<<No 51 : 1 December 1978>>

Directive No. 37

New Rules concerning internal order (mentioned in CCE 48.10), were brought into effect on 15 March 1978 by Decree No. 37 of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, issued in December 1977. The Decree carries the stamp of the USSR Procurator-General. Like the former rules, introduced in 1972 by the well-known Decree No. 20 (CCE 33.3), the new rules are not available for examination by prisoners, to whom only excerpts are read out. Copies of the rules are individually numbered and are entrusted to individual holders.

*

Most of the changes make the prisoners’ situation worse.

Punishment in the cooler, as before, is limited to 15 days. But now, if a prisoner already in the cooler is given another term of punishment in it, the punishment may be extended to include the second punishment without any break between the two periods. (Prisoners were formerly given at least one day back in the camp or in an ordinary cell). No overall time-limit is imposed on stays in the cooler.

A prisoner in a punishment cell can be further punished by a period in the cooler. Time spent in the cooler is not deducted from the time in the punishment cell.

If the day for a prisoner to receive a visit or a parcel occurs when a prisoner is in a punishment cell, then this day is not reallocated immediately at the end of the punishment period, as it was previously, but only after the same period has elapsed as had been spent in the punishment cell prior to original visiting day.

*

Complaints and statements by groups of people, or intercessions on behalf of another person, were forbidden before. An extra refinement has now been added: it is forbidden to hand in statements about matters concerning other people’s circumstances.

Prisoners of pensionable age are again obliged to work, their capacity for work being determined by medical offilcers of the camp complex.

Letters written by or to prisoners which are confiscated by the administration, are destroyed. (Formerly they were supposed to be returned upon the prisoner’s release).

A prisoner now has the right to keep no more than five books or magazines (formerly there was no limit on magazines).

The receipt of any printed publications from relatives or others is forbidden. This may have been forbidden by the old rules, but, for example, Kovalyov was at least shown a copy of an Amnesty International bulletin and a copy of the proceedings of a biophysics symposium (CCE 48.10).

Prisoners are forbidden to send books from a camp. At the same time a limit is imposed on the overall weight of a prisoner’s belongings placed in storage. This means that there is little chance of the prisoner receiving new books or additional warm clothing.

The playing of one’s own musical instruments is forbidden.

*

There are, however, several ‘indulgences’: in addition to kippers, which were allowed before, parcels can now be sent to prisoners containing “smoked fish not requiring further cooking”; and, with the exception of “onions and garlic”, vegetables and fruit may be received. Formerly only tins containing vegetables and fish were allowed in parcels: now meat is also allowed. Prisoners in punishment cells are allowed to keep a pen. In special-regime camps prisoners are now permitted to receive tea. (At the same time, however, a limit on tea has been imposed in all camps – a maximum of 50 grams per month).

The new rules require the camp administration to inform relatives of any change in a prisoner’s address, or of the regime under which he is being held, within ten days of the change occurring.

Concerning certain other innovations, it is not known whether they are being implemented on local initiative or are also prescribed in Decree No. 37. Amongst them are the following. Since spring 1978, in Vladimir Prison, the issuing to prisoners of gloves, fur-lined boots, scarves, thick towels and stretch socks from parcels sent to them and placed in store, has been forbidden. At Vladimir Prison the clothing of new arrivals now has their surname etched on it by chemical means (formerly labels were worn).

*

Vladimir Prison

On 3 July the literary scholar Gabriel Superfin (on his case, see CCE 32.3) completed his 5-year term of imprisonment. Before his dispatch from Vladimir, several documents, photographs and personal notes were confiscated from him. Not everything, however, was included in the confiscation record. Superfin was transported from Vladimir Prison to his place of exile, the settlement of Turgai in Kazakhstan (Turgai Region, Dzhangildinsky district). He is working at a night job. His term of exile is 2 years.

On completing prison sentences received in camps, the following have been returned to camps: in May, V. Balakhonov (Camp 36); in June or July, A. Khnokh (Camp 19); on 27 June, G. Prikhodko (Camp 36); on 1 August, A. Turik (Camp 19); in August, D. Airapetov (Camp 35); in September (?), Z. Antonyuk (Camp 35); on 30 October, Z. Popadyuk (Camp 19).

On 5 July V. Konstantinovsky (CCE 40.9) completed the prison term received in his original sentence and was transferred to Camp 37.

V. Anisimov, who appeared as a witness at the trial of Yury Orlov (CCE 50.1), in September was still in Vladimir (in the same cell as Shcharansky, CCE 50.4). Later, halfway through his prison sentence, he was transferred to a camp for common criminals in the Urals (either his sentence under Article 70 had ended, or it had been reduced).

On 19 July, A. Shcharansky arrived at Vladimir (in CCE 50.4 there is an inaccuracy; see also “Items Related to the Summer Trials” in the “Miscellaneous Reports”, see CCE 51.19). At the beginning of August, he received a two-hour visit from relatives. In September he was moved to Chistopol Prison.

On 23 May, Yu. Shukhevich was taken to Kiev. Before this he was ‘processed’ by local KGB officials. Shukhevich has a heart condition and an ulcer.

In the spring, Andrei Turik, sentenced to 25 years for involvement in the UPA [Ukrainian Insurrectionary Army], was taken to the Ukraine to visit his mother: she is unable to visit him in prison owing to ill health. The meeting took place under the supervision of KGB officers. It was terminated after half an hour, when Turik began to talk about the conditions in which prisoners are kept. For approximately two weeks Turik was subjected to “prophylactic chats” and, in particular, meetings were arranged with former fellow-prisoners.

*

In December 1977 the windows of many cells were fitted with thick iron shields – ’muzzles’ (screens) – on top of the blinds and the grilles.

The cells are fitted with light bulbs of 60 watts maximum, but the punishment cells have blue lamps of between 15 and 25 watts.

In summer 1978 J. Mendelevich received a reply to a complaint of his from Karabikhina, acting chief of the Medical Department of the Vladimir Regional UVD: lighting of this strength conforms to the lighting norms for dwelling-places.

*

In May Zoryan Popadyuk was due to receive a visit. He was deprived of the visit. As Captain Doinikov told his mother, it could have been used “for hostile purposes”.

On 10 June Popadyuk was punished with 15 days in a punishment cell for making a statement “of a slanderous nature” (he tried to obtain on official statement about the banning of the visit). On 25 June the period in the punishment cell was extended by a further 15 days because Popadyuk did not lift his bunk on the order of a warder. For the same reason he received another 15 days on 10 July. After this he refused to use the bunk at all. He slept in a sitting position.

Roman Gaiduk was placed in a punishment cell from 13 to 21 June for refusing to move from one cell to another.

LOCAL ELECTIONS

In 1977 an attempt was made by a number of political prisoners in Vladimir Prison to exercise their right to vote. Vitold Abankin, Vladimir Balakhonov, Roman Gaiduk, Georgy Davydov and Alexei Safronov all took part in the experiment.

Elections to the local soviets had been set for 19 June 1977.

On 6 April Balakhonov, who at that time was in a punishment cell, presented the prison administration with a request to be given the chance to take part in the election campaign. On 15 April he was summoned by the prison’s Deputy Head in charge of political matters, Kasyanov, who stated that in conformity with the “Statute on Elections” prisoners are deprived of voting rights.

After Balakhonov and Safronov had handed in statements containing requests to be included in the electoral register as “temporary residents of the territory of the given soviet”, addressed to the chairman of the local soviet executive committee, they were again summoned by Kasyanov and told that their statements would not be sent, but would be attached to their personal files. To justify this, he referred to a resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of 1 December 1945, classified as “not for publication in the press”, in which it is stated that persons awaiting trial, serving a sentence of punishment, or under investigation are to be entered on the electoral register only if they are not in a place of imprisonment or under guard, or if by court order they are not to be deprived of voting rights. (This last stipulation was deleted from the resolution by a special decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet in 1962).

In May a political affairs inspector from the Corrective Labour Institutions Administration of the Vladimir regional Soviet Executive Committee’s UVD, Captain N. N. Gulyaev, spoke with Balakhonov about his complaint concerning the withholding of his statement. He explained to Balakhonov that the rules concerning internal order make no provision for the organization of polling stations in places of imprisonment, and because of this prisoners are deprived of the right to participate in elections. He confirmed that their statements requesting inclusion in the electoral register would not be sent.

Basing their complaint “about the incorrectness of the electoral register” on Article 22 of the “Statute on Elections”, All five participants in the experiment then handed in statements addressed to the city soviet. These statements were also not sent, although no actual confiscation took place. (The administration can either send a prisoner’s statements or confiscate it – there is no provision for any other procedure).

Several days later they referred their statements on the incorrectness of the register to a court, citing Article 233 of the Russian Civil Procedural Code. Kasyanov did not allow these statements to be sent either. On 10 June the participants in the experiment submitted statements to the court concerning the institution of criminal proceedings against Kasyanov under Article 132 of the Russian Criminal Code (“obstruction of the exercising of electoral rights”). On 1 July (i.e., after the elections had taken place) Davydov received a reply to his statement from the Regional Procuracy: “Examined and not granted.”

On 26 June Davydov submitted for dispatch to the court a statement about the prosecution of Kasyanov under Article 171 (“exceeding authority or official powers”) for having of his own will prohibited the sending of a number of statements to their addressees, by which he had broken the law. This statement was also simply withheld.

*

Chistopol Prison

Address: 422950, Tatar ASSR, Chistopol, [penal] institution U E-148, building 4. This prison has evidently replaced Vladimir as a place of detention for political prisoners [note 1].

It is known that the following have been transferred here from Vladimir:

• A. Shcharansky (CCE 50.4);
• R. Gaiduk — prison sentence ends on 16 December 1978; his camp sentence (of 5 years) will end in February 1979, to be followed by 2 years’ exile;
• G. Sheludko — 15 years under Article 64 of the Russian Criminal Code for hijacking an aeroplane en route from Petrozavodsk to Leningrad in July 1977. (A. Zagirnyak, who was tried with him, is in Camp 19; he was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment.)
• It is possible that all the other political prisoners have also been transferred here.

In November 1978, V. Balakhonov and M. Kazachkov were brought here from Camp 36. The court which transferred them to a prison regime met on 26 September, but they were kept for a month after this in punishment cells.

