[1] ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS. [2] ADVENTISTS. [3] PENTECOSTALS.
[4] BAPTISTS. [5] CATHOLICS (in Moldavia)
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1. ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS
In the Dobroye district (Lipetsk Region, South Russia), 14 churches were destroyed after the Revolution. In 1974 believers began to ask that a church be opened in the village of Bolshoi Khomutets.
The believers went more than once to see the district soviet executive committee — refusals were accompanied by insults. In December 1975 they handed a request signed by over 1,200 believers to the Council for Religious Affairs. A month later officials Borodin and Yartsev from the district centre arrived in the village. Summoning the believers one by one, they demanded that they sign a declaration renouncing their signatures and threatened them with the sack. As a result, 15 believers renounced their signatures.
In June 1976 Commissioner Degtyarev of the Council for Religious Affairs came to the village from Moscow, accompanied by ten officials from the district Party Committee and the district soviet executive committee. Their talks with believers resembled interrogations and were accompanied by threats. Two months later, the Council for Religious Affairs sent a refusal, based on the fact that there were three working churches in Dobroye district and two in the city of Lipetsk. After this the believers wrote a series of complaints to the highest Soviet authorities and to the editors of newspapers and journals.
In April 1978 one of the most active believers, Anastasia Kleimenova, was seized on the street and taken to a psychiatric hospital. After examining her for two weeks, they released her, admitting that she was healthy.
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The church in the Ukrainian Khinochi village (Vladimir district, Rovno Region) was closed in 1963. The believers immediately began to ask that the church be reopened.
In the summer of 1973, while the peasants were harvesting, the church dome was removed by order of the district authorities and soon, by order of the chairman of the village soviet, grain began to be stored in the church. The complaints of the believers achieved only the removal of the grain from the church. Since then, it has been locked.
In answer to the requests by inhabitants of Khinochi and neighbouring villages to allow the restoration and opening of the church, the local authorities reply that only a small handful of people need it and the other villagers have no need of the church.
In 1978, because of the complaints of believers, a commission consisting of representatives of the district, Regional and UkSSR authorities came to Khinochi. The chairman of the village soviet introduced only two believers to the commission and the discussion was again about the small number of people who needed the church. When the commission left the village, a crowd of believers was waiting for it on the road but no one would get out of the cars.
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Believers in the south Russian town of Kotovo (Volgograd Region) appealed in summer 1978 to the district soviet executive committee to register their religious community and open a prayer-house: 216 people signed the declaration.
The relevant officials of the executive committee refused their request, suggesting that the believers should go and pray in the neighbouring districts, where there were working churches. Believers travelled to complain to Prudnikovich, Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs in the Volgograd Region: he redirected them to the district soviet, where they again received a refusal.
Pressure has begun on the believers to renounce their signatures on the declaration. Old people have received threats that their children and relatives will suffer.
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In the West Ukrainian village of Mshany (Gorodok district, Lvov Region) the church, an architectural monument of the 18th century, was closed and turned into a store-house in March 1978. The church plate was removed.
This ‘operation’ was led by a number of local officials: Gamersky, 1st secretary of the district Party Committee; KGB Captain Bogomolov; deputy head of the district OVD Malishevsky; divisional police inspector Major Yurkov; school headmaster Karaim; the deputy chairman of the collective farm, Vitkovsky; Shelovilo, collective-farm Party organizer; and agronomist Bushko.
In March 1979, when the authorities wanted to fill the church with grain for a second time, the women of the village joined hands and would not let them into the church. The women were forcibly dispersed by the police; one, the most active, was imprisoned for 15 days for saying:
“… They show on television what goes on abroad, and look what they do themselves.”
Afterwards five women travelled to Zagorsk as delegates, to complain to Patriarch Pimen.
A complaint was signed by 200 believers, asking that the church be opened and the grain removed. There was no answer to the complaint.
(See also “The Trial of Makeyeva” (CCE 53.7) and “Letters and Statements” CCE 53.30-1).
