<<No 52 : 1 March 1979>>

• 15-1. Human Rights Day: 10 December 1978 (3 entries)
• 15-2. One more deported ethnic group. The Right to Marry (11 entries)

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ELEVEN ENTRIES

[1]

One More Deported National Group

KHAMSHELS

The Khamshels (or Khemshins) [¹] are a section of the Armenian people who adopted Islam at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries. They chiefly inhabited the south-west regions of Georgia from Adzharia to the south of Batumi (the district of Gonio) and the lower courses of the Chorokh and Adzharis-Tskali rivers.

The population of the villages where they lived was generally a mixture of Georgian and Khamshel. It is difficult to establish the size of the Khamshel population today, but it is probable that they number several thousands. The ethnic type of the Khamshel is no different from the Armenian type. Among themselves the Khamshel use a dialect of Armenian, the vocabulary of which coincides with Armenian by over 80 per cent. Moreover, all the Khamshel know Georgian and the men also know Russian to some extent.

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DEPORTATION

Quite unexpectedly, in December 1944, the Khamshel were criminally driven out of their native villages. As far as they remember today, the decree read out to them [²] gave no reason for the deportation. Now they tend to blame Beria, who, in their opinion, wanted to give their land to the Georgians (Mingrelians).

They were given 48 hours to prepare for the journey. They were allowed to take only what they could carry in their hands. Apparently, there were no cases of physical resistance; all the adult men were serving in the Army. The Khamshel were forced to leave their homes, orchards, cattle and tools. All of this was looted. The orchards were given in part to collective farms.

The journey in railway wagons to Central Asia (in cold winter weather, to which this southern people was not accustomed) lasted about two weeks. There is no evidence to suggest that any of the migrants died. On arrival, the Khamshel were dispersed in small groups throughout deepest Uzbekistan, Kirgizia and Tadzhikistan. Here the climate differs sharply from that of their homeland, which lies in the humid subtropical zone. In the dry heat of the Central Asian valleys, with their extreme continental climate, and in the mountain regions of Tadzhikistan, acclimatization brought great distress to the newcomers and many children and old people fell ill.

Citrus plants, traditional in Khamshel farming, do not grow here. Cotton-growing and pasture sheep-rearing, with which they are unfamiliar, now form the basis of their agriculture. There are no schools, newspapers or radio broadcasts in their own language. At school the children are taught in the languages of the Central Asian peoples or in Russian.

Although they live in mixed (Uzbek, Kirgiz, Tadzhik-Khamshel) ‘kishlaks’ (Central Asian villages), they have completely preserved for over 30 years their national identity: their language, clothes, songs and the names they give their children.

The Khamshel are strictly forbidden to return to their native villages. All those returning from military service are forcibly sent to Central Asia. Only recently have the authorities started allowing individuals short visits (up to two months) to Transcaucasia, but anyone attempting to register there is promptly sent ‘home’.

In Central Asia the Khamshel are called ‘Turks’, but they usually insist on their former name. Despite their relative material comfort and quite normal relations with the neighbouring population, they still dream of returning to their native land.

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[2]

JEWISH ISSUE

At closed Party meetings a Central Committee letter on ‘the Jewish question’ is being read out.

It recommends: stepping up anti-Zionist propaganda, especially the number of lectures and radio items on the subject; publishing more literature; ceasing to be indifferent about emigration (each application to be scrutinized individually); yet also, simultaneously, easing the path for Jews into jobs and higher education, so as to counter assertions about antisemitism existing in the USSR.

On 12 December 1978 a lecture on international affairs was read at the All-Union Vitamin Research Institute by a senior lecturer from Lumumba University. The following are particular points from it.

• Zionists have a great influence on US politics. They have taken over the most important branches of industry and finance; up to 60 per cent of American capital is in their hands and they have access to the mass media.
• Not all Jews in the USA are Zionists. Only one third are active Zionists, one third consider Zionism to be obscurantism and the final third are neutral.
• American Zionists link economic policy and foreign policy with regard to the USSR. They say that the Jews are a nation of immigrants.
• Yes, the Jews really are a nation of immigrants. For this reason the Zionists demand free exit for Soviet Jews. And if they so desire, free return also. In the meantime, we are meant to safeguard their jobs, flats, garages, cars, etc. What splendid conditions for espionage! Who would fall for that? The more so, since the percentage of people with higher education is very high among Jews (26-27 per cent); they have taken over entire areas of science, also the cinema. Even now in the Writers Union about 60 dissenting Zionists are active.
• Approximately 140,000 Jews have left the USSR. Do you think they have all gone to Israel? Take the Germans; so they emigrate to West Germany, and where are they put? In West Berlin, where the average age is 60-67. They are trying to revive this dying city with people arriving from the USSR.
• In the 1940s excesses were permitted with regard to a number of nationalities: Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, etc. They were resettled in Kazakhstan. Many have naturalized, grown vineyards and are quite content. But some of them want to return to the Crimea. This is, however, forbidden by the Constitution.

