Despite persecution, the Action Group to Defend the Rights of the Disabled in the USSR is continuing its activities (CCE 51.17, CCE 52.13).
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VISITORS
On 28 December 1978 KGB officials went to see not only group member Valery Fefyolov (//CCE 52), but also his parents, to try to persuade them to influence their son into stopping his ‘anti-Soviet activities.’
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Also in December persons presenting themselves as disabled people from the Moscow Committee of War Veterans came to see Group member Yury Kiselyov. They expressed themselves extremely rudely. One of them explained why they had come:
“Your standard of living is too high. We have to examine your flat, so that in accordance with the latest Moscow Soviet decision another family can be sent to live here as well.”
Kiselev did not allow them into the flat.
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STATEMENTS
In March 1979, the Action Group sent two statements, to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet and the USSR Council of Ministers.
They called on them to restore the right of invalids (people disabled either from childhood, or at work, or from disease or accident) to acquire personal motor vehicles at preferential prices: at present only the war disabled in the USSR have this right. They also called on the Presidium and the Council to compensate disabled people who own motor vehicles for the recent increases in the price of petrol, repairs and spare parts.
The Action Group received the following oral reply from Skvortsov, an official at the Committee on Labour & Social Issues (USSR Council of Ministers): “At present the State does not have the means to do this as everything is spent on the war disabled.” The Action Group responded in April by resending the two statements to the same addressees (Document No. 11).
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DELEGATION
On 16 March another ‘delegation’ came to Fefyolov’s flat (CCE 52).
It was made up of: the President of the Vladimir Regional Court; Luchkov, the Head of Regional Social Welfare; and Glushchenko, Head of district Social Welfare.
The President of the Regional Court was holding a duplicated copy of the Action Group report “On the Position of the Disabled in the USSR” (CCE 51). He tried to find out from Fefyolov who had written it. It was again suggested to Fefyolov that he stop spreading ‘anti-social fabrications’ about violations of the rights of disabled people in the USSR.
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PUBLICATIONS
In April the Action Group published an Open Letter: “Disabled People in the USSR and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights” (Document No. 10), signed by Yury Kiselyov and Valery Fefyolov. The letter indicates which Articles of the Declaration are violated “with regard to disabled people” in the USSR.
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On 24 April 1979, the Action Group produced its fifth Bulletin.
In addition to Documents 10 and 11, Victor Nekipelov’s article “Erased from the Façade” (CCE 52.13), a letter to Norman Acton and to presidents of societies for the disabled (CCE 52.13), information about the visit to Kiselyov from the ‘war veterans’ and Document 77 of the Moscow Helsinki Group (CCE 52.16-2), issue No. 5 contains an Open Letter from Yu. Kiselyov describing the situation of disabled people in the USSR, and information about Yury Valov (see “In the Psychiatric Hospitals” CCE 53.21).
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CHAT
On 22 April the Chief of the Kolchugino district Division of the Vladimir KGB Administration, Lieutenant-Colonel Korovushkin (CCE 52.13) had a ‘chat’ with Valery Fefyolov while he and his family were in the country for a day.
The ‘chat’ opened with the words
“Greetings in the open spaces, Valery Andreyevich. So we meet without witnesses and without tape-recorders” (CCE52).
It continued with threats, insults, demands to ‘stop’, and bribes: “We could give you even more if you stop your activities. We could give you a three-or four-roomed flat, as you wish, a new car, give back your driving licence …” (CCE51).
The talk ended with presentation of a summons from Captain Chernov, Chief of the Yuryev-Polsky State Vehicle Inspectorate, who fined Fefyolov’s wife (she was driving the vehicle) 10 roubles for driving without a licence.
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KISELYOV
In May Yury Kiselev sent a letter to Gutman, President of the Committee for Olympics for the Disabled, asking him to arrange the disabled Olympic Games in Moscow at the same time as the 1980 Olympics.
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On 9-10 June the police searched Yu. Kiselyov’s house in the Crimea at Koktebel (CCE 52.13) on the pretext of looking for hippies. It was stated that nobody had the right to live in the house, as a demolition order had been issued.
The same night, in Moscow, Kiselyov’s Zaporozhets car was broken into and damaged.
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BULLETIN NO 6
On 12 July the Action Group issued Bulletin No. 6.
An article by architect Patskin “Houses with Flats for the Disabled on the Ground Floor”, which appeared in the magazine Housing Construction (No. 1, 1979), is reprinted in this issue. For purposes of comparison, Document No. 12 of the Action Group about the housing problems of the disabled in the USSR also appears in the issue: it is signed by three people — Yury Kiselyov, Valery Fefyolov and Olga Zaitseva.
There is also an article by Yu. Kiselyov, “The Attitude of the Administration to a House that was Built, Taking into Account the Needs of the Disabled: a Response to a Decision to Demolish” (CCE 52.13).
Bulletin No. 6 also prints a letter sent by the Action Group to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet and the USSR Council of Ministers about the unjustifiably high fines imposed on disabled people for the loss of driving licences or registration certificates.
The Bulletin also features letters from the Action Group to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet and the USSR Council of Ministers. These concern: the unjust way in which the amount of aid for Group I invalids is calculated (15 roubles from the minimum pension of 70 roubles are allotted for maintenance allowance); their need for additional living space (for a housekeeper, for working at home and for remedial exercise); and the abolition of triple payment for space above the norm.
A reply to these letters from the Social Welfare Department of the USSR State Committee on Labour and Social Issues (dated 14 June), together with comments on this reply entitled “Philanthropy” (Document No. 13), also appear in the Bulletin.
In addition Bulletin No. 6 contains: an appeal for help for Group II invalid Maia Brovchenko in Ukraine (258578, Cherkassy Region, Shpolyansky district, Zhuravka village, Shnury farmstead); Fefyolov’s account of his ‘chat’ with Korovushkin (see above); and an account of Kiselyov’s misfortunes.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 