<<No 45 : 25 May 1977>>

• 11-1 Prisons and Camps
• 11-2 Political Prisoner status
• 11-3 Letters and Statements; Releases

*

Vladimir Prison.

An Appeal by political prisoners signed by Abankin, Antonyuk, Afanasyev, Balakhonov, Davydov, Rode and Safronov about the exchange of Bukovsky for Corvalan (see “Letters & Statements by Political Prisoners” CCE 45.11-3 this issue) has fallen into the hands of the administration.

Antonyuk was deprived of a visit. The other signatories were transferred to strict-regime for two months from 22 January 1977.

At the beginning of April Zinovy Antonyuk suffered a heart attack.

*

Gabriel Superfin was placed in the cooler in April. The term and reason are unknown.

*

Many inmates of Vladimir Prison are severely emaciated.

Vladimir Balakhonov, for example, is 169 cm (5 feet, 6 inches) tall and weighs 53 kg (117 lbs).

Vitold Abankin, whose height is 173 cm (5 feet, 8 inches), weighs 63 kg (139 lbs). In 1976 Abankin spent 90 days in the cooler, including two 30-day periods.

*

Chronicle 43 described how the inmates of Vladimir Prison (CCE 43.3) checked where registered letters they had not received had got to. They found out that the prison administration had been deceiving the inmates and simply had not forwarded letters containing complaints to the post-office (postal district 20, city of Vladimir).

Mikhail Makarenko, in particular, enquired about 63 letters.

The post-office replied that the letters had not reached postal district 20 from the prison. Makarenko [¹] complained to the procurator’s office, pointing out that the administration had told him the registration numbers of the letters. Conducting an ‘investigation’, assistant Regional Procurator Sychugov showed Makarenko the postal registers, in which all 63 letters were entered as having been received by postal district 20.

Makarenko then submitted a suit against the post-office, which “had lost his letters” to the municipal court. (The post-office is obliged in this case to pay financial compensation.) However, the court did not accept the suit: in July 1976 Judge Kulakova ruled that the suit did not fall within the court’s competence as “relating to a penal regime”.

Mikhail Makarenko (1931-2007)

Makarenko appealed against this ruling to the Regional Court. Makarenko wished to engage a lawyer for this but Atabekov, chair of the Regional Bar Association, replied that the justice of his case was so obvious that he would win it even without a defence lawyer.

After complaining to the USSR Minister of Justice a lawyer was nonetheless provided, but Makarenko lost his case in the Regional Court. In November 1976 the Regional Court confirmed that Makarenko could send such a complaint only to agencies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD), thereby effectively acknowledging that it was not the post office that was guilty of the letters disappearance.

*

Makarenko decided to carry on the law-suit by appealing to the supervisory level of the procurator’s office. In order to conclude a new agreement with a lawyer he submitted an application to the prison administration for the transfer of money from his personal account to a legal consultation office.

The same day all his money (150 roubles) was taken from his account “to pay for his food during 1976”. This deduction, and the fact that it was back-dated, constituted gross violations of the relevant regulations. Makarenko’s complaints to the Administration for Corrective-Labour Institutions and the procurator’s office were rejected. Moreover, the prison also confiscated “as payment for food” new money transfers arriving in Makarenko’s name.

*

Mordovia

On 12 January 1977 a one-day hunger-strike was declared to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the campaign of repression in the Ukraine in 1972.

Participants demanded the release of Ukrainian political prisoners and an end to persecution for nationalist beliefs. The hunger-strike was conducted by the Ukrainians Mykhaylo Osadchy, Ivan Hel, Valentyn Moroz, Svyatoslav Karavansky, Vasily Romanyuk, Danilo Shumuk and Pyotr Saranchuk (all in Camp 1) and by Viacheslav Chornovil, Vasyl Stus, Nikolai Budulak-Sharygin, Vasyl Ovsienko, Roman Semenyuk, Konstantin Didenko, Artyom Yuskevich, Igor Kravtsov, Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets, Stefania Shabatura, Oksana Popovich and Iryna Senik.

