- 6-1. Mordovia, Perm, Vladimir Prison
- 6-2. Political Prisoners in Vladimir Prison (a list)
- 6-3. Torture in the Investigation Prisons of Georgia
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1. Mordovia
At the end of 1974, in connection with the proclamation of 1975 as International Women’s Year, Darya Gusyak [Ukr. Husyak], Nina Strokata, Irina Senik, Stefaniya Shabatura, Irina Stasiv-Kalynets and Nadezhda Svetlichnaya (Camp 3, Zone 4), refused to carry out forced labour and demanded their release.
This was answered by repression.
On 3 January 1975 Strokata and Shabatura were put in punishment barracks for three months and six months respectively. On the same day Stasiv-Kalynets and Svetlichnaya were put in the camp prison for 14 days. In addition, Svetlichnaya was deprived of a visit from her son, who has not started school yet. As Strokata and Shabatura refused to do forced labour even in the punishment barracks, they were put on food ration 9(b) [or 10 (b)?] (CCE 33.2), which reduced them to complete exhaustion.
As a gesture of solidarity with the women prisoners, Vyacheslav Chornovil and Paruir Airikyan refused camp breakfasts for the whole of 1975; Azat Arshakyan refused breakfast throughout the imprisonment of Anait Karapetyan (in some copies of CCE 34 Anait Karapetyan is wrongly followed by the masculine verb form).
In April Nina Strokata was in the women’s hospital zone (zone 3) of camp 3. At this time her husband, Svyatoslav Karavansky (CCE 13.7, CCE 15.4 [3], CCE 18.5 [7]) was in the men’s hospital zone (zone 2) of the same camp. During a short meeting Karavansky found it difficult to recognize his wife: she had changed so much.
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Mikhail Kheifets (CCE 34.2) arrived in Camp 17 in March.
Proposals have been made to Kheifets on a number of occasions, both personally and through his relatives, that he should appeal for a pardon, with the stipulation that the plea should come from him personally (the law allows anybody to address a plea for pardon) and that it should express full repentance.
Kheifets continually refuses to go along with these offers. He says that he wants to remain in the camp because he is preparing to write a book about
the camps and hopes to make a better study of the material than when he wrote his books on the ‘People’s Will’ [Narodnaya volya] movement of the late 19th century.
During a visit from his mother Kheifets refused to discuss the question of a pardon with her, and even brought the meeting to an early end. His wife refused the offer of an additional visit, through which the authorities hoped that she would get him to change his mind.
In Leningrad it is said that about a month after his arrest, Kheifets was blackmailed into starting to give evidence; he was threatened that Etkind would be arrested if he refused to comply.
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Dmitry Mikheyev (CCE 21.2) is detained in Camp 19. After submitting a plea for pardon, his sentence was reduced by two years. His sentence should now end in 1976.
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In February 1975 Alexander Bolonkin (CCE 30.4) was again transferred from Camp 19 to the hospital (zone 2 of Camp 3).
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Ukolov has been brought to Camp 17. The Chronicle has no information about him.
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In the winter of 1974-75 Ivan Gel [Ukr. Hel] (CCE 33.4), Vyacheslav Chornovil (CCE 33.4), and Mikhail Osadchy (CCE 24.3 & CCE 27.1-1) were taken to Ukraine.
Gel’s three-year battle to register his marriage to his acknowledged wife has ended in victory: their marriage was registered in Ivano-Frankovsk, in the KGB investigation prison. After the registration the couple were allowed a meeting.
Chornovil, however, has so far not been permitted to register his marriage. Nevertheless, his fiancée Atena Pashko was allowed to visit him in the KGB investigation prison in Lvov.
Osadchy was also allowed a visit, in a Kiev prison.
All three have now been taken back to Mordovia.
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On 17 March the wife of A. Arshakyan (CCE 34.4) arrived at Camp 3, but was not allowed to meet her husband on the pretext that the visiting rooms were being redecorated. Nevertheless, on the same day relatives of a camp ‘activist’, a former policeman under the Nazi occupation, were allowed to visit him.
On 31 March A. Tovmasyan, R. Markosyan, R. Zograbyan, and A. Arshakyan (CCE 34.4) declared a hunger strike, demanding to be given the texts of their sentences. The hunger strike lasted for three days. So far they have not been shown the texts.
A. Tovmasyan has been transferred to Camp 19, R. Zograbyan to the Perm camps, and Paruir Airikyan to Camp 17.
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At the beginning of 1975 Daria Gusyak (CCE 33.4 [9-1]), now almost blind, was released from Camp 3, after serving a 25-year sentence, 19 years of which were spent in prison.
Maria Palchak (CCE 33.4 [9-2]) was released from the same camp, having completed a 15-year sentence.
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In April 1975 Prokhorenko (from Leningrad) was released from Camp 17 having completed his sentence. He had been imprisoned for 12 years. The Chronicle has no further information about him.
