- Letters and Statements [34-45]
- In defence of Political Prisoners [46]
- Releases [47]
*
52.9-1 [22-26]; 52.9-2 [26-33]; 52.9-3 [34-46 (42-45 photos)]
*
1. Letters and Statements of Political Prisoners
Balys Gajauskas: “To the USSR Procurator-General” (1978)
Gajauskas (trial, CCE 49.5) examines in detail the charges against him and shows that they are unfounded. He describes how the court (a) falsified much of his own testimony and that of the witnesses, (b) attributed to him acts which he had never performed and (c) intentions which he had never possessed. Gajauskas also described how, during the investigation, pressure was illegally brought to bear on him.
For example, it is stated in the verdict that Gajauskas obtained the book The Lord Today [note^ intending to circulate it, and that he gave it to the witness Stavskis to read. Stavskis gave no such evidence, however, and the prosecutor even demanded that the book be excluded from the charges, as it had not been circulated.
Besides his own translation of part of The Gulag Archipelago and giving Sergei Kovalyov and Alexander Ginzburg lists of Lithuanians convicted of ‘especially dangerous crimes against the State’, the court also charged Gajauskas with harbouring “a great deal of other anti-Soviet literature”. This ‘great deal’ included, for example, the judgment in the case of Simas Kudirka [CCE 20.6], a photocopy of a document concerning the granting of US citizenship to Michael Peciulaitis (CCE 47), a piece of paper with the telephone number of the US Consul, L. Willems, a photograph of friends, a few private letters, a newspaper cutting, a notebook …
The court examined 37 witnesses, only one of whom testified that Gajauskas had left literature at his home — though he did not “give it him to read” (as stated in the judgment). None of the other 36 had even seen ‘criminal’ books in his possession.
The second point of the judgment concerned “possession and duplication of this literature with the aim of disseminating it”. This is immediately followed by the conclusion that it constitutes “nothing other than anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”. Gajauskas writes that during the investigation the Deputy Head of the Investigation Department, Lieutenant-Colonel Kezys (CCE 47 & CCE 48) told him: “If you don’t confess, I will so interrogate your mother that the last breath will depart from her body ..” (Gajauskas mother had not long previously undergone an operation).
Gajauskas is demanding that the sentence be quashed and the case re-examined.
*
N. Yevgrafov, Svyatoslav Karavansky, N. Kurchik, Alexei Murzhenko, Mykhaylo Osadchy, Bohdan Rebrik and Danilo Shumuk: ‘To the Ukrainian Helsinki Group* (14 November 1978)
Political prisoners in Mordovian Camp No. 1 (special regime) recommend Father Vasyl ROMANYUK as a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. There is a postscript to the statement:
“Having read the decision of our Ukrainian fellow-prisoners, we fully support it.”
(Signed Balys Gajauskas, Alexander Ginzburg and Eduard Kuznetsov.)
*
Sergei Soldatov: “Statement to UN Human Rights Committee and Academician Andrei Sakharov” (1979)
Soldatov says that he and Vladimir Osipov are constantly punished for refusing to go to political education classes, and that he has been deprived of all his ‘short’ visits for 1978 and 1979 and is now being threatened with cancellation of his ‘long’ visit scheduled for March 1979.
*
Anatoly Zdorovy: “To the following (16 July 1978):
Savinkin, Head of CPSU Central Committee Department of Administrative Agencies;
Glukh, Chief Procurator of the Ukrainian SSR;
V.V. Shcherbitsky, First Secretary of Ukrainian CP Central Committee, member of CPSU Politburo;
Vatchenko, Presidium Chairman of Ukrainian Supreme Soviet; Deputy Chairman, USSR Supreme Soviet”
Zdorovy’s 14-page statement is devoted to “violations by the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs of the declared Soviet law on the national equality of citizens”.
His previous complaints, he writes, had been forwarded to the people whose actions he was complaining about.
Zdorovy cites a number of instances of discrimination against prisoners on grounds of nationality:
- obstacles to taking out subscriptions to national publications; the author himself, for example, was unable to take out a subscription in 1978, despite all his efforts;
- the absence from many libraries in camps and prisons of books in the languages of Soviet minorities (they are not prohibited, but are not ‘provided for’ in the recommendations of the political administration of the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions);
- the lack of opportunity to listen to radio broadcasts in Ukrainian in the camps: on weekdays the radio is switched on for only an hour, at a time when there are no Ukrainian broadcasts;
- the numerous occasions when it’s forbidden to use one’s native language during visits from one’s family;
- the delays over letters written in languages other than Russian: in 1976 the Head of Vladimir Prison, V.F. Zavyalkin, told the author: “Write in a human language and we won’t make a fuss”;
- the groundless confiscation and numerous ‘losses’ of letters; the refusals to examine complaints not written in Russian; and
- the forcible shaving of moustaches.
*
V. Marmus: “To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (17 July 1978)
“As is well known, the world’s leading societies have designated the third week of this month ‘Third World Week’, as a gesture of support and solidarity with nations which are struggling for their national and social independence.
“Since the Ukrainian nation (to which I have the honour of belonging and which I represent in this camp) is treated as though it lived in a colony, I consider it my duty to take part in this humanist action.
