The Trial of Makeyeva, April 1979 (53.7)

<<No 53 : 1 August 1979>>

On 12 April the Kirov district people’s court in Moscow, presided over by Prilepko, examined the case of Valeria Zoroastrovna MAKEYEVA (b. 1929). She was charged under Article 162, pt. 2 (RSFSR Criminal Code: “Conduct of a forbidden trade”). The prosecutor was Gorshkov; the defence lawyer, F. S. Kheifets.

Makeyeva was arrested on 15 June 1978 (CCE 52.11). Psychiatrists at the Serbsky Institute ruled her not responsible, with the diagnosis “psychopathy with an acute personality disorder”.

Makeyeva was charged with making ‘duplicating apparatuses’ for producing sashes with the text of a prayer (known as ‘living aids’ [¹]), and also with the manufacture and sale of several thousand of these sashes.’

The lawyer petitioned for experts to establish whether the devices made by Makeyeva for producing the sashes were ‘duplicating apparatuses’, and whether the sashes themselves constituted ‘church utensils’ (as defined in the ‘Statute on Citizens’ Domestic Craft Trades’, which forbids both). For a second expert opinion the lawyer suggested that a priest be called. The court rejected both petitions. The lawyer stated that the sashes served to satisfy individual citizens’ needs and were not for collective worship; they did not therefore constitute church utensils.

The court ignored his arguments and ruled to send Makeyeva for compulsory treatment to a special psychiatric hospital. At present Makeyeva is in the Kazan Special Psychiatric Hospital.

In a letter about the case of Makeyeva the Christian Committee draws attention to the fact that there are no shops in the USSR for the sale of articles of religious worship and church utensils. These can be sold only in operating churches and produced in the workshops of the Moscow Patriarchate. The range of articles is limited, their quality is exceptionally low, and many articles (particularly prayer sashes) are not manufactured or sold at all.

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