The campaign by Soviet citizens of German nationality for permission to emigrate to the Federal Republic of Germany (CCE 32.8) continues.
Numerous letters, appeals and statements, addressed to Soviet leaders, West German leaders and world public opinion, have publicized cases of judicial and extra-judicial repressions for participation in this movement.
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KAZAKHSTAN
Between January and April 1974 a series of trials involving Soviet citizens of German nationality took place in Kazakhstan. All of the defendants were charged under Article 170-1, Kazakh SSR Criminal Code (= Article 190-1, RSFSR Code):
Ergard Rudolfovich ABEL. Karaganda Regional Court, 16-21 January 1974. Arrested 26 September 1973; on 30 May and 11 June 1973 Abel was ‘cautioned’ according to the 25 December 1972 Decree. Before his arrest he lived at flat 2, 29 Zhdanov Street, Karaganda, and worked as a welder; his wife is Maria Josifovna Bauer; they have two sons.
Tissen. Aktyubinsk Regional Court, 18 February 1974; 60 years old; four children.
Viktor Yakovlevich VERNER. Alma-Ata Regional Court, 5 March 1974; arrested on 25 October 1973; before his arrest, Verner lived at 10 Kalinin Street, Issyk, Alma-Ata region. His wife is Adolina Vilgelmovna Verner; they have three non-adult children.
Ivan Ivanovich FERTIKH. Alma-Ata Regional Court, 15-22 April 1974; arrested 25 October 1973; before his arrest, Fertikh lived at flat 4, 46 Belinsky Street, Issyk, Alma-Ata region, and worked as a doctor; his wife is Roza Fertikh; they have two small children.
All four received three-year sentences.
Valentin Arturovich KLINK. Alma-Ata Regional Court, 15 February 1974; arrested 3 November 1973; before his arrest, Klink lived at 34 Ordzhonikidze Street, Issyk, Alma-Ata Region, and worked as a taxi-driver; his wife is Nina Klink; they have four small children and elderly parents.
Viktor Arturovich KLINK. Alma-Ata Regional Court, 15-22 April1974; arrested 25 October 1973; before his arrest Klink worked as a dental technician; he was a member of the party; co-defendant of I. I. Fertikh; his wife, Marta Klink, is now living at Valentin Klink’s address; they have three young children.
The Klink brothers each got two-year sentences.
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VERDICTS
In all the verdicts, the following statements were described as “deliberately false fabrications defaming the Soviet political and social system”: that Soviet citizens of German nationality are deprived of their own language and culture, that people of German nationality are being assimilated in the USSR, that the German nationality problem has not been solved, that the necessary conditions for the survival and development of the German national minority are absent in the USSR, and that, in order to preserve their national identity, Soviet Germans must return to their ‘historical homeland’ Germany.
Other ‘fabrications’, quoted in the verdicts, include the following statements: that there is no democracy in the U SSR, that there is no freedom of speech, and that the constitutional rights of citizens are crudely infringed.
Some of the accused were also charged with praising private property, the capitalist economic system and living conditions in the Federal Republic of Germany.
These charges refer, specifically, to statements made in the family, in the presence of the defendant’s wife and children, and at party and trade union meetings.
The material evidence against the accused included appeals, letters and statements they had written to high Soviet authorities, on the subject of their emigration to West Germany.
Finally, the accused were charged with ‘stimulating a mood in favour of emigration’ in others, and with compiling lists of ethnic Germans who wished to emigrate to West Germany.
The wives of the accused have appealed to various international organizations for help (see Archive of the Chronicle, number 2). In their letters, they expressed the firm conviction that the main reason for the imprisonment of their husbands was their wish to emigrate to West Germany: E. R. Abel’s family has been seeking permission to emigrate to West Germany for the past 15 years.
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ESTONIA
On 6 and 7 August 1974 an Estonian SSR Supreme Court assizes, in the town of Kehra, tried the case of Peter Bergman, Voldemar Shults, Gergard Fast and Lyudmila Oldenburger (CCE 32.8). P. Bergman was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, V. Shults, G. Fast and L. Oldenburger to two years. The sentence was suspended in the case of L. Oldenburger.
On 8 August Academician A. D. Sakharov sent a letter to Chancellor H. Schmidt of the Federal Republic of Germany, SPD Chairman W. Brandt, and the deputies of the Bundestag, calling on them to seek a review of this ‘unlawful and cruel verdict’. A. D. Sakharov concluded his letter by saying:
“I also call on you to do all you can to support the right of Soviet Germans to emigrate to West Germany, and the right of any person freely to choose the country he wants to live in . . . I also ask that material support be organized for the families of those condemned and for persons persecuted for their wish to emigrate from the USSR: only if such support is forthcoming can the emigration movement withstand the repressive measures of the Soviet authorities.”
P. Bergman is the father of eight children. His home address is: 202132, Estonian SSR, Rakvere district, p.o. Lasila. Dependant on V. Shults are five children and an aunt — an invalid of the most disabled type. His address is: Estonian SSR, Valga district, Keni sovkhoz [state farm]. G. Fast has one child. His address is: Estonian SSR, Paide, Ehitojatti Street 6, flat 1. His wife is Alvina Fast.
A. D. Sakharov also wrote a letter about the verdict in this case to N. V. Podgorny. In the letter he says: “I ask you to intervene and to help obtain a review of this unjust verdict, which has damaged the prestige of our State.”
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In the autumn of 1972 Ivan Genrikhovich VANZIDLER (Estonian SSR, Valga, Pikk Street 34, flat 5) received an invitation from his sister in West Germany, in which she invited Vanzidler and his family to come and settle with her permanently.
His son Ivan, a fifth-year student at Riga Polytechnic Institute, applied for a reference, which he required to submit with his application for an exit visa.
Three months before he was due to defend his thesis, on 23 January 1973, he was expelled from the institute on the order of the director ‘in connection with his departure for permanent residence abroad’.
On 16 April 1973 the Vanzidler family was refused an exit visa. On 17 April the son Ivan received his call-up for army service.
In February 1974 I. G. Vanzidler applied to 0 VIR once more. In May he was once again refused an exit visa, on the grounds that his daughter Eli had taken part in a demonstration in Tallinn in February 1974 (CCE 32.8).
On 21 August his second daughter, Vanda, was arrested. Criminal charges were brought against her under the Estonian Criminal Code Article (= Article 190-1, RSFSR Code).
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When Vladimir Shvindt flew from Alma-Ata to Moscow, he was searched four times.
The first time he was searched six hours before flight departure, because of an alleged theft in some shop or other. The second time, he and his luggage were searched when he was boarding the plane. (Such a search is allowed by the decree passed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on 19 March 1971 ‘where there is sufficient reason to suspect a passenger of intending’ to take on board with him objects which might be a danger to the aircraft or the passengers.) The third time, he was taken off the plane and searched, after he had already got on. The fourth time he was searched in Moscow on leaving the airport.
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K G B official Timofeyev came to the home of Yekaterina Keller in Frunze and told her that she had been given permission to emigrate, but that she would not receive it in writing until she admitted that she had given to foreign journalists lists of Soviet Germans who wished to emigrate to West Germany.
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In Estonia, during the visit of the German Chancellor Schmidt to the Soviet Union, activists of the German emigration movement were placed in preventive detention on various pretexts. Usually, both husbands and wives were detained. In many cases, children were left with no-one to look after them.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 