“I bring to your attention that on 17 July of this year I staged a hunger-strike in protest against national discrimination and the persecution of dissenters.”
***
From 23 July to 1 August 1978, as already reported (CCE 51./// “Diary of Camp 36”), prisoners of Perm Camp 36 marked “Ten Days of Solidarity between Nations Struggling against Russo-Soviet Imperialism and Colonialism”.
Around twenty people participated in the ‘Ten Day’ protest. Some material from the days of protest is summarized below. On 26 October 1978 there was a thorough search, during which “Ten Days” material was confiscated (CCE 51.9).
APPEAL
N. Grigoryan, Sarunas Žukauskas, Vulf Zalmanson, K. Ismagilov, Mikhail Kazachkov, Myroslav Marinovich, Emil Sarkisyan and Alexei Safronov
“Mowgli is well known from childhood as the hero of Kipling’s charming story. But the story does not reflect reality.
“It has been shown today, beyond doubt, that a child brought up among wolves cannot become a man. Take away man’s acquired and inherited capital of culture and morality, and he will forget everything, will unlearn all that he has learned and will become a two-legged wolf with a cudgel, even if the cudgel is a nuclear one.
“The Bolsheviks understood this from the very beginning. Yet they remained under the spell of a utopian desire for a communist paradise on earth …
“Without spiritual liberation, both national and religious, there can be no national or individual freedom, there can be no question of respecting human rights.
“It took us some time to come to the conclusion that the communist dictatorship — a committedly atheist regime devoid of spiritual values — undermines the foundations of a nation to no less an extent than forced Russification.
“We will attempt everything in our power to enable our compatriots to come to the same understanding without experiencing the barbed-wire camps of deep reflection.
“Our Ten Days of Solidarity in the struggle against Russo-Soviet nationalism and imperialism is a link in the chain of such efforts …”
The participants in the Ten Days’ protest celebrated 23 July as
“A Day for demanding to return to one’s Motherland“
*
Vladimir Balakhonov: “To the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet” (23 July 1978)
The author registers his protest against all forms of deportation of persons of non-Russian nationality, including the widely accepted practice of keeping prisoners and exiles outside the borders of their national republics.
“Let me remind you that deportation is recognized by international law as a form of genocide and is regarded as an international crime to be severely punished even in cases when such actions do not violate the domestic laws of the countries in which they take place.”
*
Vulf Zalmanson: ‘To the Presidium Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet’ (23 July 1978)
The author sympathizes with Balakhonov’s point of view. In addition, he declares a protest against the keeping of Jews in the USSR by force, and against the lack of freedom to emigrate for all those wishing to leave the confines of the Soviet Union.
*
Alexander (Oles) Serhiyenko: “To Vatchenko, Chairman of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet” (23 July 1978)
Serhiyenko writes that — like Hetman Doroshenko, Hetman Pavel Polubotok, like Taras Shevchenko, like Ostap Vishnya, and many other compatriots — he, too, is a deported political prisoner.
“I can repeat after Shevchenko: ‘the history of my life forms part of the history of my people’.”
Serhiyenko demands that all imprisoned Ukrainians,
“all those who have been exiled or deported, all those of my compatriots who are forcibly deprived of their national home, be allowed to return, immediately and unconditionally, to our only Homeland, Ukraine.”
He announces his refusal to communicate with the administration in Russian.
*
Ihor Kalynets: “To the Presidium of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet” (23 July 1978)
“No State, at least none of those belonging to the United Nations, no State which respects its own sovereignty, ‘sends away’ its prisoners to prisons and Siberias in other, neighbouring states, even if they are brother nations (neither does it accept foreign prisoners).”
*
Myroslav Marynovych: ‘To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet* (23 July 1978)
The author considers it illegal to hold and imprison political prisoners who are citizens of other republics on the territory of the Russian republic.
***
The participants in the “Ten Days” protest designated 26 July as
“A Day of protest against national and ethnic discrimination in places of imprisonment”
Vulf Zalmanson: “To the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs’ (26 July 1978)
The author protests against national discrimination in camps, and in particular against widespread anti-Semitism.
29 July was declared “A Day of Solidarity among Political Prisoners”.
*
Emil Sarkisyan: ‘To the USSR Procurator-General” (29 July 1978)
The author protests against the groundless incarceration in punishment cells of Semyon Gluzman and Sergei Kovalyov.
He demands that Grigoryan be protected from possible physical retribution with which he has been threatened by Captain Burilov for his refusal to cooperate with the KGB: Grigoryan himself had written to the Procurator-General about these threats.
He also demands that M. Slobodyan be given the medical treatment he requires.
1 August, the last of the “Ten Days”, was declared the “Day of the right of nations to self-determination”.
*
“To Member-Countries of the United Nations” (1 August 1978)
Yu. Dzyuba, Anatoly Zdorovy, Ihor Kalynets, Myroslav Marinovich, L Popadichenko, Grigory Prikhodko, Yevhen Pronyuk, Oles Sergienko, Mykola Slobodyan, N. Grigoryan, Emil Sarkisyan, Semyon Gluzman, Vulf Zalmanson, Kalju Mättik, Vladimir Balakhonov and K. Ismagilov
The authors state that there is growing resistance on the part of non-Russian nations to forced Russification and they express their solidarity with them.