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[3]

LENINGRAD.

CCE 51.8 [3] contains a report on an opposition group of young Leningraders and the way it was broken up. At the end of December Alexander Skobov was sent for a psychiatric examination to the Serbsky Institute.

Andrei Reznikov was summoned to OVIR, where he was presented with an invitation from Israel. Pressure is being put on Reznikov and his family to force them to leave the country.

Alexei Chistyakov, a student in the Languages Faculty of Leningrad University, was transferred to the evening-class department. He has been accused of writing one of the texts confiscated from his flat during a search on 12 October.

Irina Lopatukhina (in CCE 51.8 [3] her surname was mispelled ‘Lopotukhina’) has been forced to leave her job. She has been accused of typing the samizdat journal Perspective on an office typewriter.

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[4]

PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALS

Since 12 February 1979 Mikhail Kukobaka (CCE 51.8) has been held at the Serbsky Institute, where he was sent for a forensic psychiatric examination.

On 25 January, as soon as they discovered that Kukobaka was to be sent for an examination, the Working Commission sent a letter to G. V. Morozov, Director of the Serbsky Institute, warning him that a deliberately false diagnosis of M. Kukobaka would be regarded as an instance of psychiatry being used for repressive purposes.

Victor Nekipelov, friend and legal representative of Kukobaka, sent a letter to Gery Low-Beer (CCE 49.18 [8]), a member of the British Royal College of Psychiatrists, asking him to intervene on Kukobaka’s behalf.

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Yevgeny Nikolayev, released from a psychiatric hospital on 12 September 1978 (CCE 51.11), has asked the Sovetsky district people’s court in Moscow to prosecute the following: one, the psychiatrist at Clinic 13 who wrote out the certificate to hospitalize Nikolayev; two, A. Pulyayev, a policeman at Moscow Police Station 137, who helped to detain him (CCE 48.12); and three, Mikhail Ivanovich Belikov, Head of Department 6 at Psychiatric Hospital No. 1, for keeping him in hospital for no reason and treating him cruelly (CCE 48.12, CCE 49.10).

With regard to the prosecution of the first psychiatrist. Nikolayev received a reply stating that he could not be brought to justice as no specific person had been named (A. Yu. Kucherov, Chief Doctor at the clinic, refused to give the surname of the doctor who wrote the certificate to hospitalize Nikolayev). As for the other declarations, the reply stated that they had been forwarded to the district Procuracy for examination.

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Yury Belov who came out of psychiatric hospital in December 1977 (CCE 48.12-2), sent a letter to the Sychovka SPH requesting the return of the poems and synopses taken from him in 1976 when he was transferred to an ordinary psychiatric hospital (CCE 45.14).

In December 1978 Yu. Belov received a letter informing him that his request could not be met, as:

“In our judgment, the poems and synopses were the product of delirium, written by a sick person, and were consequently destroyed.“

The letter was signed by V. I. Yermakov, Head of the Sychovka SPH, and by Department Head A. I. Zeleneyev.

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[5]

SEREBROV

On 15 February Felix Serebrov, a member of the Working Commission, sent a declaration to the USSR Procurator-General requesting that “the administration of the Serbsky Institute be required to observe the law”:

“… there is a notice hanging there which states that parcels are accepted from close relatives only. Under Article 9 of the ‘Statutes on Pre-Trial Custody’ … each person held in custody has the right to receive one food parcel per month. The Statutes contain no proviso stipulating that this may be given only by close relatives.“

On 23 February Serebrov received a letter signed by B. N. Glukhov, an Assistant Procurator of Moscow for the Supervision of Places of Imprisonment:

“I inform you that your declaration concerning the incorrect actions of the administration of the Serbsky Institute of Forensic Psychiatry has been examined by the Moscow Procuracy.

“The City Procuracy has explained to the Institute the requirements of Article 9 of the ‘Statutes on Pre-Trial Custody’, which does not stipulate any restriction of the rights of those held in custody to the effect that they may receive parcels from certain persons only.“

The notice mentioned in Serebrov’s letter has been taken down from the wall in the Institute corridor where it used to hang.

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[6]

SERY

ODESSA. On 14 and 15 October Leonid Sery (CCE 49.18) was detained while trying to leave Odessa for Kiev. The first time he was detained his notebooks were confiscated, along with a letter from Canada found in his possession, and he was severely beaten up.

On 16 October Sery went to a hospital, showed his bruises and scratches and asked to be issued a medical certificate; however, the doctors refused his request.

On 31 October Regional Procurator L. I. Bukhtiyarov summoned Sery to his office, ostensibly to talk about his letter of complaint. There, as well as Bukhtiyarov, were two other men: Kasyan, a KGB officer, and a correspondent from an Odessa newspaper who did not give his name.

