DR SAMKHARADZE
On 30 June 1976 medical doctor L. Meladze sent a telegram from Nikolai Samkharadze, a doctor, to L. I. Brezhnev, from the Central Telegraph Office in Moscow.
In the telegram Samkharadze asks, not for the first time, that the decision to deprive his brother Beglar of his pension (CCE 38.16 [6]) should be revoked, and he describes his poverty-stricken state. Two KGB officials, obviously summoned by a telegraph assistant, took L. Meladze to some room in the telegraph building and asked her why she had sent such a telegram. “Because that man is in a hopeless situation,” replied L. Meladze. The officials told her that she must not do that, because the contents of the telegram might become known to agents of the USA.
On 22 July Nikolai Samkharadze was detained outside his house in Tbilisi and taken to KGB headquarters, where he had a ‘conversation’ with section head Tatishvili. Tatishvili demanded that Samkharadze tell him why he sent such telegrams and why he made anti-Soviet speeches at meetings at his place of work. Tatishvili reminded Samkharadze that he had been arrested for such actions in 1959 and had been sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment.
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GAMSAKHURDIA
Another subject touched on in the ‘conversation’ was Samkharadze’s relationship with Zviad Gamsakhurdia [1] and the medical report on Gamsakhurdia’s poisoning which Samkharadze had written.
Samkharadze stated that he would take full responsibility for his diagnosis. Tatishvili told him that he might lose his job for making such a diagnosis. “I am not afraid of that,” replied Samkharadze, “I cannot betray my professional integrity. Especially since I myself experienced the poisonous effects of the gas when I was with Gamsakhurdia in the car: my blood pressure increased.” Tatishvili advised Samkharadze not to talk about this to anyone and to behave more carefully in general. The ‘conversation’ lasted about eight hours.
In connection with the above-mentioned incident, the Chronicle considers it appropriate to quote from a declaration by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, dated 25 September 1975 [2]:
“To Citizen A. Inauri, head of the KGB at the Georgian SSR Council of Ministers
“Copy: to Citizen Yu. Andropov, Chairman of the USSR KGB.
“It has now become clear to me that on 20 September of this year the KGB made an attack on me and my family, using a toxic weapon which, as TASS recently reported, is forbidden by international law. This report stated that there are in existence toxic and biological weapons which can KILL and can also PUT SOMEONE OUT OF ACTION TEMPORARILY. It was the latter that was used on me, my wife M. Archvadze and her sister, L. Archvadze, in our house in Tbilisi (19 Galskaya Street).
“The house is isolated, with a high fence; nobody except us lives round about for some distance, which obviously facilitated the localization of the weapon’s effects.
“From morning we had felt somewhat unwell. At around twelve o’clock my wife went into town and became ill on the street. Her pulse beat rapidly, her head swam, she was short of breath and could hardly drag herself home. At the same time I was experiencing the same symptoms in my study, although I had never had palpitations before. A little later, my wife’s sister L. Archvadze had similar symptoms, which even had to be treated by injections.
“I must also mention at this point that my father, Konstantin Semyonovich Gamsakhurdia, died on 17 July this year, after being unable to get his breath and after attacks of palpitations.
“I must add that the above-mentioned condition, rapid pulse, dizziness, weakness, recalls the condition described by the Moscow writer Voinovich, who was subjected to a toxic attack in the Metropol Hotel in the spring of this year [see CCE 36.11 (7) Chronicle].
“I should like to warn you that such actions will not bring any honour or glory on the KGB.”
A medical report containing a description of the toxic symptoms and the conclusion that they were the result of gas poisoning, was written by Dr N. Samkharadze on 2 October 1975.
On 23 October 1975 Z. Gamsakhurdia issued a declaration stating that the diagnosis of poisoning had also been confirmed by a doctor at the writers’ polyclinic, who was later talked to by KGB officials. The declaration goes on to say that the symptoms disappeared on 10 October, but reappeared in modified form later, again affecting both his wife and himself at the same time.
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GOGOCHURI
On 29 June 1976 research officer G. Gogochuri was taken from the Tbilisi Institute of Philosophy to KGB headquarters.
He was accompanied by KGB employee Kopadze, who is specially ‘attached’ to the institute. At the KGB Gogochuri was interrogated by persons unknown to him. They asked Gogochuri why he had icons at home and if it was true that he organized religious ‘Khatoba’ festivals in his home. Gogochuri was also told that there were parts of his dissertation which revealed sympathy for religion.