Non-Ukrainian prisoners Paruir Airikyan, Razmik Markosyan, Vladimir Osipov, German Ushakov, Sergei Soldatov, Mikhail Kheifets, Yury Fyodorov, Eduard Kuznetsov, Maigonis Ravins, Babur Shakirov and Nijole Sadunaite also took part.

In a statement issued that day Vladimir Osipov listed 40 Ukrainian political prisoners known to him and called it a crime that prisoners should be forcibly cut off from their native tongue and national culture.

*

In February 1977, on the initiative of women prisoners, statements were written in all four political camps protesting against the official threats to Andrei Sakharov.

*

23 March 1977 marked the first anniversary since the UN covenants on human rights came into force in the USSR. To mark the date political prisoners conducted a one-day hunger-strike, protesting against particular violations of the Covenant on Civil & Political Rights:

• the imprisonment of persons charged with circulating information and ideas continues in violation of Article 19 of the 1948 Declaration;
• the persecution of believers continues in violation of Article 18;
• the detention in camps and prisons of those sentenced to 25 years imprisonment continues, although Article 15 forbids terms of imprisonment greater than those in force at the time of the punishment’s implementation.
  In the USSR, since 1959, the maximum permissible sentence has been 15 years. In the Mordovian camps at present there are about 20 such prisoners sentenced to longer terms of imprisonment.

On 21 April a 100-day campaign of struggle began for The Rights of Political Prisoners (see “Statute on Political Prisoners” CCE 45.11-2 this issue).

*

At the end of 1976 Colonel Romanov became head of the KGB office for the Mordovian camps, replacing Colonel Drotenko. Major Tryasoumov became deputy head.

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Camp 1 (special-regime)

11 people died in Camp 1 during 1976.

One reason for the high mortality rate is thought to be the harmful work conditions (cf. “chemistry”). The air in the workshops is saturated with glass-dust and dust from abrasives. There are fewer than one hundred prisoners in the camp altogether.

Svyatoslav Karavansky is sharing a cell with common criminal Shinkevich who is known for his aggressive behaviour: he has terrorized many of his previous cell-mates.

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Danilo Shumuk was in hospital from 28 January to 22 April 1977 because of a stomach ulcer.

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In February Kuznetsov, Murzhenko, Rebrik and Osadchy held a five-day hunger-strike in protest against the increased harshness of the regime. In the three other political camps of Mordovia one-day hunger-strikes were held in solidarity.

*

During a search in April 1977 Valentyn Moroz was found to have notes on the Vladimir Prison and the Serbsky Institute (CCE 40.7). For this he was deprived of a long visit, which was due in July, and put in solitary. Moroz declared a hunger-strike.

*

The head of Camp 1 is Kropotov.

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Camp 3

Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets was in the cooler from 5 until 18 May 1977.

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CHORNOVIL. OSIPOV. AIRIKYAN

Viacheslav Chornovil, who adopted the status of political prisoner on 10 December 1976 (CCE 44.17-1), is not appearing for parades and roll-calls.

He does not a wear a patch with his surname and whenever possible does not wear prisoner’s clothing. He will not submit to having his head shaved or to undressing for searches (he is shaved and undressed by force).

Regarding work, he declared that he demands work relating to his professional skills. He would agree to do other types of work if

• (1) the country’s labour legislation were extended to cover prisoners: at present prisoners work a 48-hour week, and not infrequently Sunday and emergency work is imposed as well; and
• (2) if the deduction of half of his earnings by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) were to stop.

Since transferring to political status Chornovil has been imprisoned in a punishment cell at least four times: for seven days on 31 December 1976 (he was imprisoned while suffering an illness, not having been given the prescribed medical examination); for a further seven days on 11 February 1977; for 14 days on 25 February; and for another 14 days on 23 March 1977.

*

On 26 December 1976 Chornovil sent a statement to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet in which he renounced the desire to leave the USSR that he had expressed in a statement of 1 March 1975 (CCE 37). He continued to consider himself a citizen of the Ukraine but not of the USSR, he wrote, and he wished to share the fate of his people.

***

On 31 December 1976, simultaneously with Chornovil, Vladimir Osipov was placed in a punishment cell, for an attempt to obtain food products for money. He was given two weeks.