The authors request that the following matters be brought up for discussion at the next session of the UN General Assembly:
1. The recognition that countries incorporated into the federation of the USSR are subjugated nations and that their actual status is that of colonies and dependent territories; as all this corresponds to the conditions laid down in Article 73 and Chapters XI & XII of the UN Charter [note 1] and the Declaration concerning “non-self-governing territories”, the relevant norms and principles of international law, and the procedures of international supervision, could thus be applied to these countries.
2. The application to these countries of chapters XI & XII of the UN Charter.
*
Vladimir Balakhonov: “To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (1 August 1978)
Behind the Soviet Union’s trampling on this most important principle of international law (the right of nations to self-determination — Chronicle) lies the unyielding, constant and never weakening ambition of the Russo-Soviet colonial empire, an ambition determined by the internal laws of its existence and posing a mortal threat to mankind — at all costs to preserve, strengthen and expand itself, eventually to the limits of the earth itself, thus bringing about the death or complete degradation of civilization in conditions of ideologically regimented, collective slavery on the Soviet model.
In protest against the suppression of the freedom and independence of peoples “subjugated by Russo-Soviet colonialism and imperialism”, Balakhonov declares a one-day hunger-strike.
*
Kalju Mättik: “To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (1 August 1978)
The author demands the genuine application of the right of nations to self-determination. In protest against the Soviet Unions’ non-observance of Principle VIII [note 2] of the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference, he declares a 24-hour hunger-strike.
*
Yevhen Pronyuk: “To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (1 August 1978)
The author insists on the restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty, demands the observance of Principle VIII of the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference and declares a 24-hour hunger-strike.
*
Mykola Slobodyan: “To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (1 August 1978)
Slobodyan gives examples of the suppression of participants in the Ukrainian nationalist movement, including members of his own group, the “National-Democratic Liberation Union Gomin”; its members included: V/// Slobodyan, V/// Melnichuk, L/// Melnichuk, I/// Mironyak and others. He demands the restoration of Ukrainian independence.
*
Yevhen Sverstyuk: “Appeal” (21 August 1978)
My Brother Czechs and Slovaks!
“Ten years ago your Prague Spring, like the gusty Kiev wind, breathed into my face the magic of the free world. On 21 August, in all my thoughts and feelings I was with you, as you were crushed by the tanks.
“At that time, in the Ukraine, belonging to a splendid circle of people blessed with love and youth, I suddenly felt myself in prison. Now we are all under guard, and in a concentration camp in the Urals I recall that it was then as though the seed which we and you had nurtured in our breasts had died. However, I understand now that it has sprouted under the snow. The victory of their violence was the beginning of their fatal end.
“It was the bankruptcy of an idea which could no longer be revived. Now, ten years later, no longer in mourning, in a circle of political prisoners, I am once again hoping and coming back to life. You and we have been exhausted by cold and darkness. But through our energy and our blood the seed of our freedom is growing again, and the echo of the Prague Spring is coming back to life all over the world.
“The low rumble of our freedom is already deafening the rumble of their tanks.”
*
Yevhen Sverstyuk: “Don’t Spit on Women: Open Letter to Nikolai Podolyan” (August 1978)
This letter is an answer to Podolyan’s article “An Overseas Birdie from the Eaves of the OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]”, published in Literary Ukraine, 15 August 1978.
“Now, at last, you have latched on to the wives of political prisoners and those women who cannot, as the Bible teaches, visit prisoners in the dungeons, but wish to help their families, however humbly. Your class morality lets you attack women in a number of ways.
“As an orthodox, model Soviet man, you chose to engage in crude vulgarity and slander through a newspaper. Of a Canadian teacher who is ‘already over 60’, you write: ‘Il is even worse for Mrs Gorokhovich: she is warped inside. But it seems that there is a demand even for such as she. She makes herself up as a young woman. Naturally, you cannot turn a frog into a nightingale, but …’, etc. ‘As the people would do it,’ plus facetious comments — letting yourself go completely. What for? Because, without breaking your sacred customs laws, this woman brought presents in her tourist’s bag and gave them to those of her compatriots whom Ukrainians abroad respect and idealize.”
In his article Podolyan also describes how another Canadian woman, “the wildest of monsters”, met M. Kotsyubinskaya, and how another met L. Svetlichna. Svetlichna is supposed to have “described her persecuted husband” as “the only worthy leader of the Ukrainian dissidents … And then asked for more parcels”.
“Your morality and impunity allowed you to ascribe to her your own idiotic ideas about the ‘only worthy leader of the Ukrainian dissidents’ (no normal person talks like that!). Your name allowed you to falsify the fact that, as you know, Svetlichnaya did not meet anyone this summer, since she was leaving Kiev to join her husband in exile.
“How you Podolyans have nevertheless grown accustomed to talking, imagining that you have a frightened idiot before you! Rub your eyes, look around!
“You are living in an age when the dream of American credit has become the most progressive dream in the world; and the generation which grew up on your ideological diet and under the protection of impenetrable frontiers, dreams of an American tally on their trousers, if the unfunny satirical articles in Izvestiya are to be believed. Do you hope to complain about parcels from overseas and impress this generation? You will be torn apart from the very first line: ‘He is simply jealous and annoyed that others receive these “luxury” parcels, while he has to get such things on the side’.”
