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[1]
The Trial of Rollan Kadiyev (Samarkand)
On 4 January 1980, the trial took place in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) of Rollan KADIYEV, accused of ‘malicious hooliganism’. At the trial witnesses testified that Kadiyev had had an argument with a Party organizer and then hit him. The sentence was three years in a strict-regime camp. Kadiyev was arrested on 28 November 1979 (CCE 55.2-4).
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[2]
The Trial of Boris Zubakhin (Kuibyshev)
On 4 January 1980, the trial took place in Kuibyshev (Volga Okrug) of Boris ZUBAKHIN, arrested on 5 October 1979 (CCE 54.2-2). Zubakhin was charged with living in Kuibyshev without a residence permit — he had not been allowed to register as living with his wife — and with making a forged entry in a work-book (Articles 198 and 196 pt. 1, RSFSR Criminal Code).
Whilst under investigation Zubakhin testified against Ryzhov-Davydov (CCE 55.2-4), Zubakhin was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment and released in the courtroom.
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[3]
The Trial of Igor Guberman (Dmitrov)
From 11 to 13 March 1980, there was a hearing at the Dmitrov City Court (Moscow Region) of a case in which three people were accused of stealing and reselling icons. The Chairman of the court was N. Leonov, the Prosecutor A. Sugrobov.
In the course of the trial, it became clear that N. Gridin and B. Yegorov had committed about 25 thefts of icons in the Moscow Region. They had sold them to various persons, the names of whom were mentioned at the trial. Only one of the purchasers was brought to trial — Igor GUBERMAN, a writer and active collaborator of the journal Jews in the USSR. Guberman was arrested on 13 August 1979 (CCE 54.2-2).
Before his arrest, throughout the investigation, and even between the prosecutor’s speech and the declaration of the verdict, KGB officials tried to persuade Guberman to give evidence against Victor Brailovsky (CCE 52.4-5). Brailovsky is one of the editors of the journal Jews in the USSR. In exchange Guberman was promised that “everything would be arranged”. He refused.
Igor M. Guberman (b. 1936)
The charge against Guberman was based on the evidence of N. Gridin. Gridin alleged that, in the presence of witness Drobyshev, he had told Guberman that the icons were stolen. Guberman denied this; Drobyshev did not confirm it either. In his speech for the prosecution, nevertheless, Procurator Sugrobov talked as if Guberman had ensnared and enslaved two simple people, who were then forced to steal icons for him.
On the basis of Gridin’s evidence, which was not confirmed by anyone, Igor Guberman was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and the confiscation of his property. Gridin was convicted for the first time in 1974 for assault and battery, and in June 1979 a second time for theft: his latest sentence was one of four years’ imprisonment.
The other accused, 50-year-old Lev Izrin, a culture officer, was charged with attempting to burgle the Glebovo church (Dmitrov district) in 1977. The accusation was, again, based entirely on the evidence of Gridin. Izrin was sentenced to two years in a camp. Before the trial, pressure was put on him to give evidence against Guberman. When Izrin refused, the charge against him was fabricated.
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[4]
The Trial of Mikhail Solovov
On 1 April 1980, the people’s court of Moscow’s Dzerzhinsky district, presided over by A.F. Beloborodov, examined the case of Mikhail SOLOVOV, charged under Article 206 pt. 2 (RSFSR Criminal Code: “Malicious hooliganism”).
In an overcrowded trolleybus, Solovov had supposedly said: “Soviet cattle, as long as you keep licking Brezhnev’s arse, this is how you’ll travel!” Solovov was arrested in December 1979 (CCE 55.2-4). Two witnesses present at the trial were trolleybus passengers who had handed Solovov over to the police.
Solovov’s relatives were allowed into the courtroom but not his friends. Her son had been promised a three-year sentence, said his mother, if his friends did not come near the court; otherwise he would receive five years. The court sentenced Solovov to three years’ imprisonment in an ordinary-regime camp.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 