V. Petkus (see CCE 50.5 on his trial) was transferred here to serve the prison term of his sentence.

The Chronicle first mentioned Chistopol Prison in connection with the transfer here of S. Grigoryants from an ‘ordinary’ camp (CCE 48.10).

*

The Mordovian Camps

Camp 1 (special regime)

About one year ago the camp authorities were replaced.

The Commandant of the special zone (officially, the 6th section of Corrective Labour Colony 1, with the address institution ZhKh-385/1-6) is now Nekrasov, and his deputy, Sergushin. The commandant of the entire ZhKa 385/1 camp complex is Satayev. The camp doctor is Yemelyanova; she was a witness at the trials of Ginzburg and Orlov, CCE 50.

*

This year the installation of air-extraction equipment, which prisoners have been trying to obtain since 1972, has begun in the work area of the camp (a workshop where chandelier stems are polished). Until now the workshop has been fitted with ventilators only, which simply blow the dust about. Workers are seldom issued with breathing masks or boots, as laid down in the regulations; the sand needed for the polishing process, and water to help keep down the dust, are often unavailable. Those who refuse to work for these reasons are punished.

In summer the workshop is plagued by a large number of mosquitoes. Sometimes the prisoners are forced to burn paper in order to drive them away with the smoke. (This too is punished by the administration.)

In the living quarters it is very damp.

In the camp shop this year, spoiled tins of food were placed on sale. There were several cases of food-poisoning. In the summer there was no sugar in the shop.

*

Sergei Korekhov, sentenced in 1977 (for a second time, CCE 47; the regime indicated there was incorrect), arrived at the camp in summer 1978, although his interrogation in connection with the Ginzburg case in Kaluga ended last winter: he refused to give information (CCE 48.2).

Genrikas Jaskunas has arrived at the camp. (For his trial see CCE 48.15; see also “Additions and Corrections”, CCE 51.23.)

*

In February 1978, Svyatoslav Karavansky received a ‘private’ visit from his wife N. Strokatova, the second visit in 12 years. The meeting lasted 2 days.

In March 1978 he was deprived of a short meeting which had been allocated for August. From March to June, he staged hunger-strikes for approximately ten days each month. In July and August Karavansky was on hunger-strike for, in all, not less than 30 days. He was kept in solitary confinement. From March to November not a single letter was received from him.

*

Bogdan Rebrik was again (CCE 48.10) taken to Ivano-Frankovsk for “prophylactic chats”. He spent the months of June and July there.

He was granted two three-hour visits. Relatives were allowed to bring him medicines. During one of the* visits Rebrik told them, in the presence of KGB officers, that every measure was being taken to persuade him to confess his guilt, to state this in the press and on television, and also to inform the authorities of the channels through which information leaked out of the camp. He had categorically refused.

On 11 August Rebrik was dispatched under escort. As last year (CCE 48), during the journey he was beaten up by warders. During the beating his spectacles were smashed (Rebrik has +9 vision) and his medicines were destroyed.

Immediately upon arrival at the camp Rebrik was placed in hospital, complaining of difficulty in breathing and chest-pains. Rubrik thought that some ribs had been broken.

*

Yu. [P.] Fyodorov has been deprived of a long visit, which was due to take place in November. According to a telegram from the camp commandant, this was due to “infringements of the regime”, but according to reports from the camp it was due to a letter which he sent to the Central Committee, which was ruled to be slanderous.

Alexei Tikhy began a hunger-strike in April which lasted approximately 50 days (CCE 49).

D. Shumuk was certified an invalid of the 2nd group (see an appeal in his defence in “Letters and Statements of Political Prisoners”).

*

On 23 August 1978, Alexei Murzhenko was due to receive a long visit from his wife, mother and daughter. Permission for the visit to start was obtained only the next day. They were granted 24 hours. The Deputy Camp Commandant, Sergushin, who signed the document permitting the meeting, refused to explain to Lyubov Murzhenko why the visit was only for 24 hours, and referred her to the camp Commandant, Nekrasov. She was then told that Nekrasov had supposedly gone away somewhere. It later transpired that he had been in the camp all the time.

Alexei Murzhenko was informed of the visit only a few minutes before it began. The building where the meeting took place was unheated. Murzhenko returned to the camp with a temperature. His daughter was also taken ill.

Alexei Murzhenko, 1942-1999

Both before and after the visit Murzhenko’s family were thoroughly searched. During the search after the visit, they tried to strip his daughter naked. L. Murzhenko began to protest, whereupon she was advised by the woman supervisor not to bring the child to see her father, as “she is already a big girl and understands everything”.

On 4 September 1978, Lyubov Murzhenko sent a detailed complaint to Brezhnev and Rudenko. In particular she wrote:

“In accordance with the established regulations – as I was informed by the Deputy Chief of the reception room of the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions, Kazantsev – the dates of visits and their duration should be drawn up every month in lists from which each prisoner can find out in advance about a visit and its duration and inform his relatives. We, however, only discovered the date of the visit after sending a telegram to the camp authorities …”

A. Murzhenko complains of persistent sharp pains in his stomach and intestines. There is also something wrong with his lungs. He is not being given any medicine from the camp medical unit. Medicines sent by his wife are not given to him.

*

At the end of June Irena Dumbryte received permission to marry Balys Gajauskas (see CCE 49.5 for his trial), which she had not been given while Gajauskas was in a Vilnius prison. The camp administration set the date for registration of the marriage as 27 July.

Dumbryte arrived at Sosnovka with her sister Laima Sulskiene and a priest, Juozas Zdebskis (for information about him see “Events in Lithuania”, CCE 51.//). She had intended to invite them to the registration as witnesses; she had also hoped that she and Balys would be allowed to marry in church. Irena’s companions, however, were not admitted to the camp guardhouse, where the wedding took place.

The formalities were all completed in 10 to 15 minutes, after which B. Gajauskas was returned to the camp.

The camp administration refused the newly-weds a long visit, referring to the fact that Gajauskas had already received a long visit from his mother at the beginning of July. The head of the Administration for the Mordovian Camps, Novikov, to whom Irena Gajauskiene appealed, confirmed the refusal. They were, however, granted a two-hour visit. They were forbidden from talking in Lithuanian. They were not allowed to touch one another.

*

A Press Statement

“On 1 September 1978, after ten days in transit, my husband Alexander Ginzburg arrived at the special-regime camp in the village of Sosnovka in Mordovia.

“Immediately after arrival Ginzburg was cynically informed by a local KGB officer, Captain Tyurin, that he was going to blackmail him by alleging that he had given evidence against Shcharansky, in return for which he had received a lighter sentence than the others. And indeed, the day before Ginzburg’s arrival in the camp Tyurin had made this filthy, slanderous statement to the prisoners in the special-regime camp, and it was repeated by the Deputy Head of the KGB in Dubrovlag (the Mordovian Camps), Captain Tryasoumov, to prisoners in another political camp – Camp 19 in the village of Lesnoye.

“On 22 September my husband’s mother and i went to visit him. By law prisoners are allowed a long visit of up to three days. However, in spite of the fact that Ginzburg had not committed any offences or incurred any penalties, we were only granted a 24-hour visit. The camp commandant explained that this was because “they still did not know Ginzburg very well”. During the visit I learnt that he was only being allowed to receive letters from myself and our five-year-old son, and that he was not allowed to possess a Bible. The cell in which my husband and the other prisoners were being kept was so damp that water was dripping down the walls and the plaster was falling off. Mice run around the cells.

“Prisoners in the camp are required to work eight hours a day, including Saturdays. They do one of the most arduous and dangerous jobs: they polish glass plates for chandeliers (the norm is 30 per day). They nearly always have to work without breathing masks (which protect their lungs from glass dust), and the dust hangs in the air in the workrooms in a thick cloud. Their hands are constantly being cut, are constantly either in sand or ice-cold water, and they still have to lift weights of up to 100 kilograms.

“The prisoners’ food is totally lacking in vitamins.

“Recently in all the camps a new decree was read out, stating that a prisoner’s personal belongings, including books, are now to amount to no more than 50 kilograms in weight, even when in storage.

“Because of this the prisoners will be deprived (long-term prisoners already are) of the right to keep their own books and magazines in the camp.

“We were searched both before and after the visit, all our tinned food was opened, our loaf of bread was cut open, and our clothing was checked. My husband was unable to give me a single line of writing to give to any of our friends or relatives. But I now repeat his words to the free world:

‘Nineteen months have passed since the day I was seized near my home by KGB officers, who twisted my arms, threw me into their car and took me to prison. In all these months KGB investigators (particularly Senior Lieutenant Saushkin) have threatened me with charges under the Article “Treason against the Motherland” and with the death penalty. They have spread dirty and false rumours about me, intimidated witnesses, and tried to blackmail me. This still continues today. However, I want everybody to know that my friends and I have done nothing illegal or criminal. All we have said – and I am still convinced of this – is in complete accordance with reality.

“I ask still to be considered a member of the Helsinki Group and I will endeavour to do all in my power to contribute to its work. I am now deprived of any practical opportunity to help the distributors of the Solzhenitsyn Fund, but I am full of admiration for their difficult and self-sacrificing work, which enjoys the complete sympathy and understanding of the special- regime camp prisoners. I wish to give warm greetings to all my friends, to all I know, and those I do not know, who have supported my family and myself during these months which have been very difficult for us.”

Alexander Ginzburg, 22 September 1978

Written from memory, Irina Zholkovskaya (23 September 1978)

*

“On 12 December 1977, my husband Levko Grigorevich LUKYANENKO was arrested for being a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. During the investigation, which lasted until 17 July 1978, I had no news of his whereabouts or what was happening to him. Immediately after his trial he was taken from Chernigov to Kiev, where I was allowed to visit him on 31 July, in the presence of two KGB officers who did not give us a chance to talk about anything. None of his other relatives was allowed to visit him. It is true that his younger brother Alexander received permission to visit him, but he was not given leave of absence from work. After the Supreme Court appeal hearing on 12 September, I was refused permission to visit my husband. On 29 September he barely managed to obtain a visit with his mother, Natalya Alexandrovna, who had to make the difficult 200-kilometre journey to Kiev. They were given only 30 minutes.

“On 4 October 1978, my husband was dispatched from Kiev, and on 20 October he arrived in the Sosnovka Camp (Mordovian ASSR), where he wrote his first letter to me, which I received on 3 November. He asked me to visit him and to bring him some warm clothes. I managed with great difficulty to obtain leave of absence for the trip – only after the KGB had given their permission for it.

