In Exile, December 1978-January 1979 (52.6)

<<No. 52: 1 March 1979>>

7 ENTRIES

[1]

On 18 January 1979, Zinovy ANTONYUK arrived at his east Siberian place of exile: the town of Bodaibo (Irkutsk Region).

During his medical examination before starting work Antonyuk (see photo below) was found to be suffering from active tuberculosis in the upper part of the right lung. On 29 January he was admitted to a tuberculosis sanatorium. Even in the sanatorium Antonyuk was obliged to report to the police every day.

[2]

At the end of January Ivan A. SVETLICHNY (CCE 51.9-2) was admitted to the regional hospital in Barnaul (Altai Region [krai], Siberia) for tests. He is suspected of having tuberculosis.

[3]

G. DAVYDOV

Georgy DAVYDOV filed a complaint about the extension of surveillance over him for months to come (CCE 51.10).

At the end of December 1978, the Tulun district procurator, Oshchepkov, revoked the extension. The reason: the penalty imposed on Davydov at work (‘a stern warning’) is not mentioned in the Code of Labour Law and is therefore invalid; Davydov had no other penalties and nor had he violated the regime of surveillance.

Finding himself unemployed, Davydov applied for the vacant post of stoker in a neighbouring factory. Despite the assurances of the chief mechanic and chief engineer that a stoker’s diploma was not necessary in that particular boiler house, and that none of the stokers working there had one, the factory director refused to employ Davydov on the grounds that he had no stoker’s diploma.

[4]

In the winter of 1978-1979 Bagrat SHAKHVERDYAN (CCE 51.10) was placed under administrative surveillance. He works as a metal-worker on sanitation jobs.

[5]

Viacheslav CHORNOVIL (CCE 49.9, CCE 51.10,) is an unskilled worker on a State Farm (sovkhoz). His job is to pick out mouldy potatoes.

He earns an average of 10 roubles a month. In November he earned 19 roubles. He does not receive the majority of parcels that are sent to him. This is particularly true of parcels from abroad, which are returned marked ‘addressee absent’. One of the foreign parcel-senders has even appealed to the Soviet authorities and to the International Postal Union.

[6]

KONOVALIKHIN

On 2 January 1979 Vadim KONOVALIKHIN (CCE 51.5) was refused separate living space; earlier he had been promised somewhere to live by 1 January.

On 3 January Konovalikhin wrote to the [Mikun] town soviet, saying that since he had been given a room in a hostel temporarily, until 1 January, he might now find himself homeless and be forced to live at the railway station. Soon afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel Shlepanov, Deputy Head of the Komi ASSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (Fifth Section), had a talk with Konovalikhin and threatened to change his place of exile and send him to one of the most distant regions, to fell trees.

In January 1979 Konovalikhin refused to take part in the All-Union Census. For this he was all but evicted from the hostel and threatened that “action would be taken”. The head of the city’s internal affairs department ordered Konovalikhin not to leave the hostel at weekends.

[7]

IRYNA SENIK

On 15 December 1978, after a month-long journey, Iryna SENIK [¹] arrived at her place of exile (CCE 51.9-1).

Before her transfer, on the grounds of ill-health — after exile in the Stalin period she was seriously ill, almost died and is now totally broken physically (a Group II invalid) – Senik tried to obtain permission to be sent into exile by normal transport. Her brother appealed to have her sent to live with him in the Krasnoyarsk Region [Krai] in central Siberia; her mother and nephew also live there. Neither the first nor the second request was granted. Before the transfer she was deceived and told that she was going to the Krasnoyarsk Region. After a month-long journey, she actually arrived in Kazakhstan.

On the way Senik was seriously ill with angina and renal attacks. In the city of Tselinograd ([Astana] Kazakhstan, pop. 281,252: 1989) she was admitted to the medical unit, and on several occasions, it even became necessary to call out the city ambulance.

Senik was released in the town of Ushtobe (pop. 24,246; 1979), Karatalsky district (Taldy-Kurgan Region, east Kazakhstan). On release she was given no documents and was not even able to receive a money transfer. She moved into an hotel. Her illness continued: she was tormented by sharp attacks of polyarthritis and overwhelming weakness.

Senik was promised a job in her field, she has an intermediate medical training, and help with accommodation. She was even told that if she showed loyalty she could be released after two and a half years; her sentence prescribes three years exile. Meanwhile she has been placed under surveillance.

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