*
Yevhen Sverstyuk: “To the Legislative Proposals Commission of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (5 September 1978). On the 60th anniversary of the 1918 ‘Decree on Red Terror’, Sverstyuk writes:
“This is the most radiant, reddest, and most far-reaching of the almighty Lenin’s decrees.
“Because of this decree a new age of all-permissiveness and unlimited power over people was unleashed in the 20th century. It remains for future researchers to discover how people degenerated, acting meanly and obsequiously from fear and horror before this ‘revolutionary justice’, which has continuously delivered wave upon wave of terror over the past sixty years.”
He proposes that the 1918 Decree on Red Terror “which has fully completed its murderous circle”, be repealed.
Fourteen prisoners from Perm Camp 36 sent similar statements proposing the repeal of the Decree on Red Terror to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet.
*
Sergei Kovalyov, Myroslav Marinovich and Yevhen Sverstyuk:
“To J. Carter, President of the USA” (5 December 1978)
“On Human Rights Day please accept our tribute of great admiration for you, Mr President, and for your administration; in a world becoming wrapped in lies, you have allowed yourselves to make human rights and moral considerations the basis of your international policy.
“Responding to the great problems of the century on the level of an amoral game of denunciation, our system of self- legitimizing lawlessness does not wish to understand that the seeds of violence are more dangerous than pollutions of the atmosphere, and that the question of human rights needs more open discussion than ecological questions, since only a free man, who knows his rights, has the strength to accept and to carry out his duty. It is in the resurrection of human faith, honour and duty that the hope of our world lies.
“On the feast of Christmas, we send joyous greetings to your family and your country. May God preserve you!”
*
(It was impossible to read the title and beginning of this text)
Semyon Gluzman, N. Grigoryan, Suranas Žukauskas, Vulf Zalmanson, Sergei Kovalyov, V. Marmus, M. Marinovich, Kalju Mattik, I. Popadichenko, Yevhen Pronyuk, Emil Sarkisian, Oles Sergienko, Yevhen Sverstyuk, Artyom Yuskevich (10 December 1978)
“[…] We are all poisoned by violence, fear, falsehood and servile obedience. But we all understand by now that the power of violence and falsehood is bankrupt and has shown its powerlessness when confronted with the demands of the times.
“Man as a servant, slave and cog has exhausted his meagre resources. Only an honourable, free man is capable of creating, of carrying out his responsibility and duty in our difficult age. Overcoming fear and pain, each of us must suffer for truth and integrity, so that the road to freedom of the individual, spiritual freedom, and national and religious freedom, may be laid in this gloomy country.
“We are to blame before our children if we leave them the example of slavish humility before the authorities, if we leave them alone in the face of evil — to adapt to evil. May wisdom and conscience show us honourable ways of struggle which will lead to the reassertion of the withered values of justice and honour. This is our duty: to exercise the human rights given to us at birth, to leam to use them instead of guessing at the will and desires of a higher-placed slave. Everyone must leam to sacrifice.
“He only is worthy of life and freedom who each day goes to fight for them.”
This letter from political prisoners of Camp 36 was also signed by Zinovy Antonyuk, A. Berniichuk, Mati Kiirend, Merab Kostava, N. Matusevich, Yury Orlov and P. Plumpa.
*
Valery Marchenko: “To UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim” (10 December 1978)
Marchenko reports on the conditions of imprisonment of political prisoners in camps: frequent punishment, unsatisfactory medical treatment, poor food, the absence of essential foodstuffs in the camp shop, the ignoring of complaints, and confiscation of incoming letters. He asks that letters sent to him from abroad be protected through Waldheim’s intervention:
“Knowing that many people living outside the USSR are constantly writing me letters and not having received even one letter from them over a period of five and a half years, I ask for your intervention, to enable me to make use of the relevant articles of the Declaration of Human Rights and of the Helsinki Agreement.”
A reply to this statement came from Savelov, Assistant Procurator of Perm Region responsible for places of imprisonment:
“To Chusovoi district procurator Goldyrev:
“I am forwarding for your attention a statement from prisoner Marchenko concerning the conduct of the administration and conditions of imprisonment.
“I have asked the head of the special section to inform Marchenko that, since his statement was addressed to an agency not competent to take decisions on the matters he mentions, the statement has not been forwarded to the addressee in accordance with para. 6, section 33 of the Regulations on Internal Procedures in Corrective Labour Institutions” [note 1].
Other prisoners from Camp 35 sent similar appeals to Kurt Waldheim.
*
Gilel Butman: “To Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme”.
Butman severely criticizes the UN resolution about Zionism being a form of racism. Drawing historical parallels, he states that “ideological ovens for new Treblinkas are being prepared”. Butman criticizes Palme for receiving Arafat.
***
Suranas Zukauskas: To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (December 1978)
Zukauskas states that in protest against national discrimination in the camps he is adopting political prisoner status, without preliminary permission.
*
Suranas Zukauskas; To the Perm Regional Procurator’s office. To the Head of the Department Responsible for Places of Detention” (14 December 1978)
Zukauskas once again (CCE 51) points out violations by the administration in connection with the payment of prisoners for their work. In September and October he was not paid for time put in when it was impossible to work because of breakdowns; and they had miscalculated what he had produced. The total sum owing to him was 17 roubles 81 kopeks. Three tables of figures were attached to the statement.