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2. ADVENTISTS
In spring and summer 1979, many members of the Church of TFSDA in the Northern Caucasus, Ukraine and Latvia were subjected to searches.
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From 5 to 12 April in the small West Ukrainian town of Beregomet (Chernovtsy Region) there were searches at the homes of Tatyana Dzhegol, Antonina Dzhegol and Anastasia Bendaryuk. Ivan Ivanovich DZHEGOL was arrested. Religious and human rights literature produced by the True Witness publishing house, personal religious notes, and tape-recordings were confiscated.
At the home of Antonina Dzhegol the search was conducted by Procurator Tverdushkin. The officials helping him were drunk.
At the house of Tatyana Dzhegol, an aged woman, Tverdushkin and his assistants knocked on the door at 10 pm. She refused to open the door to strangers at such an hour. The Procurator lured her out of the house by deceit. Then one of his associates jumped on Dzhegol and started to twist her arms behind her back, while taking away the key to the front door. She tried to cry out, but they covered her mouth. In this way the key was seized and the door opened.
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On 6 April a search was carried out at the home of M. M. Gull in Novo-Zhadovo village (Chernovtsy Region). Nothing was confiscated.
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From 5 to 12 April searches were carried out in Dnepropetrovsk ([Dnipro] Ukraine) at the homes of Pyotr Bunyak, Alexandra Bunyak, Kovalchuk, Pshechenko and Laptev.
After the searches Olga Petrovna BUNYAK was arrested. She was charged with disseminating “Open Letter No. 5” from the Church of TFSDA. Four days later she was released. She was told to sign an undertaking not to leave the district and to come when summoned.
After Bunyak refused to sign the record, which contained fabricated evidence, the investigator beat her up. On releasing Olga Bunyak the investigator laughed:
“Are you going to tell how you were beaten here? Which open letter will we appear in?”
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At this same time searches were carried out at the homes of Musanova, Kraider and Orlov, who live in the town of Terek (Kabardino-Balkar ASSR, North Caucasus). Literature produced by True Witness publishers was confiscated.
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On 24 April the home of N. L. Gromatyuk, a resident of Kamenets-Podolsk [1], was searched. Religious literature and notes on religious themes were confiscated.
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UKRAINE
On 15 May Valentina Velichko, Solovyova and Shendrik were searched in the Kiev Region (Glevakha village; the town of Yagotin). At Solovyova’s home a few books printed by True Witness publishers were confiscated. At the homes of Velichko and Shendrik a few packets of paper and several sheets of carbon paper were taken.
On 30 May in the city of Lutsk (Volyn Region), Anna Bortnik and Dina Kirichuk were searched.
Books and pamphlets printed by True Witness publishers of a religious and human rights nature, exercise books containing religious texts, and used envelopes and postcards were confiscated. Three savings-bank books recording a deposit of about 1,000 roubles and 1,140 roubles in cash were confiscated from Kirichuk. A number of sheets of plastic and plastic material were taken from Bortnik’s shed.
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VINNITSA REGION
On 31 May in the town of Kazatin, E. S. Ignatev was searched. ‘Open Letter No. 6’ and personal religious notes were confiscated.
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On 1 June, in Nekrasovo village a search was carried out at the house of Marina Volkodav. Two pamphlets of a religious nature, and pages from the journal Voice of Truth were confiscated.
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On 27 June, in Belorechitsa village (Priluki district, Cherkassy Region), a search was carried out at the home of Vitaly Bezdushny and Ivan Savchuk. Nothing was confiscated.
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On 28 June searches were carried out in Kherson (south Ukraine). In the homes of Kondratsky and Gonchar copies of pamphlets printed by True Witness publishers, notes and used postcards were confiscated. At the home of the Dimov couple, in addition to some True Witness pamphlets, 17 cards congratulating them on their marriage and 14 tape-cassettes were confiscated.
On the same day in Belorechitsa village (Chernigov Region) M. Yu. Rak and Dmitry M. Florescul (CCE 46.8) were searched. Nothing was confiscated.
