On 2 June Mark Popovsky (see “Expulsion of Writers” in CCE 45.17) made this statement to foreign journalists:
“For almost 40 days, beginning on 26 April 1977, the independent press agency ‘Solovyov-Klepikova Press’ existed in Moscow. Over 20 reports on human rights were issued to various Western publications by this agency. Kamov (Kandel) and Popovsky participated in the agency’s work. Now the founders of the Agency (Vladimir Solovyov and Yelena Klepikova) are about to emigrate from the USSR. I, Mark Alexandrovich Popovsky, a writer by profession, am taking over management of the Agency. From 7 June 1977 the press agency ‘Mark Popovsky Press’ will begin to function in Moscow, preserving the same aims and plans …”
In February 1976 three Moscow publishing houses had annulled their contracts with Popovsky. In March 1977 he tried to hand in an application for emigration, but the Visa Department refused to accept it, as his wife’s father and her first husband had not given their daughters ‘permission’ to leave.
The statement ends thus:
“It may be that the KGB will try to arrest me, like Sinyavsky, to burn my flat, as they did to Malva Landa, or to kill me, as they killed Konstantin Bogatyrev. But while I am alive and can hold a pen in my hand, the ‘Mark Popovsky Press’ agency will honestly fulfil its obligation to give correct information to those wishing to receive it.”
On 3 June a search was carried out at Popovsky’s home (see “Arrests, Searches and Interrogations”).
The ‘Mark Popovsky Press’ agency has issued the following reports:
[1] “No Changes in Russia” (3 June) about the search;
[2] “The Short Life of Sociology in the USSR” (on 7 June);
“The Party authorities, both central and local, very soon noticed, however, that the collection of concrete facts, often negative, the exposure of legality in public life, whether in industry or in art, would inevitably destroy established State and Party myths.
“So, for example, the investigation of the Soviet press by the methods of content-analysis, which was carried out at the beginning of the 1970s by sociologists from Akademgorodok in Novosibirsk produced such disclosures in their material that the editors of the newspapers Pravda, Izvestiya, Trud and Literaturnaya Gazeta hurriedly broke off their contracts with the scientists and ended all business relationships with them …
“In 1970 a course of lectures read to students of journalism at Moscow State University by Professor Yury Levada, one of the most talented sociologists in the capital city, was sharply criticised in the Central Committee of the CPSU and then in the USSR Academy of Sciences.
“In May 1972 there was a drastic purge at the Institute of Factual Sociological Research. In a matter of months, 28 Doctors of Science and about 60 Candidates of Science left. The Institute was renamed …
“The laboratory of sociology at Tartu University worked on a high scientific level for nine years. However, fear of the fact that the Estonian sociologists ‘know too much’ about the social structures and methods of power led the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist Party to close the laboratory in 1975 …
“Secrecy is the second method which assists the Party high-ups of the Soviet Union in their efforts to stifle the ‘dangerous’ voice of the social sciences …”
[3] “After 60 years of propaganda (Orthodoxy in the cosmic era)”. A report on Archbishop Voino-Yasenetsky, doctor of medicine, professor, surgeon and Stalin prize-winner.
[4] “Where have the Tolstoyans gone?” (9 June).
[5] “Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly” (10 June) — on the World Conference of “Religious activists for a durable peace, disarmament and just relations between nations”.
[6] “Report on hatred” (13 June) — children cannot emigrate from the USSR because their parents are afraid to give them ‘permission’.
[7] “Marriage Moscow-style” (a perfectly happy story about human rights in the USSR) — about the marriage of a Soviet girl and a foreigner.
[8] “Is Christianity getting younger in the USSR?” (17 June) — on the seminar organized by Alexander Ogorodnikov (CCE 43.9).
[9] An interview with the Moscow writer Georgy VIadimov (22 June):
Question: “Georgy Nikolayevich, the lives of writers who reside in Russia and publish their works abroad involve, as you know well, persecution, harassment and material difficulties … How do you see your future as a literary figure?”
Answer: “Our life and work are indeed extremely difficult, but after all, writing itself is one of the hardest professions on earth.
“I do not foresee a new ‘thaw’, rather signs of a ‘freeze’. It is just because of this that I see no need, as an artist, to force myself to adapt to the narrow standards of Soviet literature. The life of an emigrant writer would seem to be freer; unchained, he could achieve more. But those who remain here live the same life as the people, they also have advantages — they continuously imbibe ideas and images from life; they are listened to more by their readers, who know that an author is sharing their misfortunes. I would prefer to live and work in Russia but if this becomes impossible, I shall find a way of being useful to my country beyond its borders.”
[10] “Emile Zola and Anatole France Exposed!” (26 June) a comment on the following phrase:
“Zionist propaganda is trying to compare the case of Shtern to the odious cases of Dreyfus and Beilis, which have become established in the world’s mind in a form which is useful to the Zionists …” (from the article “The Shtern case and the slander campaign” in the journal Chelovek i Zakon [The Individual and the Law], 6 / 1977).
[11] “A very Timely Fire” (6 July) — on the case of Malva Landa.
[12] “Muscovites on the ‘case’ of Robert Toth” (10 July) — Popovsky proves that the handing over of a manuscript to Toth by Petukhov was a premeditated provocation by the KGB.
[13] “Academician Sakharov on Accredited Journalists in Moscow” (15 July).
[14] “Outrages in Tarusa” (21 July) — see “In Tarusa” in “After Release” CCE 46.11.
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In the middle of July MVD Lieutenant-Colonel Zotov, deputy head of the Moscow Visa Department, told Popovsky that they were waiving ‘permission’ from his relatives for his emigration.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 