***
“To the International Red Cross”
Vladimir Balakhonov, Suranas Zukauskas, Mikhail Kazachkov, Ihor Kalynets, Kalju Mättik, Yevhen Pronyuk, Emil Sarkisyan, Alexei Safronov (14 July 1978)
The authors describe the fate of Boris MONASTYRSKY (CCE 47).
In 1973 Monastyrsky was sentenced to three years imprisonment under Article 187-1 (Ukrainian SSR Criminal Code = Article 190-1, RSFSR Code). After failing to obtain payment for sick leave, he had left his poem “To the Slave-Drivers of the Soviet Empire” in the deputy chairman’s office of the Makeyevka district soviet executive committee.
In 1976, a few months before the end of his sentence, he was sentenced again, for poems and letters he had written in camp, to six years and four months imprisonment. He is now serving his sentence in Camp 36. His sentence ends on 8 April 1982.
Boris Monastyrsky was ordered to pay 160 roubles in court fees and 60 roubles for a lawyer whose services he refused.
According to the law, the authors explain, half of Monastyrsky’s wages are paid directly to the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the other half is spent almost entirely on paying off the court costs and deductions for clothing and food. Boris Monastyrsky has actually never been able to spend the sum allowed him — five roubles — in the camp shop.
Since Monastyrsky has no family, he has no way of receiving money, the permitted printed matter, or the 5 kg food parcel he is allowed once a year. In May 1978 Monastyrsky appealed to the Soviet Red Cross to send him a parcel.
The camp administration did not dispatch this appeal. Instead, Nelipovich, Deputy Camp Head for political matters, ‘explained’ to Monastyrsky that he was ‘not permitted’ to receive parcels and printed matter from the Red Cross. Monastyrsky sent a copy of his appeal to the USSR Procurator-General’s Office, with a request that it be forwarded to the addressee with an explanation of why he could not do this himself.
Orekhov, from the Perm Region Procurator’s office, replied:
“The USSR Procurator’s office did not consider it necessary to send B. Monastyrsky’s statement to the Soviet Red Cross.”
The letter from Monastyrsky’s fellow-prisoners ends with an appeal: help “our comrade, an honourable and genuinely needy man”.
*
Alexei Safronov: “To Konoplev, First Secretary of the Perm Region Party Committee” (20 June 1978)
An incident which took place between Vladimir Balakhonov and Major Fyodorov on 20 June (CCE 51) is described in detail.
Balakhonov, Žukauskas and Safronov were resting in the cloakroom after unloading supplies of steel. Fyodorov, entering the cloakroom with Nelipovich, deputy camp head for political matters, demanded that Balakhonov get up off the bench.
Balakhonov was extremely tired and continued lying there, obviously not hearing Fyodorov. “Get up!” shouted Fyodorov, “Why are you lying there, spreading yourself out?” And with a roar he threw Balakhonov on to the concrete floor.
“I demand an end to Major Fyodorov’s excesses, which are serious enough to have him brought to justice under Article 171, pt. 2 (RSFSR Criminal Code).”
The other witness of the incident, Suranas Žukauskas, wrote a similar statement. He also stated his refusal to have anything to do with Fyodorov.
*
N. Grigoryan: “To the US Congress”
Grigoryan states that in 1973, in revenge for his father’s false conviction for theft, he established contact with the American Secret Service.
“But even then, I vaguely sensed that desire for revenge was not my only motive. Now in camp I fully understand that I was guided by my awakening conscience. But this new realization has produced for me a threat of physical reprisal by the KGB.
“I did not supply your agents with military information.
“As an agent of the KGB, I handed over information about its structure and methods of operation, I disclosed the secrets of this huge and powerful organization, which wields such monstrous, tyrannical power. I tried to reveal the mechanisms for evading checks and balances, the mechanism of the supremacy of power over the law.”
Grigoryan confirms his renunciation of Soviet citizenship and states that he wishes to become a citizen of the USA.
*
Grigory Prikhodko: “To the Presidium Chairman of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (6 August 1978)
The author considers that the USSR faces a military danger from the West, and proposes that the authorities begin a peaceful dialogue with the opposition so that together they can look for a way out of the situation.
*
Igor Ogurtsov wrote to his parents in February 1979:
“The past year has undermined my health more than the preceding 11 years. The all-pervading pain in my abdominal cavity and in the small of my back is such that every step, even a cough, hurts, yet I have to work day and night (Ogurtsov works as a stoker, on shifts, Chronicle). The pain has been going on uninterruptedly for 12 months. It’s difficult to see how all this will end.”
And in another letter:
“I don*t feel at all well. I find it very difficult to work: I have a constant pain at the base of my stomach and my pelvic bones ache. Since I am not exactly sure what the trouble is, 1 am unable to do anything myself to ease the pain. It is impossible to trust the medical department here: I received no help from them whatsoever, and no diagnosis of what is wrong with me, when I went there a year ago with these symptoms.”
*
“Condolences to Ivan Kuzmich Pomaz, Skalny KGB”
(on the loss of informer and provocateur Dovganich)
“Your loss is tangible, difficult to replace. An irreplaceable assistant, a close friend, kindred spirit and comrade-in-arms has left you prematurely.