 When being transferred to a punishment cell both Osipov and Chornovil refused to put on the torn and dirty clothing that was given them and stayed in the cell wearing only their underclothes. On the second day, the Camp head Captain Pikulin inspected the clothing and agreed that it was no good and ordered that other clothing should be brought. In the punishment cell Osipov and Chornovil conducted a series of partial hunger-strikes, announcing as the reason for each of them the violation of one of the demands of the Political Prisoners Statute.

*

During the imprisonment of Osipov and Chornovil, Paruir Airikyan declared a partial hunger-strike. Political prisoners of Camp 19 also protested (see below).

*

On 17 January 1977, Airikyan, Osipov and Chornovil sent the authorities a statement about the Statute on Political Prisoners (see CCE 45.11-2).

On 28 January Osipov was transferred from Camp 3, where he had spent half a year, back to Camp 19. He was taken without warning and given only half-an-hour to get ready.

*

On 14 January 1977 Airikyan was deprived of a visit for non-fulfilment of norms (see “Letters and Statements by Political Prisoners” CCE 45.11-3 this issue).

On 12 February Airikyan announced that he was the secretary of the National United Party. Many political prisoners in different camps (not only Armenians), knowing about this in advance, on the same day declared their recognition of him in this capacity. In particular, such declarations were made by Arshakyan and Soldatov, who were being held in Saransk.

On 18 February Airikyan was put in a punishment cell for two weeks.

Airikyan marked 8 March, Women’s Day, with a series of statements about women political prisoners (CCE 45.11-3 this issue).

On 23 March Airikyan was again put in a punishment cell for two weeks.

***

On 18 April 1977 Pyotr Sartakov was given seven days in a punishment cell. When he was being dispatched from the zone Major Alexandrov ordered that he be put in handcuffs. Sartakov called Alexandrov a hangman, and for this received an extra 14 days.

*

Camp 19

KHRAMTSOV

Further details have become known about the beating-up of Yury Khramtsov (CCE 44.17-1).

On 22 October 1976 at 6 am, ensigns Datsik and Cherkasov discovered that Khramtsov had not got up when reveille sounded and had not gone out for a ‘walk’ (walking in a circle to rousing marches). Khramtsov explained that he was sick, but the warders pulled him from his bunk with oaths and curses, after which Datsik started to beat him with a boot, drawing blood from his head.

The head of the medical sector, Seksyasov, did not appear when called for, and said that Khramtsov should come to him. 13 political prisoners: V. Kapoyan, Mikhail Korenblit, I. Kravtsov, Ramzik Markosyan, Vasyl Ovsienko, Boris Penson, Maigonis Ravins, R. Semenyuk, Sergei Soldatov, Vasyl Stus, German Ushakov, Mikhail Kheifets and Artyom Yuskevich demanded from Ganichev, the procurator for supervision of penal institutions, an investigation and judicial punishment for the warders. The investigation that was conducted led to an agreement with the witnesses that they should give evidence that they saw no beating-up, Yury Khramtsov was taken off to the psychiatric department of the hospital and held there until 25 January 1977.

Datsik was transferred to the neighbouring zone for common criminals, but after a month returned to his former work.

Yury Khramtsov, who is about 55 years old. He was sentenced on a spying charge to 25 years imprisonment and has already served more than twenty.

***

Chronicle 44 described how Mikhail Kheifets and Sergei Soldatov were taken to Saransk (CCE 44.17-1). Kheifets was asked about the manuscripts found in his possession.

KGB officials suggested to Soldatov that he should make a written statement renouncing any public activities. In return, they promised, he would receive, as Soldatov put it, “one-and-a-half freedoms”: a speedy release for himself (Soldatov’s 6-year term ends in 1980) and remission of half the sentence on his son, who was sentenced on a criminal charge to five years (see CCE 45.11-3, Soldatov’s statement of 24 February 1977). Soldatov replied that he would make no deals regarding his behaviour, but act according to his civil and religious duty. Earlier, in August 1976, Soldatov, and also Kheifets and Osipov, were asked by head of the Mordovian KGB Shutov to write a request for pardon.

*

On 3 January 1977 Ushakov, Budulak-Sharygin, Ravins, Ovsienko, Markosyan, Yuskevich and Semenyuk issued a protest against the internment of Osipov and Chornovil in a punishment cell.

