- 4-1 A Visit to Mustafa Dzhemilev; Vladimir Prison; Mordovian Camps
- 4-2 Perm Camps; Diary of Camp 35. Camps for Common Criminals
- 4-3 Political Prisoners Letters & Declarations. In Defence of Political Prisoners
- 4-4 Releases
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8. Releases
8.1: KUZMA MATVIYUK
On 13 July Kuzma Ivanovich Matviyuk (CCE 33.6-3 [39]) was released. He served his term in Mordovia, Camp 19.
The release took place as follows. On 2 July he was unexpectedly put on a prisoner transport and transferred to the prison in the town of Cherkassy (he had been taken from Moscow to Kiev in an ordinary passenger aeroplane, in handcuffs accompanied by three guards). On 12 July KGB officials ‘had a talk’ with Matviyuk.
On the evening of 13 July Matviyuk was put in an official car and taken to the bus station, accompanied by the prison governor and a guard. There he was issued a ticket to the village of Ilyashovka, where his mother is living; he was put on the bus on the right route and told that he was forbidden to get off or change routes.
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On his arrival in Ilyashovka, Matviyuk was handed a decree subjecting him to one year’s administrative surveillance, as ‘he had not chosen the way of reform while he was in a place of detention’. According to this decree, Matviyuk does not have the right to go outside the district and must be at home between 10 pm and 6 am; every ten days he must go to the district centre and register with the police.
Matviyuk was sent to live in Ilyashovka against his will: in the camp he had applied to live in Uman, as he had done before his arrest.
His address: 281152, Ukrainian SSR, Khmelnitsky Region, Starokonstantinovsky district, Ilyashovka village.
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8.2: YURY VUDKA
In August Yury Vudka was released from Camp 36. (CCE 36.6-2 mistakenly stated that, in addition to his 7 years’ imprisonment, he would have a term of exile.)
In April Vudka was transferred to Camp 36 from Vladimir Prison. Before the prisoner transport left Vladimir, his personal papers, tetters and a copy of his sentence were confiscated from him during a ‘check’. At the beginning of September, he still had not received back his papers and some money. In answer to the complaints he sent both to Vladimir Prison and to higher authorities, he got the following replies from Vladimir:
1. ‘ … all his personal effects have been given back to him …, apart from some correspondence and various manuscripts, which were justifiably confiscated … There is no money in his personal account.’
(The ‘manuscripts’ were extracts from books borrowed from the prison library. The ‘correspondence’ consists of letters checked by the censors. When Vudka left Vladimir, he had about 150 roubles in his personal account. When a prisoner is transferred from one place to another, his money is usually sent after him.)
2. ‘Inform the prisoner Vudka that… his belongings were returned to him when he was transferred.’
3. ‘I ask you to inform the prisoner Vudka … that copies of the legal documents confiscated from him during his transfer have been sent to your address… ‘
A month before his release Vudka was transferred to a Dnepropetrovsk prison. He was allowed to write to his parents in Pavlograd, telling them he was in Dnepropetrovsk, only after he went on hunger-strike [1].
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8.3: OLEG VOROBYOV
On 24 September, after serving a 6-year sentence (the first 3 years in prison), Oleg Vorobyov was released (CCE 16.10 [6], CCE 18.10 [1], CCE 33.6-3 [1]).
At the beginning of August, he was transferred from Camp 37 to Camp 36 (Perm camps), and two weeks before his release he was transferred to Kaluga prison (tis he had applied for future residence in Kaluga). On his release from Kaluga prison Vorobyov was allowed to read a character report written about him in the camp: ‘He systematically infringed the regulations, took part in unjustified hunger-strikes, is given to stirring things up, and has not reformed.’ The report ended with a recommendation that Vorobyov be placed under surveillance.
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GRODETSKY
In September Yury Grodetsky (CCE 35.7) was released. He had previously been transferred from Vladimir to Leningrad.
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8.4: VLADLEN PAVLENKOV
On 2 October Vladlen Pavlenkov from Gorky (CCE 11.15 [13], CCE 12.4, CCE 13.3, CCE 33.6-2 [5]) was released.
At instruction classes for propagandists in Gorky, it was announced that Pavlenkov would soon be returning to Gorky from prison. He had not reformed, he had relatives in America (Solzhenitsyn was named as one of his ‘relatives abroad’). Pavlenkov was friendly with dissidents, including Sakharov. (It was stated that the number of dissidents was not large, about 300 people.) His wife, Svetlana Pavlenkova, was said to be receiving money from the CIA and sending it to prisoners.