Sery was issued a second caution (cf. CCE 47.14 [9]) in accordance with the Decree of 25 December 1972. It was suggested to him that he break off his connections with ‘enemies and spies’ and re-examine his attitudes; they threatened him with a special trade-union meeting at work and even with prosecution. The newspaper correspondent took an active part in the threats and efforts to persuade him.

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[7]

KIEV. On 9 January Olga Geiko (CCE 45.7), the wife of convicted member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group N. Matusevich (CCE 49.3), was issued a caution in accordance with the Decree of 25 December 1972. She would be prosecuted under Article 187-1 (UkSSR Criminal Code = Article 190-1 RSFSR Code) if she continued her ‘anti-Soviet activities’.

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[8]

The Right to Marry

On 19 August 1978 the registration of the marriage of Vyacheslav Nikolayevich Cherepanov and Yolanda Vaicaitis (a Canadian citizen) was to take place at Vilnius Registry Office. However, when all the preparations had been completed, the registration was postponed until 24 August, although Yolanda’s visa ran out on 22 August.

On 22 August police-officers came for Yolanda and put her on a train out of the country. This marked the beginning of the so-far fruitless efforts of Vyacheslav and Yolanda to be reunited.

At the end of 1978 Cherepanov submitted documents regarding Yolanda’s application to enter Lithuania. The application was, however, rejected. In 1979 V. Cherepanov heard from Yolanda that she was pregnant.

In a letter to Brezhnev V. Cherepanov stated that if his case were not decided positively, he would be obliged to renounce Soviet citizenship. Cherepanov sent copies of this letter to Kharazov, a Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party; to the Moscow Helsinki Group; to Waldheim, UN Secretary-General, to the Pope; and to Amnesty International and the US Senate.

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V. N. Cherepanov is a former political prisoner. On 27 August 1968 he distributed leaflets condemning the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops. On 4 November 1968 he was arrested and prosecuted under Article 68 (Lithuanian SSR Criminal Code = Article 70 of the RSFSR Code). He was sentenced to two years in the camps. He served his sentence in Mordovia.

After he had served his sentence, he returned to Vilnius [³].

In 1974 he entered the day department of the Moscow University Faculty of Journalism, from which he was transferred to the correspondence department. He is now a fifth-year student.

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[9]

On 13 October 1978 the USSR Glavlit [⁴] issued Order No. 38-DSP to remove the books of Mykola Rudenko from the library and trade network (CCE 51.19-2 [15]).

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In an appeal hearing of the case of Anatoly Ivanov (CCE 48.9) the RSFSR Supreme Court removed Articles 153 and 221 (RSFSR Criminal Code) from the judgment, leaving only Article 190-1. The court reduced the sentence from four to three years.

A. Ivanov’s sentence ends on 28 April 1980. He has been left to serve his sentence in the Leningrad ‘Kresty’ Prison, where he works in the footwear workshop.

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[10]

In September 1978 the Georgian Supreme Court, presided over by N. Tsikoridze, examined the case of Viktor Rtskhiladze (CCE 45.9, CCE 48.5, CCE 50.2), charged with ‘anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda’.

The prosecutor was Senior Assistant Procurator of the Georgian SSR, G. Svanishvili, and the defence counsel was G. Mamulashvili.

Taking into account the “full confession and sincere repentance of the accused”, the court sentenced Rtskhiladze to two and a half years’ imprisonment and two years’ exile (cf. Gamsakhurdia verdict in May 1978, CCE 50.2). The court “considered it possible to regard the period of imprisonment yet to be served as conditional upon a probationary period of three years, thus leaving a term of exile of two years”.

According to the newspaper Dawn of the East (Zarya Vostoka, 7 September), Rtskhiladze said in his final speech:

“Respected Judges! Before you stands a man who has trodden a path of great and profound error. Since 1975 I have held anti-Soviet attitudes.

“I publicly condemn my shameful past. Now I look with hope to the future. My attitude today is that I wish to be useful to our society …“

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[11]

At the end of November 1978 Romen Kosterin (CCE 51.8 [5]) was sentenced under Article 190-1 (RSFSR Criminal Code) to four years’ exile. He is serving his sentence in the Komi ASSR.

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NOTES

1. The most common spelling is Khemshils (or Khemshins): see A. M. Nekrich, The Punished Peoples, New York, 1978; and Robert Conquest, The Nation Killers, London, 1970.
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2. 20 September 1944: “State Defense Committee Decree on the deportation of Meskheti Turks, Kurds and Khemchin from the border districts of Georgia”: Nicolas Werth (2009), “Les crimes de masse sous Staline, 1930-1953”.
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3. A sceptical attitude to Cherepanov was expressed at the trial of Antanas Terleckas (CCE 58.11).
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4. Soviet pre-publication and pre-broadcast censorship board, formally known as the ‘Main Administration for Barring State Secrets from the Press’, attached to the USSR Council of Ministers.
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