*

FLU EPIDEMIC

The prisoners are indignant at the head of the medical sector Seksyasov.

During a flu epidemic (January 1977) powerful medicines were used to bring temperatures down to 35.50 degrees Centigrade, and two days later people were judged fit for work regardless of weakness, colds and headaches. Seksyasov showered medical sector employees with oaths if they dared to let anyone off work without his knowledge. Seksyasov told prisoner Vasily Kalinin (a believer of the True Orthodox Church, in prison since 1957), that he would leave him in the medical isolation unit if he would stop praying.

Instead of making out a prescription for prisoner Smiltans, Seksyasov wrote a work order for him to give to the workshop foreman.

He repeatedly drove Maigonis Ravins, who suffers from progressive deafness, from the office. Seksyasov has systematically refused to allow people with serious illnesses to be sent to hospital. The prisoners demanded Sekyasov’s replacement and trial. The administration declares their complaints to be ‘slanderous’ and does not forward them.

*

In January 1977 the plan was not fulfilled due to flu, and the camp head declared the Sundays of 16 and 23 January to be working days but granted the right to a compensatory day of rest later.

Since compensatory rest was not in fact granted for 16 January, 52 people did not go to work on 23 January. Seven people: Budulak-Sharygin, Kapoyan, Kravtsov, Markosyan, Ovsienko, Ravins and Semenyuk were deprived of access to the camp shop and of a parcel.

*

The same day Maigonis Ravins received a second punishment: he was sent to the punishment block for four months for not fulfilling the norm.

As a protest he declared that he was assuming the status of political prisoner and refused to work. In the space of six months (he has been in the camp since mid-1976), Ravins has been punished 24 times for not going to work or for not fulfilling norms. The many protests and requests by other political prisoners to treat Ravins humanely — he does not work due to his illness — have been rejected.

The reply to those who defend him is that they have no right to make representations ‘for other persons’.

*

MARKOSYAN

Razmik Markosyan on 4 February 1977 sent the Procurator-General a protest against the systematic declaration of days-off as working days in Camp 19 and against illegal punishments for refusal to work on Sundays.

He writes that for himself personally, suffering from a stomach ulcer, deprivation of use of the camp shop (the ninth in a year), and repeated internments in a punishment cell constitute a deliberate destruction of his health.

On 14 February Markosyan was put in a punishment cell for two weeks. On 24 February he suffered an ulcer attack; the doctor did not visit him and no medicines were given.

In 1976 Markosyan was punished 47 times. (During this period the 250 prisoners of Camp 19 received 440 punishments). Markosyan does not receive the diet prescribed for his illness. He is extremely emaciated but is not given work that is within his strength. Many of his punishments have been given because he could not fulfil norms or, feeling weak, lay down during working hours.

On 15 February 1977 Markosyan sent off a statement that he was adopting the status of political prisoner (see “Statute on Political Prisoners”, CCE 45.11-2).

*

Artyom Yuskevich is ill with tuberculosis of the kidneys.

His condition worsened sharply due to heavy work sawing wood and to poor food. In January he was sent to the hospital (Camp 3, Barashevo). Yuskevich is trying to get himself sent to the Gaaz Prison Hospital in Leningrad.

*

At the end of April Osipov’s wife Valentina Mashkova came to visit him.

The authorities of Camp 19 refused to allow the visit on the grounds that six months had not elapsed since Osipov’s transfer to this camp. Mashkova disputed this refusal, referring to the Corrective Labour Code, but without success.

*

Perm

In Camp 35 there are 96 prisoners (April 1977); about 90 prisoners are in Camp 36 (not counting the zone for common criminals); and about 40 prisoners are in Camp 37.

*

Camp 35

The number of administrators has not diminished since 1974, although there were then 250 prisoners in the camp. The prisoners consider that the authorities are more interested in keeping reliable cadres than in economizing on salaries.

About half the prisoners are aged invalids, imprisoned mostly for wartime offences (serving as policemen or punitive personnel under the Nazi occupation), or for participation in national-liberation partisan struggles.