On 20 November, I arrived in Sosnovka. It is impossible to describe the spiritual torment and suffering I experienced at the sight of the Sosnovka Camps. I had seen them several times before, when he was serving his first sentence there (15 years, from 1961 to 1976), but somehow everything was different then. I was not allowed a visit until the second day, and then for only 24 hours, although they were supposed to give me 72 hours, I had to apply to the Camp Head, Satayev, himself, and to Nekrasov. I was particularly shocked and upset by the search of all my clothes and food. I was stripped naked. This is horrible and disgusting. However badly I wanted to see my husband, had I known about this search beforehand, I probably would have declined the visit, to avoid going through such a humiliating experience.

“I had another horrible shock when I saw my husband – in his special striped uniform, so thin, his magnificent moustache gone, and his head shaved. It was difficult to recognize him; I recognized him only by his voice.

“It is horrible that a man should have to suffer and be tortured like this, a man who has done no harm to anyone, but only thinks slightly differently from what is dictated to him. I would like to cry out to the whole world to help my husband get out of this hellish camp as soon as possible, and to save him from the tortures he is suffering there.

“His job is polishing crystal. This is strenuous and harmful work, and my husband is a very sick man: he has a chronic stomach illness with zero acidity. My husband told me that during the investigation he went on hunger-strike for almost a month in protest against his illegal arrest. He was force-fed and taken to Chernigov Psychiatric Hospital to be examined, in an attempt to have him pronounced insane.

“In spite of everything he has endured, Levko Lukyanenko has asked me to tell everyone that he still considers himself a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and will, as far as he is able, inform the public of violations of human rights.”

Nadiya Lukyanenko (24 November 1978)

*

Camp 19

This camp now contains about 160 prisoners (it was intended for 700).

On one occasion, apples appeared in the camp shop.

In order to obtain a consultation in the camp medical unit (the head is Lyudmila Fyodorovna Rotkina), a sick prisoner must have the permission of his section head, who writes down applicants* names in a special register. Consultations and prescriptions arc often given by nurses. Everything is done to avoid sending seriously ill patients to the hospital, although it is not far away (ZhKh 385/3-3); they are treated in the camp medical unit.

The number of prisoners eligible to receive a special diet is limited. ‘Diets’ arc allotted by the administration. The doctor can only petition the administration to prescribe a special diet.

*

This year alone several people have died in the camp.

In August or September, the prisoner Jogavnis died of a heart attack. He had been dragged along the ground to be put into a “Black Maria”, then driven to hospital.

On the same day the prisoner Borzik also died of a heart attack. N. Rudenko found him on the lavatory floor and carried him on his back to the medical unit.

The prisoner Kolbasin, who suffered from high blood pressure, was successfully taken to the hospital; but once there he died.

The prisoner Jarosevicius, who suffered from tuberculosis, had a temperature of 39°-40° for three weeks. He too only just made it to the hospital before he died.

About 80% of the prisoners in the camp are disabled.

*

In the summer A. Knokh and A. Turik arrived in the camp from Vladimir [Prison]; Z. Popadyuk arrived in November.

Pyotr Sartakov, sentenced in February 1978 to six months in the punishment cells (CCE 48), was taken away somewhere. He returned in May, not to the cells, but to the camp zone. In April Sartakov’s sister wrote to the Central Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions and to the medical office of the MVD, stating that he was not receiving treatment and was being punished for refusing to do work too strenuous for his bad health (CCE 49 only reported her appeal to the camp administration).

*

Leonid Yakovlevich LUBMAN (b. 1936) is in the camp. He was sentenced under Article 64 of the RSFSR Criminal Code to 13 years deprivation of freedom in a strict-regime camp. (He was arrested in December 1977).

Lubman is a native of Leningrad and an electrical engineer; he worked in the administration of a research institute which was also a major experimental radio works and was a party member. His parents live in Leningrad.

Lubman was charged with producing and sending abroad a manuscript slandering lending officials of the Leningrad Region and advising hostile radio-stations on how to carry out subversive propaganda; Lubman also allegedly expressed a desire to contact CIA representatives. The above-mentioned manuscript was confiscated when an Italian, Nicolo Coletti (alleged to be an NTS agent), was searched by customs at the Soviet-Finnish border.

The manuscript with which Lubman was charged contained biographical material on G. V. Romanov, First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee, including information about his “unseemly behaviour” (going as far as bribery and extortion).

The manuscript did in fact contain advice to radio-stations: they were asked to concern themselves with the accuracy and truthfulness of their reports; to make wider use of criticism from the Soviet press, supplementing this with other information on the same subject; and to provide more frequent information comparing the living and working conditions of people with similar professions and qualifications in the Soviet Union and in the West.

Lubman says he does not know N. Coletti.

*

From 4 to 20 July 1978 Nikolai Rudenko held a hunger-strike, protesting against the fact that he was not allowed to send poems in his letters to his wife (CCEs 48 and 49 reported the confiscation of Rudenko’s poems).

At the end of July Raisa Rudenko petitioned the camp commandant to allow her a long visit with her husband in August instead of the one due in December, in view of his worsened state of health after his hunger-strike. She sent a telegram to the same effect to Brezhnev.

On 14 November N. Rudenko was granted a short visit with his wife and sister, lasting two hours. They were forbidden to speak Ukrainian. The reason given by the officer supervising the visit, himself a Ukrainian, was that the woman guard also present in the room did not understand Ukrainian.

The ban on sending poems in letters continued as before, Nikolai Rudenko was advised to send them first to the KGB in Kiev to be censored: if they passed them, then he could send them to his wife.

*

From 14 lo 21 September a hunger-strike was held in the camp. Lubman, Osipov, Rudenko, Soldatov, Ushakov and Yurkiv took part in it. The hunger-strikers were protesting in particular against the bad food, poor medical care and compulsory political classes. The hunger-strike was supported by many prisoners in the neighbouring camp for common criminals.

After the hunger-strike four men were sent to the punishment cells “for refusing to work”.

There was a slight improvement in the food: they started putting fresh vegetables in the soup (previously only dried vegetables had been used).

On 1 October 1978, Lubman, Osipov, Rudenko, Soldatov and Turik went on a silent strike (they refused to communicate with the administration). The reason was that Soldatov had been deprived of a visit from his wife, of parcels and access to the camp shop.

*

In November Lapienis, Lubman, Popadyuk, Turik, Shakirov and Yurkiv were taken to the KGB in Saransk.

Earlier, Babur Shakirov had been offered release “after serving three-quarters of his sentence” (his 12-year term ends in 1982), Shakirov accepted the condition for his release: “to behave quietly for a year”. He was promised a transfer to Tashkent and release there – before the end of 1978.

Since 6 October, Vladimir Osipov has been in hospital again (CCE 49). His temperature is above normal all the time, but he is no longer diagnosed as tubercular.

A commission from Moscow came to the hospital after a complaint by Osipov’s wife V. Mashkova. Afterwards there was a slight improvement in the patients’ food and treatment.

G. Ushakov was removed from the camp after many prisoners stopped trusting him, believing him to be collaborating with the administration.

*

Camp 3

On 15 November Irina Senik, having served 6 years in camp, was dispatched for a 3-year term of exile.

On 4 July 1978 the men’s political zone (ZhKh-385/3-5) was dissolved.

Twenty-three men were transferred to Perm Camp 37; the prisoners Biryukov. Lapienis, Paulaitis and Sartakov were transferred to Mordovian Camp 19.

PARUIR AIRIKYAN

In February 1978, Paruir Airikyan agreed to the proposal of Lieutenant-Colonel Romanov, KGB Chief of Institution ZhKh-385 (the Mordovian Camps), that he begin negotiating for his release.

The prior condition was that Airikyan confirm what he had written to a friend in a letter which passed the camp censor; that is, that he did not intend to engage in underground activities after his release. Around the same time (possibly in the same letter), Airikyan had stated that he no longer considered himself the secretary of the National United Party [NUP], as he could see no real possibility of fulfilling this office after his release. (Airikyan had announced openly in February 1977 that he was the secretary; see CCE 45).

On 2 April Airikyan was taken to Saransk. There he spoke with Romanov and KGB officers Bulat Bazerbayevich Karatayev (see CCEs 45 and 47; he introduced himself to Airikyan as ‘Boris Borisovich’) from Moscow and Genrikh Akopyan from Armenia. As a result of the ‘negotiations’ Airikyan wrote a letter to Andropov about his decision “not to take the path of anti-Soviet activities” if he was released upon re-examination of his case. (Such a position does not conflict with the aims of the National United Party, as Airikyan later explained.) Airikyan’s interlocutors were satisfied and hinted that he would be released within the next few months.

At the end of May Airikyan was taken under special escort to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, where he spoke with the same Karatayev and with investigators Colonel Kuzmichev and Captain Semenyuk. This meeting was in a different style altogether. This time, as proof of his loyalty, collaboration was expected. Airikyan was told that his letter to Andropov had been passed on to the investigators of the case of Zatikyan and others. A few days later Semenyuk began interrogating Airikyan about this case (see “Arrests, Searches, Interrogations”, CCE 51.8).

At the third or fourth interrogation Airikyan refused to have any further chats. He wrote a statement addressed to Colonel Povarenkov, Head of the Investigations Prison of the KGB (at the USSR Council of Ministers), demanding to be sent back to camp immediately. On the same day, 13 June, Airikyan discovered while taking his exercise that Shagen Arutyunyan was in one of the exercise yards (he had started whistling a song of his own composition which was familiar to members of the National United Party, and Arutyunyan had whistled the same tune in reply). They started shouting to each other. They were both immediately taken away from their exercise. Arutyunyan was beaten in the process. That evening they were both put in punishment cells for 10 days for “attempting to establish contact”.

(The punishment cell is in the basement. It is damp and cold. The plaster is falling off the walls. The cell is 1.8 metres by 1.9 metres. The window is boarded up from inside. The ceiling slopes down in an arch to the ‘window’. There are two holes above the door: one holds a dim electric bulb; the other is apparently for ventilation. The floor is concrete. In the middle stands a one-legged round stool without a back. It is difficult to sit on. The bunk is let down at 10 pm for eight hours. The food consists of a hot meal one day and nothing but black bread and tea on the next, alternately.)