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RIGA
On 11 July a search was carried in Riga out at the flat of Lyubov Ivanovna GALETSKAYA.
Galetskaya was not at home and her son Vladimir did not have keys to two of her rooms. The doors to these rooms were broken down. Materials confiscated from these rooms consisted of a notebook, some notes, a used envelope and the military card and work-book of Lyubov Ivanovna’s second son Yaroslav Galetsky (CCE 49.14-1). A bag containing 22 True Witness pamphlets was found in a shed and confiscated.
On the same day in Riga Ruta Andreyevna BYSHEVAYA was searched. Nothing was confiscated.
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3. PENTECOSTALISTS
Alexander Orlik from the Far Eastern city [2] of Nakhodka (Primorsky Region) was sentenced on 12 March to one year in a labour camp for refusing to serve in the armed forces.
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In the central Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa (1979 pop, 314,446) the owners of houses in which religious marriage ceremonies take place, and the ministers who conduct the services, are being fined.
For example, Presbyter A. Melnik has been fined three times this year (50 roubles each time).
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BREAKING UP WEDDINGS
On 15 July in Yevseyevo village (Moscow Region), police and men in civilian clothes tried to break up the wedding of Pentecostal believer Razumovsky. The electricity was cut off in the house where the wedding was taking place. When the electricity was quickly restored by connecting it to the next house, the power was cut off throughout the village.
In spite of this, the wedding still took place.
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On 6 May in the West Ukrainian village of Novaya Greblya (Rogatin district, Ivano-Frankovsk Region), the wedding of O. Stefanishina and R. Shkavritko was broken up.
On the day before the wedding the bride’s father was summoned to the district soviet executive committee and warned by the local Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs that religious wedding ceremonies are forbidden.
On the night of 5-6 May about 20 policemen and vigilantes broke into the Stefanishins’ yard and demolished the wedding tent and the prepared tables. On 6 May the village was surrounded by police, MVD troops and vigilantes. All the roads were cut off and a quarantine on account of ‘Siberian plague’ was declared. The bridegroom and his guests (about two hundred people) could not get into the village to see his bride, and the bride was not allowed out to see him.
About one hundred believers went to protest to the Rogatin district Partycommittee. The Party official on duty wanted to call the police, but there were no policemen available — they were all involved in cordoning off the village.
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4. BAPTISTS
Largely based on material from the Council of ECB Prisoners’ Relatives Bulletin.
Trials
BERDYANSK (south Ukraine), 2 February. F. A. Korkodilov, Presbyter of the Zaporozhe church, was sentenced to 2 ½ years’ imprisonment and evangelist V. A. Bugayenko to 18 months. They were charged with having conducted the wedding of A. Katrich and D. Rotova (CCE 52.11).
Korkodilov was also charged with organizing the rite of baptism by immersion on 21 August 1977.
DONETSK (east Ukraine). On 3 March Nikolai Chekh and Alexander Chekh were detained in Chuguyev for transporting the Bulletin of the Council of Baptist Prisoners’ Relatives in their car [addition CCE 55.12].
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On 5 March a search was carried out at the home of Valentin Naprienko (CCE 49.14-2).
Besides other things, 1,300 copies of the journal Messenger of Truth were confiscated. On the same day a search took place at the home of G. Dzhurik. On 12 April Naprienko was arrested.
On 27 June Naprienko was sentenced under Article 187-1 (UkSSR Criminal Code = Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Code) to three years’ imprisonment. Dzhurik was given a suspended sentence of two years’ imprisonment but ‘with compulsory labour’ (in slang, ‘chemistry’).
