasionally repaired radio equipment outside normal working hours for private payment. This completely legal action has been used as a pretext for charging him with stealing State property. The real reason was the KGB’s desire not to let their victim go – Bolonkin has been trying to obtain permission to leave the USSR.”
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On 10 October 1978, the Supreme Court of the Buryat ASSR, after examining the appeal, left the sentence unchanged. On 12 October, the republican newspaper Pravda Buryatia carried a satirical article about Bolonkin and his ‘case’.
On 31 October 1978, Bolonkin arrived at his camp.
Almost immediately, on 4 November, he had to enter hospital with paraproctitis (an inflammation of the anal passage), where he stayed for three weeks. At the end of November, he was transferred to another camp: 670016, Buryat ASSR, Ulan-Ude, Yuzhny settlement, penal institution OV-94/2-B.
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NOTES
Alexander Bolonkin (1933-2020) was again prosecuted under Article 70 in early 1982. The Supreme Court of the Buryat ASSR sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment and five years’ exile (CCE 64.13).
He emigrated to the USA in 1987.
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- The population of Ulan-Ude in 1978 was 297,600; that of Bagdarin was 3,902 (1979).
↩︎ - On Shikhanovich, see CCE 2.1, CCE 27.2, CCE 30.3, 32.13, CCE 34.7 and Name Index.
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