They work in a metalworking workshop (about 15 people), a sewing workshop (also about 15 people), a boiler-room (nine people) and general services (about 20 people).

In the living zone there is one two-storey brick barracks. Conditions are considered to be relatively good. It is not cold in the barracks (except for spring and autumn). There is a recreation area in the zone where in summer one can even lie in the sun.

Full-scale searches are conducted two or three times a month; certain political prisoners are searched much more frequently. Sometimes the doctor ‘prescribes’ a second blanket, otherwise such an item is taken away during searches. Sweaters, padded jackets and felt boots are also confiscated. Gloves, a scarf and socks are permitted.

*

On one occasion a former ‘polizei’ (Nazi occupation policeman) picked a quarrel with Izrail Zalmanson on some trifling pretext and called him a Yid.

Zalmanson hit him and a brawl started. Zalmanson was given 15 days in a punishment cell. The “polizei” was given five days but exempted from serving them by doctor’s order. On 18 February 1977 members of the supervisory commission of the Soviet executive committee and a few other people talked to Zalmanson. The same day Zalmanson was taken to a court in the town of Chusovoi which transferred him to prison until the end of his term, that is, until 15 June 1978 (see CCE 17.6, “The Trial of the Hijackers”).

*

The state of Igor Ogurtsov‘s health has recently sharply deteriorated. He is working as a stoker, doing two shifts in succession. Ogurtsov is in his eleventh year of imprisonment (trial, CCE 1.6), seven of which he has spent in Vladimir Prison.

*

Ivan Shovkovoi (CCE 33///) has been deprived of a long visit, due at the end of May, because he went to another part of the camp.

*

Yevhen Sverstyuk has been transferred here from Camp 36 (the Chronicle does not know on what date). On 14 April 1977 his wife came from Kiev to see him on a personal (i.e., ‘long’) visit. She was told that Sverstyuk had been deprived of the visit.

The administration offered to give Sverstyuk a general (i.e., ‘short’) visit on the condition that Russian was spoken. Sverstyuk did not accept the condition and declared a hunger-strike in protest against deprivation of a long visit. About 20 other political prisoners also declared a hunger-strike in support.

On 30 April Camp head Polyakov telegraphed Lilya Sverstyuk that a long visit had been permitted and was fixed for the end of May.

*

Polyakov has become the camp head; he was previously deputy head for regime.

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Camp 36

Since spring 1976 new work has been introduced to the camp, chiselling heavy parts (up to 100 kg) for a Sverdlovsk instrument factory.

This heavy and unhealthy work is not officially counted as such. Of the prescribed extras milk, food according to norm 2 (CCE 33.2), and a supplementary four roubles for the prison shop — the prisoners have managed to obtain only a few, and then not always. The prisoners have also frequently demanded the issue of safety overalls to lathe-workers.

At the end of September 1976, the end of Grinkiv’s sleeve caught in a lathe while he was chiselling: he was wearing ordinary overalls, and his clothing was instantly ripped off, and he was sent to the medical sector in a state of shock. Several political prisoners sent a statement about this incident to the Procurator and the All-Union Council of Trade Unions. They received the reply that the accident had been Grinkiv’s own fault.

*

Repair and tidying-up work is being carried out in the camp. The administration is forcing prisoners to do this work, including heavy work with cement, in unpaid overtime.

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As a practising Jew, Josif Mendelevich does not work on Saturdays, fulfilling the Saturday norms in advance.

On Saturday 11 December 1976 he discovered on arrival at his place of work that the finished parts he had stored had disappeared. Comrades from his own and even from another workshop helped him to put together again the prescribed number. On Monday deputy head of the Camp Fyodorov summoned the brigade leaders and gave them a dressing-down over the fact that their men had left their places of work. A few days later Mendelevich called in at the workshop head’s office on business and saw his missing parts there.

After the following Saturday (18 December) Mendelevich was given one month in the punishment barracks for avoiding work. Many prisoners protested. Dymshits, Zalmanson, Chuprei, Grinkiv and Kovalyov are known to have conducted a one-day hunger-strike.

*

Starting from October 1976 invalids are being forced (through persuasion and threats) to work.