N. Chekh and A. Chekh were given suspended sentences of 11 months’ imprisonment and had their car confiscated.
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GORODETS (Gorky Region), 16 July. A case was heard in the town’s court to judge a submission by the Procuracy that A. F. Runov (CCE 52.11) should be declared mentally incapable. The submission declares that Runov, a shoemaker
“… imposes his faith on everyone without exception, calling on them to repent. He tries in every way to convert others — especially young people (pupils at the Gorky Polytechnic School No. 9 and children of pre-school age) — to the Baptist faith … He takes part in dissemination of handwritten leaflets entitled ‘The Word of God’, placing them in the shoes of his clients. He cannot control his actions. He does not deny that he has preached his faith in public places.“
The court decided to send Runov for a psychiatric examination in the Gorky Regional Psychiatric Hospital. Since 1974 Runov has been sent to this hospital three times (each time for one to two months). He is diagnosed as having ‘schizophrenia in paranoid form’.
Alexander Voloshanovich (CCE 50.7, CCE 51.19-1), who recently gave Runov a psychiatric examination at his own request, was in court as an observer.
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RYAZAN city (Central Russia), 20 July. Choir conductor N. F. Popov was sentenced to three years in strict-regime camps under two Articles (RSFSR Criminal Code: 190-1 & 142, pt 2 “Violation of the laws separating the Church from the State and the School from the Church”). Presbyter A. V. Nikitkov was sentenced to three years ‘chemistry’.
The Christian Committee has appealed to Kuroyedov, Chairman of the USSR Council for Religious Affairs, to put an end to this unjust repression.
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KIROVOGRAD city (central Ukraine), 31 July. Presbyter Ivan Antonov (CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-2), a member of the unofficial Council of Baptist Churches (CCECB), was sentenced to two years in strict-regime camps for ‘parasitism’.
He was arrested as long ago as 19 December 1977. Antonov will be 60 years old on 19 August 1979.
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Arrests, Searches, Warnings, Dispersed Meetings and Fines
PLAVSK town (Tula Region). On 12 February O. N. Popov, of the Ryazan Baptist Church, and Ye. V. Yershov, of the Moscow Baptist Church, were detained while transporting religious literature in their private car: 220 copies of Christina Roy’s story The Worker and 320 volumes of Revival Songs.
The books were burned on 17 March, together with religious literature confiscated from other people (Bibles, Gospels, collections of religious verses and copies of the journal Messenger of Truth), by Procurator Ognev, a Senior Investigator of Ryazan Region. A record was made of this.
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KHARKOV REGION
KHARKOV city (east Ukraine). On 9 March Vitaly Pidchenko should have celebrated his wedding.
He had already informed the local authorities about it. One condition was laid down for Pidchenko and his fiancée: they should invite no more than 40 guests to the wedding. They refused.
On the eve of the wedding, tables put out for the celebration were dismantled and taken away. On 9 March the guests were forced to disperse: 26 people were arrested and detained for 15 days, six were fined 50 roubles each, and over 20 were detained (some for two days). So as not to make an error and arrest ‘their own people’, policemen and vigilantes demanded that those they detained should use foul language, cursing God.
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MEREFA town (Kharkov Region). On 10 March M. Krivko, who has often been persecuted for his religious activities, had his home searched.
Religious literature and tape-recordings were confiscated. Inspector Golovko of the Department for Combating Pilfering of Socialist Property & Speculation (OBKhSS) was present during the search with others.
Soon afterwards Golovko reappeared. This time he conducted a search without a permit from the Procurator. On 4 May he came for the third time and interrogated Krivko’s father-in-law, trying to force him to give the information he needed.
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KHARKOV, 15 April. Major Kurilo was in charge of breaking up a festive religious service.
The believers were taken in a bus to the Vigilante Support Point, where they were all photographed and given summonses to an administrative commission. Five people were arrested.
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ELSEWHERE
KAMENETS-PODOLSK, // . On 19 April F. V. Borinsky and A. G. Ursu, residents of N. Synterea village (Lozovsky district, Moldavian SSR) were arrested while carrying copies of Messenger of Truth. They were taken to Kishinyov Prison.
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KISHINYOV city, 20 April. During a search at the home of Prutyan religious literature, personal notes, a camera and tape-cassettes were confiscated.
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YENAKIYEVO city (Donetsk Region) On 30 April a wedding was broken up: the guests were beaten and driven far from the house, musical instruments were seized. Two people were sentenced to 10 and 15 days’ imprisonment, two others were given corrective labour and fined 20% of their pay.