When he was put in the punishment cell Airikyan was told to take off his warm underclothes, “It’s summer”. He refused. They did not force him to remove them. That night Airikyan was awakened by the cold, and asked for a pea-jacket, a thermometer, a doctor, and the duty officer. Captain Yegorov came and sympathized with him but said that there was nothing he could do in the absence of his superiors. The next day Airikyan had a chill and again asked for a doctor. It was not until late that evening that a nurse arrived and told him that medical assistance was not provided in the punishment cells but gave him a tablet as an exception. The next day another nurse did not do even that much. On 16 June Airikyan declared a hunger-strike. He wrote some statements. Then he was not allowed to have a pen. (Since the summer of 1976, after he came out of the cooler – CCE 46 – Airikyan’s temperature has been above normal, sometimes reaching 39°. He suffers from weakness, swollen lymph glands and local oedemas.)

On 17 June 1978, Airikyan was taken to see Kuzmichev, who told him that the Investigation Department could not petition for a re-examination of his case, as Airikyan “had not reformed, and had not helped the investigators to solve a dangerous crime”; he added, however: “Don’t think we’ve finished talking to you”.

On 18 June Airikyan was dispatched to Perm Camp 37.

In May, even before the interrogations in Lefortovo, KGB officer Akopyan, who had returned to Yerevan from Saransk, told Airikyan’s relatives that Airikyan was ‘reforming’, but that it was too early to release him, and he would not be released that year.

*

The Perm Camps

Camp 35

This camp contains about 80 prisoners. The first floor of the barracks has recently been vacated. According to rumours, new prisoners are expected.

In 1978 the isolation of the hospital zone from the barracks zone was made more complete.

After the head of the hospital, Sheliya, returned from Orlov’s trial (CCE 50.1), he was more attentive towards the patients — formerly he used to pronounce almost all of them malingerers; medicines not available before appeared in the hospital.

On one occasion tomatoes appeared in the camp shop.

Issues 48 and 49 of the CCE contained very little news of Camp 35. The following ‘Diary’ for January to March 1978 will fill the gap.

Diary of Camp 35

Here, as in CCEs 38, 39, 42, 47 and 48 (see also CCE 41), we publish under the title “Diary of Camp 35” (or 36, or 37) a “Chronicle of the Gulag Archipelago” from the camps.

Documentation of these events began in 1974 in Camp 35 (CCEs 33 and 36).

JANUARY

03 – Ya. Mikitko came out of the cooler ill, with a temperature of 40°. He was put in hospital and is being treated with penicillin and streptocide. I. Kandyba’s letter to V. Pidgorodetsky was confiscated.

06 – A letter to M. Dymshits from J. Mendelson in Israel was confiscated.

10 – A letter to A. Altman from L. Yagman in Israel was confiscated. Altman and Dymshits wrote to the highest authorities protesting against the continuing confiscation of letters.

16 – A letter to E. Sverstyuk from V. Stus was confiscated.

19 — KGB agent Shchukin asked F. Kurtinowski where he would go after his release. Kurtinowski, as a Polish citizen, asks to be repatriated to Poland (see “Releases”, CCE 51.9 pt 2).

20 – Altman, Butchenko, Kiirend, Sverstyuk and Shovkovoi were summoned by the Educational Commission, which includes Deputy Camp Head for political matters Khorkov. Chernyak, who works in the administration of camp complex VS-389, and who is responsible for professional and technical instruction, is also a member; she is the wife of a KGB officer in Camp 36. The prisoners were orally “worked over” for failing to fulfil the production norm.

P. Serednyak was taken to hospital in a serious condition; he suffers from a chronic liver and kidney disease.

21 – Butchenko and Shovkovoi were punished by deprivation of access to the camp shop, for absence from their place of work. On the same day Shovkovoi was punished with deprivation of a visit, for refusing to talk with Shukshin, head of section 2.

24 – Razmik Markosyan was brought to the camp after a “working-over” in Yerevan (CCE 47). He did not accept the KGB’s proposals that he renounce his activities and membership of the Armenian National United Party. Before going to Yerevan, he was in Mordovian Camp 19.

25 – Pronyuk had an accident at work, injuring the fingers of his left hand.

26 – Sverstyuk was reprimanded for absence from his place of work.

27 – The following letters were confiscated: from Mendelson in Israel to Altman and Dymshits; to D. Verkholyak from I. Kandyba; to P. Plumpa from the priest A. Svarinskas (for more information about him see “Events in Lithuania”, CCE51.14).

28 – B. Janis and R. Tucas were sent away to a “chemical workshop” [note 2] (conditional early release with compulsory labour). Tucas had 20 months left until the end of his 25-year term. This is the first implementation in this camp of the 8 February 1976 Decree on conditional early release of prisoners convicted of especially dangerous crimes against the State.

31 – G. Butman was sent off to Vladimir Prison (see “Letters and Statements of Political Prisoners”, CCE 51.9 pt 2).

FEBRUARY

13 – On X-ray examination D. Kvetsko was found to have a lung disease.

16 – Lithuanian political prisoners observed their national holiday, Independence Day. Other political prisoners celebrated with them.

24 – Estonian political prisoners, along with the rest, observed Estonia’s Independence Day.

25 – Shovkovoi was taken out of the camp two weeks before he was due for release.

27 – Markosyan and Pronyuk were subjected to a body search.

28 – Markosyan was deprived of access to the camp shop for the month of March, for absence from his place of work.

MARCH

01 – Captain Osin, Director of the camp factory, was appointed acting Director of the camp.

Markosyan was deprived of a visit for smoking in an unauthorized place. Sverstyuk was reprimanded for absence from his place of work.

Although there was no work in the sewing section that day for lack of fabric, officer Nikolayev kept five prisoners at the factory all day, refusing to send them back to the barracks zone.

03 – D. Kvetsko was deprived of access to the camp shop for a month because of “disrespect to a warder”.

07 – R. Markosyan sent a statement to the CPSU Central Committee, protesting that non-Russian prisoners who wrote letters in their native language were the subject of ethnic discrimination. The same day, on the order of duty officer Chaika, Markosyan was taken out of the factory to be searched.

09 – Markosyan sent a statement to the Perm Region Party committee requesting the removal of duty officer Chaika.

11 – Ye. Sverstyuk was deprived of access to the camp shop for a month.

Igor Ogurtsov, a sick man, was taken out to work in the stoke-hold. (The doctor Chepkasova had at first given him sick leave, but then withdrew it on the orders of the administration.)

13-14 – Camp KGB officers questioned I. Grabans about members of a Committee for the Liberation of the Baltic States (they probably had in mind the “Committee of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian National Movements”; see CCEs 47, 49 and 50).

15 – Malozhinsky had a severe haemorrhage in his eye (he suffers from high blood pressure).

18 – The Camp Educational Committee threatened Markosyan with solitary confinement for failing to fulfil the production norm.

20 – Yu. Butchenko was deprived of access to the camp shop for a month.

21 – Ye. Pronyuk was detained in a passage on his way back from work. He was taken to Camp 37, where he was held for five days under cell regime. There he was granted a 24-hour visit with his wife and son. After the visit Pronyuk was taken back to Camp 35, to the hospital zone (he suffers from tuberculosis).

*

On 15 April, after six years and three months’ imprisonment, Ukrainian writer Ivan Alexeyevich SVETLICHNY was dispatched for his five-year term of exile (CCE 28). The eight months he served while under investigation in 1965 were deducted from his camp sentence (the criminal case against him at that time was dropped). For the journey Svetlichny was taken straight from hospital, where he was suffering from infectious jaundice (CCE 48). His address is now: 659750, Altai Region, Gorno-Altaiskaya autonomous district, Ust-Kan village, 33 Pervomaiskaya St., flat 8.

In June, after 4 years’ imprisonment, Razmik Markosyan was sent to serve 2 years’ exile. At the end of his camp term his ulcer condition (CCEs 44-47) took a sharp turn for the worse. He was dispatched on a 21-day journey. Then he was held for two more days in a preliminary detention cell in the district capital (during which time he was refused a doctor and left without a bed); afterwards, in a serious condition, he was taken 120 kilometres in a Black Maria. His address is: 474230, Kazakh SSR, Tselinograd Region, Kurgaidzhinsky district, Kenbidaik settlement.

In July N. Matusevich arrived in the camp (on his trial see CCE 49).

On 4 August Yury Orlov arrived (CCE 50.1). He spent the first two weeks in hospital. He was assigned work as a lathe operator. Orlov is still trying to obtain the return of the manuscript scientific articles he wrote in Lefortovo, which were confiscated by the prison administration when he was sent to camp (see also “Letters and Statements”, CCE 51.//). On 22 September Orlov was transferred to Camp 37.

In October [Maris] Tilgals, a Latvian, was brought to the camp. He is 18 years old and has been sentenced to 3 years’ deprivation of freedom under the Article [65 = 70] “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”. His brother Janis (b. 1958) is serving a 6-year sentence in Mordovian Camp 19.

D. Airapetov and Zinovy Antonyuk arrived from Vladimir Prison.

Airapetov was immediately put in hospital, where he was found to have tuberculosis. He spent over a month there. After his wife petitioned the MVD medical office and the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions, Antonyuk was examined by a medical commission, which decided that he should be sent to a special hospital in Leningrad. However, he was still in the camp in late November. Antonyuk’s seven-year camp sentence ends in mid-January 1979. He then has three years’ exile.

*

Dmitry Kuzmich VERKHOLYAK is serving his sentence in Camp 35.

He is 50 years old, a West Ukrainian, and a former member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists [OUN]; he served as a doctor’s assistant in the UPA [Ukrainian Insurrectionary Army]. Verkholyak was arrested in June 1955 and sentenced to death by the military tribunal of the Carpathian Military District. The Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Soviet commuted his death sentence to 25 years’ deprivation of freedom.

Verkholyak was charged with participating in certain actions of the UPA, carrying a weapon, and, as a member of the OUN, circulating anti-Soviet literature. Verkholyak, who has petitioned several times for a re-examination of his case, asserts that as a doctor’s assistant he did not actively participate in the actions with which he was charged, and that the investigation of his case had been prejudiced from the start.

