Letters and Statements, March 1979 (52.16-1)

<<No 52 : 1 March 1979>>

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SAKHAROV (1-2)

[1]

Andrei Sakharov

“From an interview with French periodical L’Express”, 25 December 1978 [1]

“1977 and 1978 were years marked by a new wave of increasingly severe repressive actions. The arrest and impending trial of Vladimir Shelkov, the 83-year-old spiritual leader of the Seventh-Day Adventists, is a tragic example of this.

“The cruel sentences imposed on members of the Helsinki Group — Orlov, Ginzburg, Shcharansky, Lukyanenko, Tikhy, Petkus, Rudenko, Kostava and others; the sentences imposed on Nudel, Slepak and Begun, and other forms of persecution inflicted on people trying to obtain permission to emigrate; and the mounting persecution of the Crimean Tatars — homes bulldozed, hundreds of families in a tragic position. All this arouses deep alarm and pain, and demands the active intervention of world opinion. Persecution continues to grow even today (the arrests of Josif Zisels, Kukobaka, Buzinnikov and Ogorodnikov, and searches in Moscow and Riga) …

“The human rights movement in the USSR is part of a world-wide movement to resist totalitarianism. We need to be continually attentive to the fates of real individual people, to report what is happening to them energetically and accurately in the press, to involve cultural figures, businessmen, politicians and public organizations in the defence of victims of repression. We need to give material aid to the victims of persecution and their families. But most important is publicity.

“No matter how harsh the fates of those involved in the movement to defend the rule of law in the USSR and Eastern Europe, I am convinced that it has achieved a degree of maturity, such that the authorities are powerless to destroy or paralyse the fruits of its activities, which are world-wide in character.“

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[2]

Andrei Sakharov

“From an interview with the Washington Post” (1 January 1979)

“The increase in the number of those wishing to emigrate is linked principally with the imperceptibly, but ceaselessly mounting oppression in all areas of life … The increase in the number of visas granted is evidently due to the Soviet authorities’ desire to create a more favourable impression by their policies, particularly in view of the forthcoming discussion of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the trade act.

“It is possible that Congress will consider it reasonable to expand the credit available for trade with the USSR next year because in 1978 the USSR showed good-will on the question of Jewish emigration, even though it did not change its policies in any substantial way towards other groups wanting to emigrate. Periodic discussions in Congress on the possibility of expanding or, conversely, decreasing trade with the USSR, depending on the emigration situation, accords fully with the meaning of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. I hope that Congress will reaffirm the principle underlying its belief that the Jackson-Vanik Amendment is a long-term instrument in the defence of human rights. Abrogation of the Jackson- Vanik Amendment would signify a retreat from the principles of this defence.“

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[3]

55 Signatures

“To members of the US Congress” (February 1979)

This appeal, signed by Jewish refuseniks from Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Vilnius, Tbilisi, Kharkov, Lvov and Odessa, points out that the situation regarding Jewish emigration from the USSR is unsatisfactory, and appeals for the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to be maintained as the sole means of limiting the tyranny of the Soviet authorities.

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[4]

Alexander Lerner

To Deutsche Welle Radio-Station, Russian Section (16 February 1979)

This letter is a reaction to a Deutsche Welle (German Wave) broadcast about the film “Holocaust”, which recounts the genocide of Jews during the Second World War. West German viewers expressed their horror and revulsion at Hitler’s policy of mass extermination, and, in their responses to the film, appealed to the Jews to forgive the German nation for the crimes it committed. A. Lerner, two of whose daughters were killed in September 1941, writes that “the fate of my family illustrates the link between the past and present persecution which has befallen the long-suffering Jewish people”.

He cites the persecutions he has endured in his efforts to obtain permission to emigrate and join his daughter and grandchildren in Israel: he lost his job, was placed in a sobering-up station, was searched, put under house-arrest, subjected to insults in the press …:

“I would like to bring to people’s attention the fact that even now the lot of many Jews is a tragic one and should not be ignored. I have in mind those Jews in the USSR who are languishing in prisons and exile, or vegetating as hostages, because of their desire to leave the country …“

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[5]

Yevgeny B. Nikolayev

‘To Kosygin, Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers’ (28 February 1979)

“From a BBC broadcast of 24 February 1979, I discovered that the ILO [International Labour Organisation] is demanding that the government which you head must give an account of the fate of five people [2] who were illegally arrested at the beginning of 1978 … [The people concerned are members of the ‘Free Trades Union’, CCE 48.21 (10)].

“Klebanov and Poplavsky are still in prison …

“Gavriil Yankov was imprisoned for seven months and has already been released. However, he still has nowhere to live and no job …

“As for myself, I was also released after a seven-month term of imprisonment, when I was held without trial, investigation or Procurator’s sanction, However, despite my repeated declarations to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Court, I have so far been unable to obtain permission for myself and my family to leave the USSR for any non-Communist country …

“I appeal to you, Mr Kosygin:

“1. to release Klebanov and Poplavsky;

“2. to provide Gavriil Yankov with a place to live and employment;

“3. to give my family and myself the opportunity to emigrate from the USSR to any non-Communist country;

“4. to report on the fate of the fifth person named by the BBC on 24 February and to take measures to ensure his well-being;

“5. to give an objective reply to the ILO’s questions to the USSR government.“

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NOTES

  1. Sakharov’s L’Express interview was not published in French for another month, on 27 January 1979.
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  2. Vladimir Klebanov (CCE 49.18 [14]), Valentin Poplavsky (CCE 49.18 [15]), Gavriil Yankov (CCE 49.18 [13]) and Yevgeny B. Nikolayev (CCE 49.18 [13]). The fifth person is not named here.
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