Arrest of Alexander Lavut, 29 April 1980 (56.6)

<<No. 56 : 30 April 1980>>

After 10 December 1979, when the KGB organized a ‘trip’ round Moscow for Alexander LAVUT (CCE 55.9), he was placed under almost constant surveillance.

On 31 January 1980 his telephone was cut off. On 6 February two KGB officials appeared at his wife Sima Mostinskaya’s work-place and tried to persuade her to influence her husband, as he was engaged in ‘anti-social activities’.

On 12 February 1980, Investigator S.R. Andreyev of the Moscow City Procurator’s Office carried out a search at Lavut’s flat in his absence. Among the confiscated items were several copies of A Chronicle of Current Events (samizdat and tamizdat), five documents of the Moscow Helsinki Group, various samizdat works and documents — they were confiscated in folders and exact entries were not made in the record — personal correspondence and notebooks.

On 29 April 1980, Investigator Sazonov carried out a second search at Lavut’s flat following the resolution issued by Senior Investigator Yu.G. Zhdanov of the city’s Moskvoretsky district procurator’s office.

The following items were confiscated:

material from Camp 18 (Mordovia),
a letter from Georgy Mikhailov (CCE 54.12) to Andrei Sakharov from the Leningrad ‘Crosses’ Prison,
two letters from Sergei Kovalyov which had been through the camp censorship,
notes on conditions of imprisonment in Butyrka Prison,
two bulletins of the Tatyana Velikanova Defence Committee,
a collection of documents about Sakharov,
letters and statements signed by Lavut and other defenders of human rights,
two bulletins of the Council of Relatives of Baptist Prisoners,
three bulletins of the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes,
documents of the Moscow, Lithuanian and Ukrainian Helsinki Groups,
A Chronicle of Current Events, Issues 53, 54 & 55 (the latter, according to the record, “with handwritten editorial notes and insertions”),
the texts “On Psychiatric Hospitals”, “The trial of Reshat Dzhemilev” and other material of an informational nature,
notebooks, notepads, used carbon paper and a typewriter.

A book by Zinoviev, The Yawning Heights, and “A Commentary on the Statute concerning Pre-trial Custodial Detention” were also confiscated.

During the search, Vladimir Tyulkov (CCE 46.6 & CCE 47.14) called to see Lavut. No. 54 of the Chronicle and a photocopy of an article by Valery Chalidze (“Khomeinism or National Communism” from the New York newspaper Novoe russkoe slovo) were confiscated from Tyulkov.

In his comments appended to the record Lavut wrote:

“I protest against the very fact that a search was carried out as part of Criminal Case No. 46616. Although the investigator did not inform me of the substance of the case, it is evidently directed against the circulation of information on the violation of human rights in the USSR and against the defence of these rights. The material confiscated from me today, which is a truthful reflection of violations of human rights and does not contain any slander or ‘fabrications’, is the best confirmation of this.

“I also protest against the circumstance, concealed from me, that Case No. 46616 is the case of A. Lavut.”

After the search Investigator Sazonov wrote out a summons and Lavut was taken for interrogation.

At the procurator’s office Lavut was shown a warrant for his arrest; then he was transported to Butyrka Prison. Lavut has been charged under Article 190-1 (RSFSR Criminal Code).

The same day Investigator Zhdanov, who was conducting Lavut’s case, interrogated Tyulkov. The latter said that he had heard about Lavut on the radio. As regards the material confiscated from him, he stated that he had prepared it himself for his own use.

At the same time as the search at Lavut’s flat, three other searches were carried out as part of his case.

The following were confiscated from Vladimir Tolts: several books and articles printed in samizdat and tamizdat, several Western newspapers, a large number of tapes with recordings of interviews with various persons, similar typewritten material, two tape-recorders and two typewriters. The search was conducted by Investigator Knyazev. Vladimir Tolts is a historian, aged 36. Since a car accident he has been disabled and receives a pension. The day after the search the tyres of his invalid vehicle were punctured.

Investigator Gnevkovskaya conducted a search at the flat of physicist Natalya Kravchenko (CCE 53.15). During the search, typewritten copies of published works by Tsvetayeva and Henrich Böll, two volumes of Nadezhda Mandelstam’s memoirs, and “Doctor Zhivago” by B. Pasternak (typewritten) were confiscated, as well as In the Shadow of Gogol by Abram Tertz (Andrei Sinyavsky) published abroad. Also taken were three bulletins of the Council of Relatives of Baptist Prisoners, a text typed from the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, notebooks and notes with addresses of dachas around Moscow.

A third search was made at the home of close friends of the Lavut family.

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