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ODESSA city, 2 May. A religious service in a registered prayer-house was broken up.
KGB men, police and Gavrilov, local commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs, warned that a service must last only two hours. They constantly shouted through a megaphone how much time was left. As soon as the time was up, the officials broke up the service.
A fire-engine and fire-pump were summoned to assist the police. Several people were arrested.
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KHARKOV city, 31 May. A festive religious service in the Kozedubovs’ house was broken up; at the same time a search was carried out without a permit from the Procurator. All the believers (about 130 people) were taken to the police station and kept there all night. Many were fined 30-60 roubles; 28 people were sentenced to 10-15 days’ imprisonment. Those arrested went on hunger-strike in protest.
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TROITSK town (Moscow Region), 3 June. A religious service was broken up. Four people were charged with resisting the police.
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KHARTSYZSK town (Donetsk Region), 13 June. E. N. Pushkov was officially warned by the KGB. Pushkov was told that he would not be put on trial for his religious activities, but that a pretext would be found to try him on a criminal charge. On 15 June V. I. Yudintsev (CCE 41.2-4) was summoned to the KGB office. There he was warned that his religious activities were against the law. On the same day his wife, S. A. Yudintseva, was given a warning ‘according to the decree’ in the soviet executive committee offices. This was her second warning (the first was in 1976).
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MAKEYEVKA city (Donetsk Region). 16 June. The police broke into a house where believers had gathered. P. V. Rumachik (CCE 51.15) and F. V. Gordienko were sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment, and criminal charges were brought against them (against Rumachik — who has been sentenced four times for his religious activities — the charge was parasitism). M. T. Shaptal was sentenced to 10 days’ imprisonment.
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NOVOSHAKHTINSK city (Rostov Region), 17 June. Officials disrupted a religious service and took the names of those present. I. Prikhodko, who had recently been released from prison, was fined on 26 March and 15 June for allowing his house to be used for services.
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ROSTOV-ON-DON city. July. After prayer meetings were broken up, three women – Kolbantseva, Zakharova and Goncharova — were arrested and detained for 10-15 days.
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POLTAVA city (central Ukraine). Three people were fined 50 roubles and one was fined 25 roubles, for allowing their houses to be used for religious services.
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LVOV city (West Ukraine). A criminal case has been laid against A. A. Kostenko, who allowed his house to be used for religious services.
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MOSCOW, 13 March. Police officials arrived at the house of N. Pozdnyakov (CCE 45.10 [2]) to prevent a religious service being conducted. Some believers were fined; a criminal case was brought against V. Zinchenko under Article 142 (RSFSR Criminal Code).
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KRIVOI ROG Rog city (central Ukraine). The Military Procuracy has laid a case against Alexander Pavlenko, who refused to take the military oath on religious grounds.
Attempts are being made to add a charge of conducting agitation among soldiers.
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RYAZAN city (Central Russia). Criminal charges have been brought against A. S. Redin. He is accused of disseminating knowingly false fabrications, of violation of the legislation on religious cults, and of parasitism. (Redin has a work record of 31 years).
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ZHARYK village (Dzhezkazgan Region, Kazakh SSR), 24 February. G. Shmidt was accused of teaching children religion. He was also charged with the fact that the religious community is not registered. After many protests a reply was received on 11 April stating that the case against Shmidt had been closed and the district Procurator asked to return the exercise books and notebooks confiscated from him.
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KIEV. After a public attack on N. V. Lebedeva in the newspaper Evening Kiev, her fellow-workers at the Consumer Bureau demanded her dismissal at a public meeting.
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LISICHANSK city (Voroshilovgrad Region, South Russia). G. lvashura’s former husband, a policeman, who had divorced her, took her son from her. In spite of all her efforts, the child has not been returned to her. In her absence, the police chief of Lysychansk settled the family of a colleague in her flat, but as a result of her complaints the flat was returned to her.