D. Verkholyak’s last application for a review of his case was sent to the Supreme Court in February 1978. In it he points out that the nine others who were tried with him have long since been released (four of them were also at first sentenced to death). Verkholyak adds that he worked for ten years as a doctor’s assistant in his place of detention, that he is now a production worker who is fulfilling his norms, and that for decades he has not infringed the regulations or been punished.

In April the USSR Supreme Court replied to Verkholyak, saying that his sentence was justified and that complaints about the pre-trial investigation should be sent to the Procuracy.

*

V. Pidgorodetsky has been deprived of his Group 2 invalid status and is being made to work.

Vasily Vladimirovich PIDGORODETSKY was arrested in 1951 for participating in UPA actions and received a 25-year sentence. In 1956 he was sentenced to 10 more years for leading a camp hunger-strike (Ozerlag, Taishet, Camp 07).

On 10 April Yury Butchenko was punished with 15 days in the cooler; on 11 April Razmik Markosyan got 10 days in the cooler.

In July Ye. Sverstyuk came out of the punishment cells (where he had served four months; see CCE 49). Soon afterwards he was transferred to Camp 36.

On 7 October, Constitution Day, a hunger-strike was held by Airapetov, Airikyan, Biitclicnko, Lisovoi, Matusevich, Ogurtsov and Plumpa.

On 17 October, Airikyan, Butchenko. Verkholyak, Matusevich, Malozhinsky, Ogurtsov and Plumpa sent congratulatory messages to Pope John Paul II.

In October many prisoners sent statements to the Procurator of the Buryat ASSR protesting against the arrest of Bolonkin [see CCE 51.7]. The camp administration re-addressed all these statements to the Perm Procurator. who refused to examine them on the grounds of paragraph 33, part 6 of the Internal Order Regulations, forbidding prisoners to write about other prisoners (see “Order No. 37”, above).

On 26 October Butchenko was given seven days in the cooler.

On 30 October, Political Prisoner’s Day, a hunger-strike was held by Airikyan, Airapetov, Butchenko, Lisovoi, Matusevich, Ogurtsov and Tilgals.

*

On 16 October Vera Lisovaya arrived with her six-year-old son to visit her husband. For two days she was told that there was no room in the visiting quarters. It was only after N. Matusevich (who learned of their arrival during a short visit with his own wife) raised a protest in the camp, that Lisovoi was sent to Camp 37, where he was given a 48-hour visit.

Camp 36

In July there were 61 prisoners in the camp.

V. Balakhonov arrived in June from Vladimir, and G. Prikhodko in July.

At the beginning of August, after six years’ imprisonment, Igor Kalynets was sent to serve a three-year term of exile in Chita Region, where his wife Irina Stasiv-Kalynets (CCE 48.//) is already serving her exile. In exile, Irina is working as a housepainter, Igor as a stoker. They receive a minimal salary. They were given a room of 25 square metres by a collective farm.

GLUZMAN’S OVERSEAS MAIL

In April KGB operations officer Chepkasov told Sarkisyan that Gluzman’s letters to addresses abroad would not be sent, regardless of their content.

On 3 May Gluzman sent a statement to the camp director asking for an explanation of Chepkasov’s words.

On 5 May he held a one-day warning hunger-strike protesting at KGB interference in his correspondence. At the same time, he sent a statement on this subject to Savinkin, Head of the CPSU Central Committee’s administrative department.

On 25 April and 8 May Gluzman handed in statements to the administration, addressed to the International Post Office, to the Head of the Central Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions (see “Letters and Statements of Political Prisoners”, CCE 51.9, pt 2), to the Soviet Minister of Health (this letter was published in full in CCE 48) and to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet.

Although the time limit for sending a statement is three days, on 12 May the head of the special section told Gluzman that she had not even heard of one of these statements. That same day Chepkasov told Gluzman in the presence of Žukauskas and Safronov that all the statements had “piled up” in the KGB operatives’ office. Gluzman sent a statement to the camp director asking him to explain what had happened to his statements and warning him that, failing this, he would begin an unlimited hunger-strike on 13 May.

On 13 May Gluzman went on hunger-strike.

On 15 May he was sent to Perm. (The doctor Yuzhakov gave his authorization for Gluzman to travel on the third day of his hunger-strike, even though he himself had ascertained that Gluzman’s pulse and blood pressure were obviously not normal).

On 16 May Gluzman handed in a statement to the regional Procurator demanding an immediate explanation of his transfer to prison regime; he had been shown no documents authorizing the transfer.

On 16 May at 8 pm, having received no explanation, he went on a ‘dry’ hunger-strike [no food, no water]. He informed the prison director about this in a statement ending with the words: “I will die like a dog, but I will not give up the hunger-strike. Just tell them that …”

On 17 May Gluzman was taken to the regional KGB office. There he spoke with Cherkasov and the Head of the Investigation Department, Colonel Rozanov. They told Gluzman that he had been transferred to the prison for one month with the authorization of the regional Procurator. On receiving this explanation, Gluzman decided to give up the ‘dry’ hunger-strike, but he continued the ordinary one.

On 18 May ho was taken again to the KGB office, where Chepkasov told him that his statements to the Minister of Health and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet had been confiscated, but the others had been sent to their addressees. Then Gluzman ceased his hunger-strike. On Rozanov’s orders he received a special diet for 10 days. On 29 May Gluzman was shown documents from the camp informing him that his statements to the Ministry of Health and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet had been confiscated as “distorting Soviet reality”, while the rest had been confiscated as being “ideologically harmful”.

Gluzman was taken to the KGB office two more times. Rozanov showed him a Camp 36 ‘archive’ which had been taken from its various hiding places in 1977 and was written largely in Gluzman’s handwriting.

Gluzman wrote an explanation confirming that he had written the documents but refused to answer any more questions. During the conversation the “Chronicle of Camp 36” was described as a “tendentious document”.

On 2 June Rozanov informed Gluzman that materials on him were being passed to the Procuracy for the purpose of instigating criminal proceedings against him under Article 190-1 or Article 77-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code (“actions disorganizing the work of a corrective labour institution”; punitive sanctions for this include the death penalty).

On 5 June Gluzman declared a hunger-strike and handed in another statement addressed to Savinkin, At the same time he sent a statement to the regional Procurator, asking him to see that the statements written by him at different times, and replies to them, did not ‘dis-appear’, as he would petition the court to examine them.

On 7 June Gluzman had a conversation in the KGB office with Rozanov and the assistant regional Procurator responsible for supervising the KGB, Senior Councillor for Justice Gogulin. Gluzman refused categorically to stop ‘producing’ and sending out documents containing information about camp life and stated that this was his moral duty.

On 9 June Gluzman was summoned by Procurator Gogulin, who told him that the Procuracy had decided not to instigate criminal proceedings against him.

On the afternoon of 14 June Gluzman was dispatched back to the camp, where he spent the night in a quarantine cell. On the afternoon of 15 June camp Director Zhuravkov read a resolution to him, stating that he was to be put in the punishment cells for six months. The reasons he gave included failure to fulfil the norm, infringements of camp discipline, and composing and sending out various documents. In fact, Gluzman had exceeded the norm (for this he had received supplementary food and money to spend in the camp shop).

several officials of the camp administration and the KGB had described him to his parents as one of the most exemplary prisoners, and as for the ‘documents’, only sending them out constituted an infringement of camp discipline, and Gluzman had not been caught doing this.

In addition to his last “prophylactic chats” Gluzman had been taken to Perm several times before. He is trying to have the lime he has spent there – about three months in all – deducted from his term in the punishment cells.

*

On 6 April M. Kazachkov was dispatched to Camp 35, where he was immediately put in the punishment cells for three months (CCE 49).

On 19 May he was due to have a long visit with his mother. For this reason, Kazachkov tried to get the administration to notify his mother that the visit was to be postponed. However, the Deputy Head of Camp 35 responsible for discipline, Kuznetsov, refused to send the appropriate notice. He also refused to allow Kazachkov to send a telegram to his mother at his own expense, although Kazachkov said he would agree to any wording of the text.

It was not until late April that Kazachkov was permitted to send a letter, which he handed in on 24 April. According to the receipt the letter was sent on the 27th. However, by the beginning of May Kazachkov had still received no notification that the letter had been delivered.

As a result, D. Kazachkova arrived to visit her son and had to go to Camps 36 and 35, to the administration of Camp Complex VS-389 (Polovinka), and finally to Perm.

In mid-May 1979, Kazachkov wrote a statement about the confiscation of a complaint of his to the USSR Procurator-General, of summaries of Schopenhauer, and of a legal claim against a KGB operations officer of Camp 36. He declared a hunger-strike until he received a reply to this statement.

On 19 May, while still on hunger-strike, his arms were twisted and he was forcibly dispatched from Camp 35; but he was brought back the same day, as they had missed the train leaving on the 20th; after receiving a formal reply, Kazachkov agreed to tear up his statement and gave up his hunger-strike.

On 24 May he was taken to Perm. On 25 and 26 May he was granted two three-hour visits with his mother. Kazachkov’s mother was permitted to feed him and give him a food parcel (even coffee and honey) and some clothing. He was told that the visit would not be counted as a regular visit.

Kazachkova underwent a ‘chat’ after the first visit; she was shown a letter addressed to her which had been written by her son, and also a rough copy of the same letter, with numbers written over some letters. It was explained to Kazachkova that this rough copy had been found in S. Kovalyov’s possession, and that the numbers formed a cipher, which specialists were working on. She was asked if she had ever shown any of her son’s letters to S. Kovalyov’s wife and was advised to burn them without showing them to anyone.

During his “prophylactic chats” (as with Gluzman, who shared a cell with him) Kazachkov was made to write explanations about the Camp 36 ‘archive’ (see above).

On 31 May the Head of the Investigations Department, P. I. Rozanov, showed Kazachkov, among other things, documents entitled ‘Memoranda’ (on printed stationery). These contained extracts from his letters and those of his mother to him. In connection with this, Kazachkov petitioned for criminal proceedings to be instigated against the camp censor as the person responsible for copying the extracts and thus infringing his mother’s right to privacy of personal correspondence.

On 6 July Kazachkov was taken back to Camp 36. In June he was deprived of his next visit for “infringing camp discipline”.

*

In August 1977 Sarunas Zukauskas was charged with deliberately producing defective work. Camp Commandant Zhuravkov issued a resolution that Zukauskas be made to pay 60 roubles 63 kopecks – the cost of defective components sent back to the camp by the factory in Lysva.