“You, better than anyone else, knew how to appreciate his services, his abilities, his dissolute appearance, so comprehensible in its primitiveness. Prematurely, without completing his term of imprisonment, the thief, speculator and provocateur Zinovy Dovganich has left you for freedom. He, who for so long and with such reliability helped the department of which you are head in its difficult and dirty work.
“For you Dovganich was not one of those whose services are cheap and unseen. On several occasions, during long personal interviews with him, you were able to convince yourself that in the person of Dovganich the KGB had a worthy accomplice, whose moral and ethical character fully accorded with the principles and norms governing the activities of your department, its business and personnel. And neither you nor your colleagues abandoned Dovganich to hunger and cold: he always had dietary food, his locker and trunk were crammed with food with which any free Soviet citizen would have been proud to grace his table.
“Parcels, printed matter, packages delivered by hand — there was no end to it.
“You looked after Dovganich as though he were a member of your family, protected him from work, kept him in hospital for months at a time, gave him invalid status; he smoked expensive cigarettes, drank coffee and high-quality tea, ate chocolate … and stole whenever he could.
“In the winter, for example, he stole the only pair of fur mittens belonging to Valery Marchenko, who was ill with a kidney infection. He swindled others, too. You prized Dovganich, looked after him, used him as a provocateur and in banal intrigues. You made use of him despite the fact that his denunciations and other reports took a long time to decipher, so illiterate were they.
“You, Ivan Kuzmich, personally prepared him to testify at the trial of Yury Orlov, you guaranteed him early release. Now Dovganich is free, he has become an ‘ordinary Soviet man’, he cooperates with other departments of the KGB, remaining the same speculator, cheat and scum.
“You have suffered a great loss. One of your best and most trusted employees has left. He was so intelligible and close to your own heart, but you must not despair. The organs of state security will send you another speculator or murderer, another nasty wretch whom you will soon manage to ‘mould* into a suitable assistant in your many-faceted struggle with dissidents.”
From your political prisoners.
*
Semyon Gluzman, Yevhen Pronyuk: “A Word about a Dead Fellow-Prisoner” (Knavins)
“A quiet, unobtrusive person used to walk around the camp. He greeted some people politely, tossed a few brusque words to others …
“He did not write statements, did not protest, did not go on hunger-strike. He was regarded as ‘reformed’. Yes, even that. But considerably more can be said about a dead man. It is not dangerous any more. The KGB can no longer do anything to him. Prisoner Knavins had another life, which was known only to us.
“During all the years we spent together in Camp 35 we never talked to him about his family, his plans, not even about art.
“Knavins did not wish to declare his allegiance to our struggle. Was he afraid? Possibly …
“But once, when the situation seemed hopeless, the silent, unobtrusive Knavins was not afraid to take a risk, and he helped. He helped you, dear reader, to learn the sad news of our camp life, to hear and read new statements and poems … Knavins did not sign any of our appeals, did not write any himself, did not record an interview. He hid himself, which is far more difficult. And he always helped in whatever way he could. He believed in us and we believed in him.
“It would have been enough to tell the KGB a few details and there would have been no more camp, searches or gruel for him. They would have paid him well for such information. But the Latvian Knavins was with us. We were together.
“That search, the last one for Knavins, came unexpectedly. And his heart gave out. It happened on Christmas Day, 25 December 1977.”
***
SEMYON GLUZMAN
Semyon Gluzman: “In Memory of Stepan Mamchur” (1977)
“My fingers are freezing: the pen feels massive in them. It is difficult to write. It is cold. But how cold it is, lying in the indifferent, harsh ground! In foreign ground. Death is inevitable, the final argument. And the final suffering …
“We studied, and the old political prisoner Stepan Mamchur taught us. Not by word, but by deed.
“This quiet, fine person was a master … God, freedom, Ukraine — such words fill out the image of the moral strength and patience of this man — exhausted by struggle and disease, a Christian and a patriot …
“They say that before his death – this means while he was being searched for the last time – they just managed to take some sort of text out of his pocket. Somebody else’s text, which he was supposed to hide. Hard, dangerous and exhausting work — every day. And so on — for years …
“Like an anxious father, he would silently try to give one of us youngsters his humble camp ration. Did he believe that he would live to see the end of his fantastic sentence? I don’t think he did. But he knew: ahead of him lay justice and Ukraine.”
*
Semyon Gluzman: “To P.I. Rozanov, Investigations Department head, Perm Region KGB Administration” (31 August 1978)
Gluzman disputes the punishment meted out to him in connection with the fact that on 28 August he ate ‘in an unauthorized place’.
Quoting the internal camp regulations, he shows that he has the right to eat produce purchased in the camp shop in any place and at any time not taken up with particular activities. He asks that his statement be included in the file of the case which Rozanov has threatened to bring against him (CCE 51). He is sending a copy of the statement to the Perm Region Procurator’s Office.
*
Semyon Gluzman: “To Savinkin, Head of the Administrative Agencies Department, CPSU Central Committee” (5 May 1978)
Gluzman describes the KGB’s disruption of his correspondence (CCE 51).
He writes that in December 1977 he sent a statement to the USSR Procurator-General, a copy of which is attached to the present statement. Gluzman says that his statement to the Procurator-General was answered by Mikov, Head of Institution VS-389, the person whose actions he was complaining about.