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2. Perm
Reports have already appeared, in CCE 33.5-1 and CCE 34.8 [5], of the prolonged hunger strike carried out by Balakhonov, Svetlichny, Antonyuk and Gluzman in Camp 35. Further details have become known to the Chronicle.
It appears that the hunger strike began on 27 August 1974.
At the beginning of October Balakhonov and Svetlichny were in solitary confinement cells in the camp prison.
On 7 October attempts were made to force each of them to carry out their cell latrine buckets (weighing 30-50 kg).
On the night of 8 to 9 October Svetlichny began to suffer from nephritic colic. The doctor Solomina offered to hospitalize him on condition that he ended his hunger strike. She refused to give him a hot water bottle.
The pain continued uninterruptedly, Svetlichny could not sleep.
On the night of 11 to 12 October Svetlichny’s condition deteriorated to such an extent that he was given an injection of platyphylline by the officer on duty. He was still refused a hot water bottle.
On 12 October at half past six in the morning, Butman, Valdman, Melnichuk, Chekalin and Khnokh declared a hunger strike in protest. At ten o’clock in the morning, the nurse brought a hot water bottle and drugs. Svetlichny’s condition immediately improved.
On 18 or 19 October Svetlichny ended his hunger-strike because of his transfer out of the camp.
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At the beginning of October Antonyuk and Gluzman found themselves together in the punishment barracks. The heating had been switched off in their cell, whilst cold water dripped onto the bunks from a pipe.
On 12 October the heating was switched on. The cell stank from the corpses of rats lying under the bunks. It was impossible to remove them because of the way in which the bunks are constructed.
The dripping of the water from the pipe grew worse. Antonyuk and Gluzman had to give up sleeping in order regularly to empty the basin placed under the drip. On 14 October the camp commandant, Major Pimenov, stated in reply to their complaint: Tt’s not that bad. Why don’t you take turns to carry the water out.’
From 19 to 22 October Antonyuk and Gluzman carried out a ‘dry’ hunger strike, i.e., refusing to take even water.
On 22 October Antonyuk was put in the hospital. He broke off his hunger-strike.
On 31 October Antonyuk was unexpectedly discharged from the hospital, and, as punishment for his ‘hostile activity’, was sent off to the punishment barracks for four months. He now renewed his hunger-strike.
On 6 November Antonyuk’s pain from a perforated ulcer and, apparently, tuberculosis, became more acute. He was given no medicine.
On 9 November Gluzman had a heart attack.
The actual date when the hunger strike was finally called off is unknown to the Chronicle, but it was not before 10 November.
One of the reasons for the hunger strike was that Igor Kalynets (//CCE 33) had been deprived of a visit to which he was entitled. The Perm Regional Procurator’s Office admitted that this deprivation had been ‘unfounded’.
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Ivan Svetlichny has now been taken back to the Perm camps.
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On 27 March 1975 Gabriel Superfin (CCE 32.3 & CCE 33.6-2 [3]) was put in the punishment barracks for four months.
According to unconfirmed reports, this was because he had sharply refused to answer questions put to him by a visiting investigator. This is already his fourth punishment: in November 1974 he was deprived of a visit (it was moved from January to May; now it is due to take place only after his release from the punishment barracks): in December 1974 he was barred from the camp ‘shop’; in January 1975 he got five days in the camp prison. The Chronicle does not know the reasons for these punishments.
Incidentally, according to reports from prisoners. Camp 35 is distinguished among political ‘zones’ by the completely arbitrary tyranny of the camp administration.
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In April 1975 Sarunas Žukauskas (CCE 32.10, CCE 33.6-3 [75]) was transferred from Camp 36 to Vilnius.
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Petras Plumpa (CCE 34.6) arrived at Camp 36 in April. He had spent two months being transported.
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On 8 March 1975 about 40 political prisoners in the Perm camps held a one-day hunger strike in protest against the ‘existence of women political prisoners in the USSR, a country calling itself the most democratic in the world’. In their declaration to the Head of the Soviet Committee for International Women’s Year, they called for the release of women political prisoners.
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Vasyl Stus (CCE 27.1, CCE 33.6-2 [29]) has been suffering from an ulcer for ten years.
From the moment of his arrest (January 1972) he has been deprived of vikalin, the medicine that he needs, as there is none in the clinic or in the camp hospital. At the beginning of 1975, at Stus’s request and with the permission of the administration of Camp 35, Stus’s relatives sent a small parcel containing vikalin to the clinic; however, it was sent back, and Stus is receiving only pain-killing drugs, as before. Although the illness has worsened, and is accompanied by sharp, tormenting pain, Stus is being systematically refused permission to be excused from work.
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//CCE 33 mentioned the Chronicle of the Gulag Archipelago (CGA). The CGA continues to come out from the camps.
The CGA gives additional details about the transfer to Vladimir Prison of Vladlen Pavlenkov (CCE 33.6-2 [5], CCE 34.8 [8]) and Georgy Gladko (CCE 33.6-2 [20], CCE 35.7).