On 9 November Zukauskas wrote a statement to the Chusovoi Procuracy protesting that the claim against him was illegal, and that there was absolutely no proof against him. He explained at length that in his position as assembler of components he could not have had a hand in the production of defective work. He also pointed out that he was being fined the whole cost of the components, even though the defect had been corrected by performing the simple technical operation which had been omitted (and which was not part of his job); the administration intended in this way to receive money twice – both from the factory and from Zukauskas. Zukauskas’s statement ends as follows:

“I understand, of course, that you will have to justify the administration. This will probably not be easy to do without contradicting the law and common sense. For this reason, I shall await your answer with great interest. However, I feel it necessary to express my sympathy concerning the difficult and, I hope, unpleasant task ahead of you.”

On 3 January 1978 Zukauskas received the following reply from Goldyrev, Procurator of Chusovoi: “The administration has committed no infringement of the law.” On 10 February he received the following reply from the Perm Regional Procurator responsible for places of detention, Myakishev.

“The Procuracy has suggested that the Camp Commandant suspend the deduction … An additional investigation will be carried out… by the Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions…”

On 2 March the Camp Commandant signed the following resolution:

“As a result of an inferior investigation a mistake has been made … it was found that …after a slight correction the panels were sent to the warehouse in good condition … the money deducted from pay will be transferred to his personal account.”

However, even after this, Zhuravkov told the other prisoners that Zukauskas had been convicted of deliberately producing defective work.

On 1 May Zukauskas sent the following statement to the [USSR] Procurator-General:

“The unjust resolution has been revoked … Only Procurator Goldyrev is of a different opinion … Do you trust your subordinate … to see that the law is observed in the future?”

On 22 June he received the following answer to his statement from Myakishev:

“… The statement has been examined and the necessary measures taken.”

*

The Chronicle has been informed of several facts concerning S. Taratukhin’s self-denunciation [as a KGB informant] (CCE 42.4, Perm Camps) and his case.

In February 1976, Taratukhin made a statement that he would work no longer for the KGB. Afterwards he was removed from Camp 36 to Camp 37 and given a “working-over” (by KGB officers Burilov and Degtyarnikov), Following a term in the punishment cells he ended up in hospital. On his return to the camp, he attempted suicide (by opening his veins). He was soon put back in the punishment cells (after being beaten unconscious), and a week later, when he renounced his citizenship (in July 1977) he was given five months in the punishment cells. From there he was taken to Perm for a month of ‘prophylactic’ chats.

On 13 March 1978, Taratukhin swallowed a piece of glass, a nail and a wire, in the sight of his guards.

On 24 March he was again sent to the punishment cells (for six months) and transferred to Camp 35.

On 17 May Taratukhin declared a 21-day ‘dry’ hunger-strike. The reason he gave was his being deprived of religious literature. After six days he began to urinate blood and gave up his hunger-strike. On 19 July he was transferred to the punishment cells of Camp 36. On 31 July Taratukhin “adopted the status of a political prisoner” until the end of his sentence.

Taratukhin is 23 years old. His ‘case’ is as follows: he sent pro- Chinese leaflets, which he himself produced, to various addresses selected at random from the magazine Philately. The leaflets contained an appeal to impose various restrictions on national minorities, for example, to impose a curfew on the Buryats. Taratukhin attempted to set up an organization with fascist aims in the town of Chita, where he lived.

He held up a bank by threatening the cashier with a kitchen knife and took 156 roubles.

He was sentenced to 4 years’ camp for theft and to 2 years under Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code. He was due to be released in mid-October 1978.

*

In the early summer of 1978 Valery Marchenko was put in the hospital of Camp 35 with acute nephritis (CCE 47).

*

DIARY OF CAMP 36

On 30 April, Ye. Pronyuk was transferred to the camp from Camp 35.

MAY 1978

08 – S. Kovalyov was removed with his things. Later it transpired that he had been taken to Camp 37, where he was put in the punishment cells for six months.

13 – Kadzionis was removed 11 days before he was due to be released, having served 25 years for participating in the Lithuanian national liberation movement. On 24 May he was released from Perm Prison.

Dovganich was taken away (to Orlov’s trial).

Gluzman declared a hunger-strike (see above, Chronicle).

15 – On the third day of his hunger-strike Gluzman was taken away with his things.

23 – N. Grigoryan was brought from Camp 37.

Slobodyan was sent to the hospital for an examination which he had been requesting for a whole month.

Ye. Pronyuk was summoned to the educational committee for failing to fulfil the norm. He was threatened with imprisonment in Vladimir.

29 — V. Abankin was put in the punishment cells for two months (i.e., until the end of his sentence) for repeatedly infringing camp discipline. Earlier he had been deprived of access to the camp shop for the month of June for refusing to work. He had not gone to work on the day his sick leave ended, as he was still weak, and had asked for an examination.

31 — Pyotr Kost (?), a “twenty-fiver”, was released. He was forbidden to travel to his family in Magadan, as it is a border region. He went to his brother in Novosibirsk.

Pronyuk was punished for failing to fulfil the norm.

JUNE

02 – KGB officer Chepkasov suggested to V. Monastyrsky that he ask for a pardon. Monastyrsky refused.

03 – V. Balakhonov was brought in from Vladimir Prison.

08 — Slobodyan returned from hospital. He had still not been examined.

12 – I. Popadichenko was barred from the camp shop for refusing to take his hat off during a search.

12-13 – The following prisoners sent statements presenting evidence on Orlov’s and Ginzburg’s cases: Balakhonov, Grigoryan, Zukauskas, Zalmanson, Zdorovy, Ismagilov. Mattik, Popadichenko, Pronyuk, Sarkisyan, Safronov, Sergiyenko and Slobodyan; Kazachkov wrote later (see “Letters and Statements of Political Prisoners”, CCE 51.9, pt 2).

14 – Captain Rak snatched a statement out of Zalmanson’s hands about his hunger-strike, written for the anniversary of his arrest, 15 June. Several political prisoners sent statements to the Procuracy protesting at Rak’s tyrannical behaviour.

14-15 – Sh. Žukauskas went on hunger-strike to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Lithuania. During a conversation Deputy Political Instructor Nelipovich told him – “Nobody invaded your Lithuania. It’s where it belongs.”

15 – S. Gluzman, who returned on 14 June from his “working- over” in Perm, was put in the punishment cells for six months.

16 – An extensive search was made for copies of the statements of 12-13 June. All of Grinkiv’s things were removed from the camp (see “Releases”, CCE 51.9, pt 2).

Nelipovich explained to Pronyuk that it was normal for a telegram to be delivered after seven days.

18 – The Ukrainian community observed a national holiday commemorating the partisans and other victims who had perished. In this connection Balakhonov made a statement on the nationalities question, and A. Safronov expressed his agreement with him.

20 – Major Fyodorov knocked Balakhonov off a bench on to a concrete floor, when the latter failed to stand up in front of him. Several prisoners wrote a statement about this to the secretary of the Regional Party committee, Konoplev. On the 27th they were told that the statements would not be sent, as they had been handed in in closed packets addressed to the regional Procurator.

21 – Balakhonov was put in the cooler for 10 days for repeatedly infringing camp discipline (in addition to failing to greet Fyodorov, he was absent from his place of work once, and was late to the canteen once). He declared a dry hunger-strike. On the 29th, when he was still in a state of exhaustion, the administration attempted to dispatch him to Camp 35. He agreed to give up his hunger-strike and was taken to the medical unit.

25 – Mattik and other political prisoners observed a national holiday, Victory Day.

The following road sign was manufactured in the camp: “Access to the Premises of the Institution is Forbidden to Unauthorized Persons”.

26 – Abankin was punished with five days in the cooler.

27-30 – Gluzman held a hunger-strike in the punishment cells as a protest against repressions.

JULY

04 – Balakhonov refused to go and see a KGB officer, as the RSFSR Corrective Labour Code does not stipulate KGB presence on camp premises.

06 – M. Kazachkov returned from Camp 35. From 5 to 8 July, he held a hunger-strike protesting at the administration’s refusal to send a telegram to his mother.

M. Marinovich was brought to the camp (for an account of his trial, see CCE 49.3).

08 – I. Popadichenko was given 15 days in the cooler for fighting (in self-defence) with G. Voloshin, who threatened to cut his throat. Voloshin was put in the medical unit. (Prisoners had previously warned the administration about Voloshin’s dangerous aggressiveness and received the following reply: “Don’t pay any attention, he’s crazy”, Chronicle).

10 – Abankin was punished with 15 days in the cooler.

13 – Balakhonov wrote a statement requesting that Fyodorov, who had used illegal violence against him, be prosecuted under Article 171, pt 2 of the RSFSR Criminal Code (“exceeding one’s authority or official powers”).

23 – G. Prikhodko was brought in from Vladimir.

23 July-1 August – A ten-day period of solidarity of peoples in the struggle against Russo-Soviet imperialism and colonialism was observed. Fifteen political prisoners participated, including Armenians, Jews, a Lithuanian, Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians and an Estonian. During this period, they held a day of campaigning for return to their homelands, and as a protest against national discrimination the prisoners refused to communicate with the administration in a language other than their own.

1 August was marked as a day to symbolize the right of peoples to decide their own fate, and to campaign for the implementation of Principle VIII of the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference.

31 – V. Abankin was dispatched for release.

AUGUST

14 – Sergiyenko and Žukauskas were taken away (to Camp 37, where they were put in the punishment cells, Chronicle).

15 – Leshkun arrived in the camp under escort. Ismagilov was reprimanded for absence from work (he had been refused sick leave). was threatened with the cooler and Pronyuk was reprimanded for failing to fulfil the norm. Slobodyan

16 – Dovganich was dispatched to Camp 37; from there he was sent away to a chemical construction site at the beginning of September. Kazachkov was assigned extra work for drinking tea in a camp section other than his own. Prikhodko was reprimanded for getting up to write before reveille.

17 – Zdorovy was deprived of a parcel and access to the camp shop for refusing to show a piece of paper to a guard. Slobodyan and Randis were dispatched to the hospital. Chepkasov (of the KGB) again suggested to Monastyrsky that he ask for a pardon.

19 – F. Voloshin was dispatched from the camp. On 25 August he returned after a trial which remitted the last part of his sentence in the 23rd year of his term. This was his third attempt in six years. He was asked only questions of a political nature; these concerned the international situation and his views on the party’s policies.