Before Pavlenkov’s release, Sergei Ponomaryov and Vladimir Zhiltsov, Pavlenkov’s co-defendants, who had been released earlier, were summoned to the Gorky KGB headquarters. They were asked why former political prisoners came to see Svetlana Pavlenkova.
Three weeks before his release Pavlenkov was transferred from Vladimir Prison to a Gorky prison. On the morning of 2 October, he was told, while still in his prison cell, that he would be subjected to administrative surveillance. Then he was taken home in a prison car.
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8.5: MA KHUN
On 9 August Ma Khun was released.
This is his story. In 1968 he crossed the Chinese-Soviet border and was detained by a border patrol. Ma Khun told the border guards that he had run away from China and wanted to live in the Soviet Union. A criminal case was started against him under Article 69 (Kazakh SSR Criminal Code: ‘Illegal immigration into the USSR’). Then the case was abandoned. Ma Khun was given a residence permit and allowed to live in the Soviet Union.
On 11 March 1972 Ma Khun was arrested and charged with espionage. On 30 November 1973 a military tribunal of the Central Asian military Region sentenced Ma Khun for ‘attempted espionage’ to 10 years’ imprisonment (the first 5 years in prison, the rest in a strict-regime camp), followed by 5 years’ exile, with confiscation of property. The tribunal considered it proved that Ma Khun had crossed into the Soviet Union with the intention of spying. The evidence largely consisted of testimony given by three Chinese who had crossed the Chinese-Soviet border at various times.
Ma Khun did not admit he was guilty at the trial. He stated categorically that he had never had any training in intelligence and had not been given any mission by Chinese intelligence. He stated that the testimony of the witnesses was untrue.
Ma Khun was sent to start serving his term in Vladimir Prison.
CCE 39.2-2 reported that in October 1975 Ma Khun had been sent to Alma-Ata, ‘apparently to have his case re-examined’. CCE 40.9-1 reported that in February 1976 Ma Khun had been returned to Vladimir Prison: ‘The Chinese who testified against him now say they did so under pressure from the investigator. There was no new trial, but Ma Khun is hoping that his sentence will be cut.’ The Supreme Court of the Kazakh SSR conducted a special review of Ma Khun’s case, revoked the sentence and gave the case over to a fresh examination on the level of a pre-trial investigation. This time the KGB investigators redefined the charges under Article 69 of the Kazakh SSR Criminal Code. As the maximum sentence under Article 69 is 3 years, and Ma Khun had already served more than four years, he was released.
On 9 August the deputy head of the investigation department of the KGB attached to the Kazakh SSR Council of Ministers apologized to Ma Khun: ‘We have made a mistake; you are not a spy. Today you will be released.’ Ma Khun now lives in Khabarovsk Region (Krai) (Khabarovsk district, settlement of Pobeda, hostel 3.) As he is stateless, he cannot leave the district.
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OTHERS
In 1961 a group of Ukrainian nationalists was arrested in Lvov. Their case is described in the book Ferment in the Ukraine [2], which was published in England.
Four of the group were sentenced by the court to be shot. Five people, Roman Gurny (CCE 35.16), Nikolai Melekh (CCE 33.6-2 [12]), Mikhail Protsiv (CCE 33.6-3 [50]), Gnat Kuzik and Vladimir Gnot, got 15 years each.
In 1976 they were released at the end of their sentences: Gurny and Melekh from Camp 35; Gnot, Kuzik and Protsiv from Camp 36.
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Balys Galdikas (CCE 33.6-2 [66]), Roman Kolopach (CCE 33.4) and Yury Mashkov (whose case is unknown to the Chronicle; see also CCE 39.2-1) have been released from Camp 35 at the end of their sentences.
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8.6: CAMP 36 RELEASES
On 26 April, Rimas Cekielis (CCE 32.12), a student from Vilnius College of Music, was released from Camp 36 after serving a 3-year term. He is now 21 years old.
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On 4 August Viktor Chesnokov (CCE 33.6-3 [27]), a co-defendant of Vitold Abankin (see above, his ‘Declaration’), was released from Camp 36 after serving a 10-year term.
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On 27 September the Muscovite Semyon Ananyevich Kifyak (CCE 33.6-3 [139]) was released from Camp 36 after serving a 5-year term under Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code.
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Algis Mirauskas has also been released at the end of his sentence from Camp 36 (his case is unknown to the Chronicle; he was sentenced to 3 years) so were Nikolai Redko (7 years; Article 70, RSFSR Criminal Code), Vitas Remeika (CCE 33.6-3 [70]) and Nikolai Teslenko (6 years; Article 70, RSFSR Criminal Code; CCE 33.6-3 [147]).