On 30 November 1974, during a visit from his wife. Pavlenkov referred to the attempted suicide of Meshener (CCE 34.8 [6]). He was immediately charged with spreading ‘classified information’. Two days later, the Chusovoi District Court, headed by Zvereva, sent Pavlenkov to Vladimir until the end of his sentence (October 1976), ‘because of all his infringements of the rules’. It was also taken into account that Pavlenkov had not attended political lectures; this, as the CGA states, is unprecedented. The conversation with his wife did not, it seems, figure in the charges.
At the beginning of November 1974 Gladko told KGB Major Anastasov that when he was released, he would try to emigrate legally from the USSR. According to the CGA Anastasov responded by physically threatening him.
On 18 November Gladko was beaten up by some of the prisoners. The CGA names Captain Khromushin, head of the operations office, as the organizer of the beating. Major Yarunin, head of the medical section, covered up the marks left by the beating. On the same day Gladko was put in the camp prison for ten days ‘for fighting’. He was sent to Vladimir Prison until the end of his sentence (19 June 1975), at the same session of the Chusovoi Court as Pavlenkov.
The CGA reports that on 4 December, before being transferred, Gladko was asked by Khromushin to give a written pledge that he would not appeal to a court about the beating. In Vladimir, Gladko was put on strict-regime until the end of his sentence. Earlier, Gladko had already spent three years in Vladimir prison.
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3. Vladimir Prison
The hunger strike lasting from 27 January to 7 February (CCE 35.7) was carried out, according to more precise information now received, by the whole of cell 36 in cell-block one: i.e., by Afanasyev, Vudka, Lyubarsky and Safronov.
The hunger-strikers made the following demands:
- the confiscation of letters on imaginary pretexts should cease,
- unlawful restrictions on books should cease,
- Afanasyev should be given the opportunity to complete his secondary education (he only had eight years at school).
On 4 February Lyubarsky was transferred to the hospital block.
On 6 February force-feeding began. The feeding was done through a thick tube, as it was maintained that no other was available.
On 7 February representatives of higher authorities, who were then present, promised to meet the demands of the hunger-strikers. The hunger strike was called off.
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LYUBARSKY
On 7 April the Procurator of Vladimir Region told Lyubarsky’s wife, Galina Salova:
“The commandant of institution OD/l-ST/2 has allowed your husband to make use of dictionaries and foreign language textbooks, as an exception to the restrictions laid down concerning books.“
In March Lyubarsky should have received a visit from his wife. In spite of this the prison commandant refused to allow Lyubarsky’s wife to visit him, declaring that earlier, in his camp, Lyubarsky had had this penalty imposed.
Because, however, the court verdict by which Lyubarsky had been transferred from the camp to the prison listed all the penalties imposed on him and did not contain the one referred to by the prison commandant, the Procurator of Vladimir Region replied to a complaint from Lyubarsky’s wife by informing her, ‘The prison commandant has been told to allow you a visit.’
The visit took place in the middle of April …
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FORCED LABOUR
In Vladimir Prison forced labour has now been imposed on political prisoners as well as others.
Some of the cells have been made into a workshop; the bunks have not been taken out, but just pushed up against the walls. The floor is made of cement. It is cold (the temperature is 10 to 12 degrees below zero) and damp.
The work involves tiny radio parts, but special lighting has not been installed in the cells. The work demands constant concentration of vision. Because of the bad lighting this soon leads to headaches. Normal safety regulations are not observed. If they were, ‘the output required by the plan would not be met’, the workshop overseer said.
The production chief is Captain Kapustin. The work norm is 3,000 parts on one type of machine and 1,500 on the other. A working prisoner gets an extra 10 grams of bread a day and some soap.
From the beginning of March political prisoners began to be led out to work. At first this applied only to a few people, but later it involved almost everyone. In the beginning, many of the political prisoners refused to work. Punishments rained down on these ‘refusers’. By the middle of April there were almost no more refusals to do forced labour.
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At the beginning of May Valentyn Moroz got a routine visit. He said that he felt better than he had just after his hunger strike, although he had put on weight again very slowly. He had started to learn English. He was reading a lot.
In December 1974 Lev Lukyanenko was taken to the psychiatric hospital in the town of Rybinsk. Two months later he was brought back, labelled as a second-category invalid,
According to unconfirmed information, this was preceded by an offer from KGB official Otrubov for him to write a plea for a pardon (Lukyanenko’s 15-year sentence is due to end in 1976) and Lukyanenko’s refusal of this offer.
Captain Dmitriev threatened Georgy Gladko, ‘Stop your complaints or the psychiatrist will be attending to you!’
Similar threats were heard in February by Valentin Moroz, from the lips of the Vladimir Prison psychiatrist, Valentin Leonidovich Rogov.
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The prison administration has refused to send prisoners’ declarations and complaints to higher authorities by registered post, or to give receipts for registered letters sent to relatives; advice-of-receipt letters are not accepted (the receipt slip is either torn off and thrown away or returned to the prisoner).
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A Chronicle of Current Events 