Popndichcriko was released from the cooler after an uninterrupted 43-day period.

21 – Ogurtsov arrived from Camp 35.

Kulak, who joined the Ukrainian liberation movement and was sentenced in 1956 to 25 years, was informed that he was deprived of the Group 2 invalid status which he had enjoyed for two years (he was diagnosed as suffering from acute phlebitis). He categorically rejected the administration’s suggestion that he ask for a pardon.

23 – Officials of the VS-389 camp administration Major Pagurin(?) and Senior Lieutenant Solovyov had a talk with Safronov about a case described as that of the beating of convict Balakhonov by Major Fyodorov.

24 — Balakhonov was interrogated on the same subject.

Randis and Slobodyan were brought back from the hospital. Slobodyan had not been given the operation recommended by a medical commission. He was given only a general tonic and treatment of his symptoms.

It became known that two men had died in the hospital – Mezals (who had lately been in Camp 35) and Stroganov. They were both serving 15-year terms for alleged war crimes. In both cases the immediate cause of death was apparently acute heart failure.

Maiboroda was brought in from Camp 35.

Fyodorov gave Balakhonov two days in the cooler for conversing with Zalmanson on the way back from work, but the punishment was not carried out. Prikhodko was reprimanded for the same reason.

Pronyuk was deprived of a parcel and access to the camp shop for systematically failing to fulfil the norm, although the Medical Work Fitness Commission had recommended that the administration assign him to work which was not beyond his strength.

25 – Fyodorov deprived Slobodyan of his next visit for being absent from work. Slobodyan, feeling unwell, had stayed behind to wait for the doctor, who was late. At 9.30 am he was summoned by a commission headed by Fyodorov, in the absence of the doctor, Petrov. There, in front of the commission, without even attempting to examine Slobodyan, Dr Petrov pronounced him fit for work, but said he should not be punished. After the commission Slobodyan went to work.

26 – Pronyuk was put on extra work detail for failing to fulfil the norm.

28 – Slobodyan received a warning for failing to fulfil the norm; Pronyuk was reprimanded.

Grigoryan’s letter to his relatives and a letter from Yu. Shikhanovich to Balakhonov were confiscated.

29 – The administration summoned all those (over ten) who had written statements to various departments protesting at Slobodyan’s being deprived of a visit. They were told to take back their statements, as they were complaints on behalf of another prisoner. None of them complied.

30 – An oral order was issued for both sections to be escorted to the Section II barracks, ostensibly so that the Section I barracks could be repaired. A large number of prisoners were moved; Grigoryan, Zdorovy, Kazachkov, Kulak, Marinovich, Pronyuk, Sverstyuk, Slobodyan and several others adamantly refused to be moved. The reasons for their refusal were a marked deterioration in living conditions for punitive purposes (according to rumours spread by the administration, this was a reprisal for complaints about the barracks being cold).

31 – KGB officers from Latvia and the Ukraine (Ivano-Frankovsk Region) arrived in the camp. Those from Ukraine had a talk with Slobodyan, during which a certain Kovtun told him: “We will give you medical treatment if you help us.”

During a conversation it was again suggested to Kulak that he appeal for a pardon. Kulak refused.

At the prisoners’ request a supervisory commission arrived in the camp to hold an on-the-spot hearing to settle the conflicts between the prisoners and the administration, Acting Camp Commandant Fyodorov in particular. The commission consisted of Deputy Head of the Perm Department of Justice Zelenin, an Assistant Procurator of Chusovoi district, Azornin, and a ‘deputy’ from the town of Chusovoi who refused to give his name. They talked to Balakhonov, Zdorovy and Kazachkov. The commission listened to all complaints, promised to look into them, and left.

SEPTEMBER

04 – The following prisoners sent identical statements to various departments, protesting at poor conditions and the administration’s intention to make them even worse by overcrowding: Balakhonov, Grigoryan, Zalmanson, Zdorovy, Ismagilov, Kazachkov, Marinovich, Mattik, Prikhodko, Pronyuk, Sarkisyan, Safronov, Sverstyuk and Slobodyan.

Letters from Popadichenko’s relatives were confiscated from him as slandering Soviet reality.

05 – On the morning after a visit, Ogurtsov was sent back to Camp 35.

For failing to fulfil the norm Slobodyan was issued a punishment of 24 hours in the cooler (which he did not serve). For the same reason, Pronyuk was promised the cooler. Popadichenko was severely reprimanded for failing to respond to a summons to the special section.

Everyone who wrote statements about camp conditions had their statements returned to them on the grounds that they contained complaints on behalf of other prisoners. None of them took back their statements.

In accordance with established custom the following prisoners observed “Red Terror Day”: Balakhonov, Grigoryan, Zalmanson, Zdorovy, Ismagilov, Kazachkov, Marinovich, Mattik, Prikhodko, Pronyuk, Sarkisyan, Safronov, Sverstyuk and Slobodyan. They all wrote statements to the Supreme Soviet demanding the abrogation of the relevant Decree of [5 September] 1918.

06 – Safronov was deprived of his next visit for “being rude” in a conversation with Captain Dolmatov.

Safronov’s letter to a woman acquaintance in Leningrad was confiscated, as was Marinovich’s letter to M. Kotsyubinskaya in Kiev (a second, identical letter to her, of which he sent a copy to the Procurator, was passed by the censor).

11 — Kazachkov declared a hunger-strike, demanding to know what had happened to a letter he handed in on 31 August.

Order No. 34 was read out; it stated that the two sections would be moved into one building, allegedly “for the purpose of improving sanitary conditions in the barracks after the unauthorized occupation by convicts of certain beds. The order did not contain a word about repairs to the Section I barracks, although this was the explanation given in the oral order of 30 August.

12 – Safronov was put in the cooler for four days for refusing to work on a broken machine.

Pronyuk was Issued a punishment of two days in the cooler (which he did not serve).

Grigoryan and Marinovich received a warning for refusing to dig a hole when the subsoil waters were high, and it was pouring with rain.

13 – The following prisoners declared a one-day hunger-strike protesting at the punishment of Pronyuk and Kazachkov: Balakhonov, Grigoryan, Zalmanson, Zdorovy, Ismagilov. Marinovich, Mattik, Prikhodko, Sarkisyan and Sverstyuk. Along with Pronyuk and Slobodyan, they wrote statements on this subject to the Procuracy.

Kazachkov gave up his hunger-strike regarding his letter, as the letter had been sent – 13 days after it was handed in and two days after he went on hunger-strike. He stayed on hunger-strike with the others, protesting at Pronyuk’s punishment.

A letter from Matusevich’s sister in Kiev was confiscated from Marinovich.

25 – Zdorovy was dispatched to an unknown destination. It is possible that he will be brought back to the camp, as some of his things were left behind.

Tarakhovich, Boguk, Borovoi and Aksyonov (he is from Camp 35) returned after a trial in Mogilyov where they appeared as witnesses in the case of five men who served with them in a German sub-unit and were charged with executing and fighting against the Partisans.

Zalmanson was told by Nelipovich, in the presence of Z. Gagurin (?), Deputy Head of camp complex VS-389 responsible for political matters, that copies had been made of his letters from Ya. M Suslensky, to be used for educational purposes. Later one of these letters was shown to Gluzman in the punishment cells, allegedly at Zalmanson’s request.

When four new men arrived in the camp, the possessions of Zalmanson, Ismagilov, Balakhonov, Prikhodko and Safronov were moved on Fyodorov’s orders, from one part of Section II to another. In protest, all the above-mentioned prisoners joined those who had remained in the Section I barracks.

26 – The prisoners were punished as follows for refusing to move: Sverstyuk (deprived of his next visit), Safronov (deprived of parcels and access to the camp shop for the month of October), Prikhodko (10 days in the cooler), Zalmanson and Ismagilov (reprimanded).

Kazachkov and Balakhonov were sentenced by an Assizes Court to three years’ prison each (this is Balakhonov’s second such sentence) on several charges; systematic infringements of camp discipline, negative influence on the other prisoners, and so on.

28 – Before lunch, when all the prisoners were at work, Major Fyodorov broke a window in Section I barracks, where eight men were still living: Grigoryan, Zalmanson, Ismagilov, Kulak, Marinovich, Pronyuk, Safronov and Sverstyuk. In protest, all of them (except for Kulak and Ismagilov) as well as Sarkisyan, refused to go to work after lunch, the reason for their refusal being the low temperatures of +F12° [Centigrade] in workshop No. I and +16° in workshop No. 2. The temperature in the Section II barracks was +13 and +14°. All the strikers wrote corresponding statements to Zhuravkov.

These prisoners plus Ismagilov wrote a statement to the regional Procuracy in defence of Prikhodko.

All eight men spent the night in the Section I barracks, even though ensign Novitsky had again broken the window put in by the prisoners. That night the guards on inspection duty left the door open, although the temperature outside had dropped to minus 10°.

29 – The temperature in workshop No. 1 was +12°, and + 11° in workshop No. 2. The prisoners again refused to work for this reason. After lunch the strikers went to work, after officially informing the administration of their hope that Prikhodko would be released from the cooler. The temperature in the Section II barracks was +11° and +12°.

30 – Pronyuk was sent to the hospital. Electric heaters were installed in the Section II barracks, the workshops and the changing rooms (on 2 October they were also installed in the cooler).

Grigoryan, Zalmanson, Marinovich, Sarkisyan, Safronov and Sverstyuk held an “Italian strike” as Prikhodko had not been released; they fulfilled only up to a quarter of the norm. The strike lasted until Prikhodko came out of the cooler on 6 October.

OCTOBER

02 – Large worms were discovered in the soup at lunch. All the strikers, as well as Ismagilov and Mattik, wrote statements about this to various departments.

11 – Slobodyan came out of the medical unit, having been there since 22 September. Dr Petrov had told him that he would not have an operation. Slobodyan carried on living in the Section I barracks.

12 – The following were punished for refusing to move out; Zalmanson (deprived of his next visit), Marinovich and Slobodyan (deprived of access to the camp shop), Grigoryan (reprimanded) and Ismagilov (given a warning).

18 – The following were punished for refusing to move out and for repeatedly infringing camp discipline, e.g., not keeping their night-tables tidy, arriving on the building site a few minutes late, not doing up their buttons: Slobodyan was deprived of access to the camp shop and of his next visit; Sverstyuk and Prikhodko were reprimanded.