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The former Nazi collaborator Meliton Dzhaburia has been released from Camp 36 (in the list of prisoners in Camp 36 given in CCE 33.6-3 he was No. 92, with his surname spelt Dzhaburin; in CCE 40.2, ‘The Trial of Andrei Tverdokhlebov’, it was stated that his name was ‘Dzhamburia’; see also above, ‘Camp 36’). His sentence was 15 years. The Chronicle docs not know if he served it in full.
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8.7: CAMP 37 RELEASES
Vitaly Nikolayevich Kolomin, having served a 6-year sentence under Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, has been released from Camp 37 (his case is not known to the Chronicle; evidently CCE 38.12-2 gave an incorrect date for the beginning of his sentence) [3].
A co-defendant of Vladlen Pavlenkov (above), Mikhail Sergeyevich Kapranov (CCE 11.15 [13], CCE 12.4, CCE 13.3, CCE 38.12-2), has been released from Camp 37, after serving a 7-year sentence under Article 70.
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The following have also been released from Camp 37 after completing their sentences: Mikhail Kopotun (6 years [4] under Article 70), Anatoly Merkurev (5 years under Article 70),
Boris Mudrov (6 years under Article 64); Eugenius Juodvirsis (2 years under Article 70 for producing leaflets) his two co-defendants got 18 months each [5].
Ergard Abel (CCE 34.10), sentenced in 1973 under an Article (= Article 190-1, RSFSR Criminal Code) has been released.
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8.8: PAVEL KAMPOV
On 16 June Pavel Fyodorovich KAMPOV (CCE 33.6-3 [121]) completed the ‘camp part’ of his sentence.
In December 1970 the Uzhgorod Regional Court under judge L. A. Girits sentenced him to 6 years’ imprisonment and 3 years’ exile for ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’. In the indictment he was found guilty of using certain phrases in his letters to Brezhnev, of being the author of the samizdat article ‘25 Years of Hope and Disillusion’ (Kampov categorically denied being the author, and the case-evidence included no proof that he was the author), of disseminating pre-election leaflets and campaigning for his name to be written on to the voting ballots (during interrogation the KGB investigator told Kampov that during the elections 20 per cent of the voters crossed out the official candidate and wrote in his name). The prosecution at the trial was conducted by Procurator Derdyai.
Kampov served his sentence in the Perm camps (Camp 36). On about 20 June he was sent into exile. Before joining the prisoner transport, he was deprived of notes he had made during the investigation and the trial, quotations from the indictment and copies of complaints to official bodies.
The journey into exile took 26 days. Kampov’s address in exile is; 636842, Tomsk Region, Pervomaisky district, settlement Komsomolsk, 5 Pochtovy Street.
Kampov is an invalid of the second group. However, he is not being paid his disability pension at present. He cannot find work either. Kampov is a mathematician, a Candidate of Science; before his arrest he was teaching at Uzhgorod University and the Teachers’ Training College there. The secretary of the Pervomaisky district Party committee has told Kampov that for political reasons he cannot be allowed to teach. Kampov went round all the organizations in the settlement but could not get work.
He was allotted a bunk in a hostel as living space.
‘In a word, I’ll have to beg my way back into the camp, as I’ve no other choice. Otherwise, I’ll die of hunger,’ Kampov wrote in a letter.
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OTHERS
On 21 September Alexander Bolonkin’s 4-year term in a camp came to an end (CCE 30.4).
Two months before the end of his sentence he was put in the punishment cells. On 17 September he was transferred to Camp 19; from there he was sent to his place of exile in Krasnoyarsk Region (Krai). According to the sentence, his exile will last for two years.
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Tikalas (CCE 33.6-3 [83]) has been sent off from Camp 36 at the end of a 7-year term, to spend three years in exile.
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Andrei Nikolayevich KRAVETS has completed a 3-year term under Article 70 and has been sent from Camp 37 into exile (CCE 39.2-1 did not mention his period of exile).
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In July or August 1976 Anatoly Malkin (CCE 37.3) was transferred from a camp to a ‘chemical’ construction plant, a building site in Saratov Region. He will be released in May 1978.
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NOTES
- In December 1976 Yury Vudka emigrated to Israel.
↩︎ - Ferment in Ukraine was edited by Michael Browne (pseudonym) and published by Macmillan, London, in 1971.
↩︎ - On Kolomin, see CCE 32.12, CCE 33.6-3 [131] and CCE 35.16.
↩︎ - Kopotun was sentenced to three years, according to CCE 38.12-2.
↩︎ - Merkurev, Mudrov and Juodvidis are all mentioned in CCE 39.2-1 which gives the latter’s sentence as 2.5 years.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 