Dmytro Basarab and Onufry Kulak (both serving 25-year sentences for taking part in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, UPA) firmly refused. Over a certain period of time Fyodorov daily summoned Basarab to see him. At the beginning of February Basarab fell ill with a heart attack and was sent to hospital on a stretcher. Earlier he had suffered two bouts of heart trouble.

*

On 6 January 1977 section officer Dolmatov tried to disperse prisoners who had gathered in their barracks to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas. The prisoners did not comply.

In mid-January searches were conducted as a result of which Bibles were confiscated from a number of people including Sverstyuk, an English edition belonging to Mukhametshin, and Sado.

*

Notes of religious content were confiscated from Petras Plumpa. Plumpa is continually accused by the administration of carrying on religious propaganda. He is threatened with severe punishment.

In March Plumpa’s wife received a notification from the Camp head Zhuravkov that Plumpa had been deprived of a visit “for violation of the regime”.

*KOVALYOV & TARATUKHIN

At the end of 1976 Sergei Kovalyov sent a statement to the USSR Procurator-General about the undercover work conducted among the prisoners by the camp administration and representatives of the KGB.

Kovalyov referred to the self-unmasking of Taratukhin in February 1976 (CCE 42.4-2). Kovalyov’s statement was confiscated as containing information not permitted to be made public.

*

In 1976 Taratukhin was taken to Camp 37 for several months. There he was ’chatted to’ about his refusal to cooperate with the KGB. The administration summoned his father to this ‘chat’.

*

Sergei Kovalyov has returned to the camp after treatment in the Leningrad prison hospital (CCE 44.17-1), where he was from 9 March to 15 April. He underwent an operation on his anal passage.

***

Vasily Lisovoi has been transferred to Camp 36 from Mordovia.

*

Semyon Gluzman, Ihor Kalynets, Valery Marchenko and Ivan Svetlichny have been transferred here from Camp 35.

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In Other Camps

Latvia

On 17 February 1977 the Supreme Court of the Latvian SSR considered Pyotr Naritsa’s appeal (CCE 44).

Defence lawyer Mintsker refused to participate in the appeal hearing. He had nothing to add to Naritsa’s appeal, he said, but regretted its strong wording. During the appeal hearing Naritsa’s appeal was not read out. It was only stated that the defendant considered the attack to have been deliberately instigated and that he did not plead guilty. The sentence (21 years) remained in force.

When he was in an investigations prison in Riga Naritsa wrote a complaint to the Procurator of the Latvian SSR about the conditions in which he was confined. Afterwards he was beaten up by his cell-mates, who were common criminals. From 3 to 6 March Naritsa was put in a punishment cell, wearing handcuffs. During this time the handcuffs bit into his wrists so much that when they were being taken off, he cried out with pain.

Since 10 March 1977 Naritsa has been in a camp near Riga (Riga, GSP, penal institution OTs 78/7). It is known to the local population as ‘Skirotava’ (from the name of the locality).

In the camp Naritsa was told that he was considered unreliable and could therefore expect only the worst conditions. He was put in a bad brigade doing heavy work.

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Yakutia

Georgy Vins (CCEs 35, 44), spent two weeks in the Regional MVD hospital in Yakutia.

His condition continues to worsen, and the attacks of heart trouble and high blood pressure have become more frequent: as a result of emaciation and vitamin deficiency he has furunculosis and his gums bleed.

On 20 April the camp administration gave Vins a reprimand. The accusation was made that Western publications about him were a result of his initiative. They showed Vins an English-language newspaper with an article and a photograph.

On 22 May Vins received a two-hour visit from his wife and son. During the visit he said that material for a new trial was being collected against him, and in particular his correspondence.

*

Pavel Bashkirov (CCE 43.4) was put in a punishment cell in May — evidently for refusing to take part in the work to decorate the camp for the May Day holiday.

Bashkirov is suffering from pellagra. During the winter he was in hospital with inflammation of the lungs [²].

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NOTES

1. Mikhail Makarenko (1931-2007): CCE 16.7 (item 2); CCE 46.10, & CCE 48.13.
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2. Corrections in CCE 48: Bashkirov was put in the punishment cell later, not at this time, nor was he put in the hospital (although ill as described).
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