20 – The following were punished for multiple minor infringements of camp discipline: Zalmanson and Marinovich were deprived of their next visit (Zalmanson for the second time); Slobodyan was issued a warning (he was threatened with the punishment cells); Grigoryan, Safronov and Ismagilov were reprimanded; Kulak was issued a warning; Mattik was deprived of access to the camp shop for opposing the administration (he refused to hand over a piece of paper with comments on his sentence written on it).

Merkunas was dispatched to the hospital. One of the last remaining Lithuanian partisans, he was arrested in 1969 and sentenced to 15 years.

Udartsev and Maiboroda were taken back to Camp 35.

21 – The following were brought in from Camp 37: Trofimov (from the large zone), K.Ja. Baladis, B.F. Garozot, V.V. Kalinin, Ostromai (?) and A. S. Romanovsky (all from the small zone).

25 – Manovich, Safronov and Sverstyuk were each given 15 days in the cooler for refusing to move out. They were taken to Camp 35 to serve their punishment. The following were also put in the cooler for the same reason; Prikhodko for 15 days, Ismagilov for 14 days, Zalmanson for 13 days and Grigoryan for 12 days. Ismagilov refused to have his hair cut in the cooler, as a month had not yet passed since his last haircut. He was handcuffed and thrown into his cell, bruised and bleeding.

Slobodyan was dispatched to the hospital. Demanding radical medical assistance (operations on his duodenal ulcer and glands), he refused symptomatic treatment and will not take any medicine in hospital. He demands to be sent to the Gaaz Clinic (Leningrad) to be operated on.

Pronyuk was informed that his letters from N. Gorbal, I. Kandyba and S. Kirichenko had been confiscated.

26 – In the cooler Ismagilov, being ill, did not get up in the morning, On the order of Major Fyodorov, Ensign Makhmutov pushed him on to the floor. Grigoryan, Zalmanson and Prikhodko wrote statements to the Procuracy in defence of Ismagilov.

A thorough search was made of the camp. Materials on the ten-day campaign of 23 July-1 August were confiscated.

27 – Prikhodko was taken out of the camp two months before he was to be released. (On 14 November he arrived in a Kaluga investigations prison – Chronicle).

NOVEMBER

7 – The Soviet [Revolution Day] holiday happened to fall on a day on which prisoners in the cooler are not fed in Camp 36, and they received no food as usual. In the cooler in Camp 35, on the same day, prisoners were given food according to the holiday norm.

9 – The following arrived in the camp: Kovalyov (from the punishment cells of Camp 37), Marinovich (from the cooler in Camp 35) and Pronyuk (from the hospital). Five men tried for war crimes were also brought in from Camp 37 (the small zone): I. A, Gabranov, V. G, Kushniryuk, G. I. Saigushev, Ya. P. Smilktya and I. K. Shlyk.

After 15 days in the cooler Sverstyuk was transferred to the hospital and Safronov was sent to Camp 35.

10 – Marinovich was reprimanded for eating after lights out, and for being rude to Captain Chugainov.

11 – Mattik was reprimanded for the same reasons.

12 – Kovalyov, Marinovich, Mattik, Pronyuk and Sarkisyan wrote statements to Camp Commandant Zhuravkov (with copies to the Procurator) in support of Ismagilov. They protest at Major Fyodorov and ensign Makhmudov’s degrading treatment of him, and demand that Ismagilov be provided with medical assistance, food and a bed in the cooler.

16 – Merkunas and Sverstyuk arrived from the hospital and Yuskevich from Camp 37.

The following letters were confiscated: to Grigoryan from Yu. Dzyuba in Kharkov, to Zalmanson from an unknown person in Moscow, and to Marinovich from I. Matusevich and E. Obertas in Kiev.

17 – The following were reprimanded: Marinovich for not being at his place of work during working hours, and Pronyuk for systematically failing to fulfil the norm.

In October and November, the quality of the food deteriorated; the choice of groats was limited, and out of the kinds of fish prescribed for supper the prisoners were almost always given so-called herring, which disintegrates as soon as it is cleaned. As reported above, large worms were found in the food on several occasions. Fat disappeared from the shop; for two months only about 200 grams of margarine per prisoner were sold.

Camp 37

In July 1978 prisoners were brought in from the zone in Mordovian Camp 3 (ZhKh-385/3-5) which has been abolished. A new zone was set up in Camp 37 (the small zone), where the new arrivals were accommodated. There are only 50 men in all in the camp.

Diary of Camp 37

MARCH

23 – Ye. Pronyuk was brought in from Camp 35. On the 29th, after a long visit, he was taken away, straight from the visiting room.

24 – A. Berniichuk [CCE 33] was put in the cooler after duty-officer Salakhov reported him for not having done up his buttons. 30 March. N. Marmus was put in the cooler for five days on a false accusation of infringing camp discipline and arguing with the administration.

APRIL

03 – Several prisoners declared a week-long ‘crawling* hunger- strike in protest at Marmus’s punishment. Shibalkin and Trofimov wrote statements to the U SSR Procuracy.

04 – Marmus wrote a statement to the U SSR Procuracy accusing the administration of beating him up and stealing his things. That day Marmus was released from the cooler.

05 – A. Yuskevich went on hunger-strike.

06 – V. Dolishny went on hunger-strike.

07 – Shkolnik and Grigoryan went on hunger-strike.

20 – Grigoryan was searched while leaving after work and refused to take his clothes off.

21 – Grigoryan was put in the cooler for three days.

MAY

08 – Kovalyov was brought in from Camp 36. He was put in the punishment cells for six months.

21 – Yuskevich and Marmus were deprived of access to the camp shop for their statements of 4 and 5 April.

23 – Dolishny was thrown in the cooler for quarrelling with the administration.

30 – Trofimov was deprived of access to the camp shop for his statement of 3 April.

JUNE

26 – N. Belov was put in the cooler for seven days. He was then given five more days for refusing to work.

JULY

07 –  Twenty-three men arrived in the ‘small’ zone from Mordovia, and Airikyan arrived from Moscow (see “The Mordovian Camps”).

08 – One of the new arrivals, Vasily Vladimirovich KALININ (imprisoned for being a True Orthodox Believer; see CCEs 46 and 48), had his beard forcibly shaved off. He declared a six-day hunger-strike.

17 – A week-long ‘crawling’ hunger-strike was declared in protest against ethnic discrimination. N. Marnius and S, Sosnovskis wrote statements of protest. Trofimov wrote a statement to the UVD.

18 – A. Berniichuk went on hunger-strike and wrote a statement of protest to the Procuracy.

19 – A. Yuskevich went on hunger-strike.

21 – V. Dolishny went on hunger-strike. On the same day M, Ravins, who was brought in on 19 July, was put in the cooler for three days for writing a protest statement to the USSR Procuracy.

25 – Ravins was again put in the cooler for refusing to reinforce the barbed wire. In protest, he slept on the floor of the cooler.

26 – S. Kovalyov went on hunger-strike in the punishment cells, protesting at Ravine’s punishment.

AUGUST

01 – On the anniversary of the Helsinki Conference Airikyan wrote a statement to Brezhnev protesting at reprisals against members of the Helsinki Groups.

05 – Ravins held a one-day hunger-strike to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Latvia.

11 – Konstantinovsky went on hunger-strike. The reason was the death of an old man who shared his cell.

Airikyan declared a three-day hunger-strike protesting at the National United Party being provocatively accused of violent diversions. He repeated his earlier demands for legalization of the NUP, a referendum on Armenian independence, and the release of imprisoned NUP members. NUP sympathizers and members held a one-day hunger-strike in his support (see “Letters and Statements of Political Prisoners”, CCE 51.9).

14 – A. Sergiyenko and Žukauskas were brought in from Camp 36 and put in the punishment cells.

16 – Merab Kostava was brought into the camp (on his trial sec CCE 50).

17 – Sergiyenko was put in the cooler for 10 days after being reported by the duty-officer, who claimed to have heard Sergiyenko, from the corridor, talking to other prisoners about escape.

21 – Žukauskas, Sergiyenko, Ravins and Kovalyov commemorated the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by holding a hunger-strike and refusing to go to work.

SEPTEMBER

14 – The following declared a one-day hunger-strike and refused to go to work; Belov, Berniicliuk. Dolishny, Kovalyov, Kostava, Marmiis, Ravins, Sergiyenko, Trofimov, Shkolnik and Yuskevich. They demanded an improvement in the food and elimination of other deficiencies in the camp.

20 – Berniichuk, Kovalyov, Kostava, Marmus, Ravins, Sergiyenko, Yuskevich and others declared a day of mourning for reprisals against the Helsinki Groups, and held a hunger-strike.

*

In April 1977 Kokorin and Trofimov arrived in the camp. They are both from Moscow and were convicted under Article 64 (and possibly other articles as well). They were charged with betrayal of the Motherland for profit. Kokorin, a researcher at a closed research institute, allegedly thought up a certain scheme at Trofimov’s request. The scheme was sold to “Steve, a foreigner”, for 7,000 roubles. Those who took part in the deal were detained on the spot. An official examination declared the scheme to be workable, and to constitute a military secret.

Stanislav Kuznetsov is in Camp 37. He was arrested in 1973 for attempting to hijack an aeroplane. He was also charged with seducing minors.

At the end of September, Airikyan was sent to the hospital in Camp 35.

Yu. Orlov, who was brought in from Camp 35 on 22 September, was put in the ‘small’ zone. Several ‘infringements’ of camp discipline have already been registered. One was writing his surname on a window visible from the ‘large’ zone; two, ‘lying down’ after reveille (he was in fact doing yoga exercises); three, writing something during working hours.

===========================

NOTES

[1] Earlier in the year ministers for State Security and Internal Affairs informed the Politburo that agreement had been reached, at national and regional levels: henceforth “especialy dangerous State criminals” would be held in Chistopol Prison in Tatarstan: 17 March 1978 (492-Ch).

[2] As a partial restoration of freedom prisoners were permitted to live in hostels and to work in toxic workshops or lines of production (known generally as “chemical plant”, Ru. “на химию”). Not as deadly as post-war extraction of uranium ore in Kolyma, but unhealthy and unpleasant, e.g. Dovganich above 16 August; Janis and Tucas, 28 January.