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Confiscation of Houses
ROSTOV-ON-DON. On 14-15 February a court decision was taken to confiscate the house belonging to Sergei and Vera Muzychenko, built on a piece of land bought in 1976.
The former owner had permission to build a house on it, but when the Muzychenkos applied to the Bureau of Land Registration, it turned out that the relevant documents had been mislaid. Nevertheless, the officials advised them to build. In autumn 1978, when the house was completed, they were summoned by the administrative commission and fined. After this an investigation was carried out by the Department for Combating Pilfering of Socialist Property and Speculation (OBKhSS), which showed that all the construction materials had been legally obtained.
A case was then laid against S. Muzychenko under Article 199, pt 2 (RSFSR Criminal Code: “Unwarranted seizure of land and unwarranted construction”). Defence Counsel was told that if Muzychenko had not been a Baptist, no case would have been brought. The court sentenced him to the maximum penalty — one year of corrective labour and confiscation of the house.
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SHAKHTY city (Rostov Region), 21 February. The district Soviet executive committee brought an action in the people’s court concerning the confiscation of L I. Popov’s house in which religious services had been held. In December officials from the Fire Prevention Department and the Sanitary Inspection Unit came to Popov, suggesting that they carry out necessary (according to them) repairs. All their instructions were carried out, but without any inspection or warning Popov was taken to court.
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DEDOVSK town (Moscow Region), 14 Apil. The Soviet executive committee decided to confiscate the house of N. Kruchinin and P. Monakhov, as religious services were being held there.
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FRYAZEVO village (Moscow Region), 14 April. O. I. Sevalneva was forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital. When her mother tried to defend her, her arm was broken. In the hospital O. Sevalneva is asked about interna! church matters. She is threatened when she refuses to reply.
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(See also ‘The Trial of Skornyakov’ in this issue, CCE 53.4).
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5. CATHOLICS IN MOLDAVIA
As the Catholic churches in Moldavia have been closed (CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-1), Catholics meet for prayer in private houses. They have often appealed to the Kishinyov and Moscow authorities to allow the registration of church ‘councils of twenty’. However, even where the local authorities have promised to allow registration, this has still not been done.
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In May this year the only Catholic priest in Moldavia, Vladislav Zavalnyuk, was once again allowed to go to Rashkovo (CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-1) after being forbidden to do so for two years. The commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs gave this permission on condition that the believers would no longer meet for prayer without the priest, and that young people and children would not participate in the service at all.
On 6 July the commissioner summoned Zavalnyuk and forbade him to go to Rashkovo. as the conditions were not being fulfilled. On the same day the local authorities in Rashkovo destroyed the altar built by Catholics in the yard of a private house for the priest’s service, and the awning where the believers had sheltered from bad weather.
On 29 July the feast day of St. Martha, the patron saint of Rashkovo, was to be celebrated. On 26 July, in Kishinev, the commissioner summoned the church ‘council of twenty’ and warned them that Catholics from Kishinev were not to go to Rashkovo for the feast-day, or criminal charges would be brought against the priest.
From 27 July, a ‘plague quarantine’ was proclaimed in Rashkovo, which lasted for three days. Policemen and troops were patrolling all the roads into Rashkovo. Patrols were even set up in the fields.
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Many Catholics from Moldavia and Ukraine had planned to come to the festival, thus supporting their fellow-believers in Rashkovo. According to the calculations of the believers, about 4,000 people tried to get through to the village. Only a few succeeded, but even these were not allowed to take part in the festive service — the local authorities and visiting KGB officials checked their documents, interrogating and threatening them.
As St. Martha’s feast-day was not properly celebrated in Rashkovo, it will now take place on 16 September in Kishinyov.
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NOTES
- No indication in original report WHICH Kamenets-Podolsk the CECB Bulletin was referring to. Was it a village in the Far-Eastern Khabarovsky Region [Krai], or some place much closer, in Ukraine (Kamenets-Podolsky) or Moldavia?//
↩︎ - 1976 population: 127,000 in Nakhodka, Primorsky Region.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 