The reply was simple: “Gluzman has received explanations at the appropriate time on all the questions raised in the statement.”
I am unable to obtain the text of my letter to Nina Bukovskaya [mother of Vladimir Bukovsky] and cannot send letters to replace the ones which have been lost … Everything remains the same as before. Even private letters, receipts and notifications, belonging to me and enclosed with the statement to the USSR Procurator-General, have not been returned to me.
Gluzman states that he intends to write to the British Foreign Minister, Dr David Owen. He also declares a warning one-day hunger-strike in support of his demands:
“1. A detailed reply to my statement to the Procurator-General; the return of three letters, some receipts and notifications which were sent off with the statement to the Procurator-General.
“2. As you will understand, I will keep a copy of my future letter to Owen, so as to be able to dispose of the text as I see fit.”
*
Semyon Gluzman: “To the Chusovoi city procurator, Goldyrev” (19 June 1978)
I have been informed of your decision that my letter to Bukovsky was confiscated legally and that there was no violation of the law in the actions of the administration … I cannot argue with you … Only one small detail was omitted: I have never written to Bukovsky. Therefore, such a letter was not and cannot have been confiscated.
I have never complained about the fictitious confiscation of non-existent letters.
In January 1979. Gluzman sent statements and protests on the following dates in connection with his private correspondence:
15 — About the confiscation on 16 September 1978 of a letter from Alla Drugova, due to its ‘doubtful content’. The enclosure (a stereo postcard) was not given to him either. On 5 February Gluzman was told of the confiscation, for the same reason, of another letter from Drugova, containing another stereo postcard.
17 — Concerning letters to his father dated 26 December and to Ihor Kalynets dated 31 December; he was not informed whether they had been sent or confiscated.
18 — Concerning a letter to his father, submitted for posting on 12 January. The letter was returned because it mentioned the confiscation of Drugova’s letter: this is regarded as “divulging information about camp conditions”.
19 — Concerning the fact that earlier letters are given out later than those sent after them; that the censorship period for letters was about ten days or longer.
On 22 January Gluzman was summoned by Procurator Yazev from Perm. Yazev, justifying all the administration’s actions, stated:
“The censorship service is too soft. If I was in the censor’s position, I would confiscate more. And you have no right to tell people in your letters about the confiscation of other letters. This amounts to ‘divulging information about camp life’; in general, all they did was correct and lawful.”
On 12 February Gluzman was shown a reply from Myakishev, Head of the Department responsible for Places of Imprisonment (Perm Region Procurator’s Office). Myakishev described all the actions of the administration as just and lawful.
The Chronicle also prints three statements by Gluzman in connection with his imprisonment in the punishment cells and his hunger-strike.
*
Semyon Gluzman: “To the Head of the Perm KGB Administration” (12 February 1979)
“I understand what your role was in the present situation. You decided to act consequentially and decisively.
“I will be just as consequential and decisive. You will have to transport me to my place of exile in a hunger-striking condition. What happens after that will no longer depend on you, but on another KGB administration.
“I do not require an answer, either written or oral.
“P.S. Do not hope that my physical condition will make me change my attitude.”
*
Semyon Gluzman: “To the USSR Procurator-General” (14 February 1979)
“In view of the extraordinary circumstances which arose on the morning of 8 January 1979, I was forced to declare a protest hunger-strike to last to the end of my sentence of imprisonment, i.e. until 11 May 1979.
“On 12 February this year I was shown replies from the Perm and Chusovoi Procurators’ offices to my statements; these replies were provocative and insulting.
Since I am aware that to look for protection or justice from you is a pointless exercise, I will not give an account of the details.
My aim is only this: to inform you of the facts.
I consider it essential to inform you that present circumstances force me to reconsider the length of my hunger-strike, with a view to making it considerably longer.
An identical statement was submitted for forwarding to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet.
*
Semyon Gluzman: “To the USSR Procurator-General” (20 February 1979)
On 16 January 1979 I sent a written statement to the Perm Region Procurator’s Office in which I stated that during my stay in the punishment cells of Corrective Labour Colony 389/36, my manuscripts (poetry and prose), two ball-point pens and two packets of tea were secretly taken from among my personal belongings.
However, the Regional Procurator’s Office did not take the required measures and everything was left to the discretion of the Head of Corrective Labour Colony 389/36, who stated in a written reply dated 9 February this year that the facts had not been substantiated.
As an experienced prisoner I was naturally not surprised, and although I know exactly who stole the manuscripts, pens and tea, I have no hope of their return. Evidently the robbing of prisoners with the de facto cooperation of the supervisory organs is one method of putting pressure on dissidents.
As regards the theft of the manuscripts, this fact ought to be of particular interest to you: in a corrective labour colony under the jurisdiction of the Skalny Regional KGB, ‘someone’ steals the manuscripts of an especially dangerous state criminal, a dissident, yet the official organs are not only unperturbed by this, not only do they not make any attempt to trace them, they do not even try to conduct a formal enquiry.
As you can see, such practices exonerate me and my comrades from some of the responsibility for transmitting information outside the confines of the colony (the opposite, in any case, has not been proved!)