Gogochuri was then told that the KGB knew he had spoken out against the new rule which lays down that dissertations in Georgian academic institutions must be defended in the Russian language: these expressions of opinion were called ‘nationalism’. He was clearly told that such episodes could have dangerous consequences for him.
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On 15 July 1976 the KGB in Tbilisi summoned Medea Buadze and Maria Tushishvili.
They were told that the KGB had got hold of copies of a religious book, The Mirror of the Human Heart, reproduced on an Era photocopier. M. Buadze was asked if she had reproduced the book. M. Buadze did not deny that she herself had done so, as she did not see anything criminal in it. M. Tushishvili also declared that it was not a crime and called on the KGB officials not to persecute religion.
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NANEISHVILI AND GAMKRELIDZE
On 16 July 1976 KGB official Pirtskhalava visited the Tbilisi Republican Psychiatric Hospital and spoke to hospital employees Professor A. Makaridze, Dr P. Kontridze and book-keeper K. Khazhomia. Pirtskhalava said that the KGB had received an anonymous report that hospital employees V. Naneishvili, deputy director of the Institute of Psychiatry, and Sh. Gamkrelidze, head of the pharmacology section, often carried on anti-Soviet conversations at work.
In particular, they repeated to other hospital employees the content of foreign radio broadcasts, which they systematically listened to; they told them the plots of Solzhenitsyn’s books, talked about the activities of the Georgian dissident writer Zviad Gamsakhurdia and approved of these activities (the publication of the samizdat journal, The Golden Fleece, the compilation of the document-collection On Torture in Georgia, and so on). Pirtskhalava demanded that the above-mentioned persons should confirm all this, but he did not succeed. The ‘accused’ themselves, V. Naneishvili and Sh. Gamkrelidze, were not questioned. Gamkrelidze had also ‘sinned’ in that he had driven a Czech guest to his home in a village which is 200 km from Tbilisi, while foreigners are only allowed to go 70 km out of Tbilisi.
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DAVID GAREDZHA MONASTERY
CCE 38.16 [7] reported on the article and letters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia in defence of an ancient monument of the 6th to 17th centuries, the David Garedzha cave monasteries’ complex, which is being destroyed by artillery practice.
Professor Piralishvili (D.Sci., Arts), a member of the USSR Artists’ Union and Honoured Art Worker of the USSR; Professor Georgy Tsitsishvili (D.Sci., Philology), member of the presidium of the Georgian SSR Writers’ Union; and Igor Bogomolov, (D.Sci., Philology), member of the Writers’ Union have sent a letter on the same subject to eminent people in authority (all three are members of the CPSU). The letter quotes the answer given by Major-General Shkrudnev, deputy commander of the Caucasus Military District, to the Minister of Culture of Georgia. The General called the monument ‘the ruins of a former monastery’ which ‘to our great regret is in the middle of the firing range’. The authors of the letter call for the great cultural value of the monument to be respected, as well as “the negative political effect which would be produced on world public opinion.” [3]
Viktor Rtskhiladze, chief of the inspectorate on the preservation of monuments attached to the Georgian SSR Ministry of Culture, and Viktor Batsatsashvili, director of the David Garedzha Museum, ask in a declaration to the Procurator-General of the USSR, dated 20 August 1976, that those who have been destroying the monument should be prosecuted. The declaration reports that the artillerymen ‘explode shells in the direct proximity of caves decorated with medieval frescoes, … there have been cases when they scored a direct hit (the Bertubani Monastery has been completely destroyed). In addition, the soldiers … write worldly inscriptions on the frescoes.’ On 6 August the artillerymen expelled the curators and the director of the museum from their official buildings, in order to carry out a bombardment nearby.
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Queen Mary’s College of London University has invited Zviad Gamsakhurdia to read a series of lectures on Russian and Georgian translations of modem English poetry.
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See also ‘Samizdat Update’ in this issue, CCE 42.12 [4-7].
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NOTES
- On Gamsakhurdia, see CCE 34.13 [1], CCE 37.9 [3], CCE 38.16, CCE 38.20 [5] and Name Index.
↩︎ - See the full text in Index on Censorship, London, 1976, No. 1.
↩︎ - After documentation of this sort began to obtain some publicity in the West, Izvestiya reported on a programme to restore the David Garedzha complex.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 