With satisfaction,
Semyon Gluzman
P.S. I bring to your attention the fact that I am complaining about the actions of the Perm Region Procurator’s Office.
***
2. In Defence of Political Prisoners
M. Kheifets: “To Yu.V. Andropov, Member of the CPSU Politburo” (4 November 1978)
The writer M. Kheifets, who has served four years in camp and is at present serving his two-year exile sentence (CCE 51), asks Andropov to intervene in the case of K.M. Skripchuk.
Konstantin Maksimovich SKRIPCHUK (b. 1922) was sentenced in 1953 to 25 years in camp for belonging to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army or UPA (he was a machine-gunner).
In the camps Skripchuk became a Jehovah’s Witness and in 1958 he was convicted of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”. Another five years was added to his sentence. From 1958 to 1970 Skripchuk was in Mordovian Camp No. 1; in 1970 he was transferred to Mordovian Camp No. 19.
Skripchuk is ill (kidney trouble); he has been granted Group II invalid status.
In spring 1978 Skripchuk submitted an appeal for clemency, but rejected the request that he renounce his faith in order to gain his freedom.
Kheifets asks that, now that Skripchuk has served his 25 years, the additional, ‘religious’ sentence be annulled and his request for pardon granted.
Instead of a reply, Kheifets was informed that his letter had been passed to the General Department of the CPSU Central Committee.
*
Mikhail Heifetz (Kheifets): “To the General Department, CPSU Central Committee” (2 January 1979)
“If I do not receive an answer from you, I will be forced, despite my reluctance to prolong bureaucratic correspondence, to appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee and to the [CSCE] Madrid conference of 35 European and North American states. I hope that, if the need arises, you will confirm that you are entirely to blame for such a turn of events.”
On 12 January Kheifets received a reply, signed by T.G. Sokolova, from the USSR Procurator’s Office:
“I hereby inform you that your letter of 2 January 1979, addressed to the General Department of the CPSU Central Committee, has been examined by the USSR Procurator-General’s Office.
“According to a report from the camp administration, Skripchuk has not reformed, therefore the 25 April 1960 Decree of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium has not been applied, for good reason.”
*
Yevgeny Nikolayev: “To Major Nekrasov, Head of Camp ZhKh-385/1-6” (29 January 1979)
During the second half of December 1978, writes Nikolayev, he sent Alexander Ginzburg a letter containing a list of Japanese grammars, dictionaries and books available in Moscow bookshops, but this list did not reach Ginzburg. Nikolayev asks to be informed of the fate of his lost letter and also requests the easing of Alexander Ginzburg’s conditions in the camp, so that he can successfully undertake the study of Japanese.
*
Ivan Kovalyov: “Open Letter to the Biologists Committee” (3 January 1979)
Ivan Kovalyov describes his father, Sergei Kovalyov’s, condition in the camp and expresses the hope that demands for Kovalyov’s release and supporting his public activities will continue.
*
Victor Nekipelov: “To the Editors of Die Welt, West Germany, and Russkaya Mysl, Paris” (January 1979)
Suppression of Workers in the USSR
The letter expresses gratitude for the publication of Nekipelov’s appeal on behalf of Yevgeny Buzinnikov (CCE 51) in Die Welt and in Russkaya Mysl. It also contains an appeal for action to defend the arrested Mikhail Kukobaka (CCEs 47, 51) and E. Kuleshov (CCE 51; see also “Arrests, Searches, Interrogations” CCE 52.4 in the present issue):
“… all three of the arrested men are workers who individually and independently arrived at the conclusion that the USSR workers’ paradise is a widespread myth …
“Appealing to the public, to the workers of Germany and France, through your newspapers, I call on you to conduct a campaign on behalf of the little-known political prisoners, the little-known prisoners of conscience in the USSR.”
*
A. Khlgatyan; “Statement” (1 December 1978)
The author describes Robert Nazaryan (CCE 51.1), a member of the Armenian Helsinki Group, as a man “destined to occupy his rightful place in the history of our people”. Nazaryan has not committed any crime. The statement contains an appeal to free Nazaryan.
***
3. Releases
*
1978
*
In April 1978 two people were released from Perm Camp 35.
Simon Yasnitsky had served 25 years for belonging to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN); Stasys Slucka was imprisoned for 13 years for his participation in the Lithuanian partisan movement.
*
In July 1978 the Lithuanian K. Cuksis was released from the Perm 35 after serving 15 years.
In July 1978 the Baptist P.Ya. Zimens (this issue “Persecution of Believers” CCE 52.11) was released.
*
On 27 December 1978 Grigory Prikhodko was released from Kaluga Prison, to which he had been transferred from Perm Camp 36.
He was not allowed to visit Moscow after his release, but sent straight to Sinelnikovo (Dnepropetrovsk Region) to live with his mother, although before his arrest he had lived and worked in Kaluga. He was immediately placed under surveillance.
*
1979
*
Ona Pranskunaite (CCE 47 & CCE 51.9-2) was released in January 1979 at the end of her two-year sentence.
*
On 15 February 1979, after a year’s imprisonment, Pyotr Vins was released (CCE 49 & CCE 51.9-2).
*
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NOTES
[1] Marchenko to Waldheim (August 1978): Regulations on Internal Procedures in Corrective-Labour Institutions.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 