- 19-1 Chistopol Prison. Mordovian Camps. Perm Camps
- 19-2 Perm (2). Other Camps. In Defence of Political Prisoners. Releases
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1. Chistopol Prison
The prison consists of a a small three-storey building designed for about 300 people (43 cells). The ground floor is a semi-basement. The political prisoners are kept in the left wing of the second floor.
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The cells have wooden floors. The water is turned on four times a day, at prescribed times, by the warders in the corridor. The radio is switched on inside the cells. The building is heated with radiators. Reveille is at 5 am, roll-call at 7.0 and breakfast at 7.20; exercise begins at 8 am and lights-out is at 9 pm.
There is no prison hospital (the nearest one is in Kazan), there are only one or more ’hospital cells’, which are little different from ordinary cells. There are about 200 books in the library. Prisoners are allowed to keep five books or periodicals in their cells.
Sheets are changed once a week, when visiting the bath. Prisoners may make purchases in the camp shop twice a month. The following food products are available: bread, curd cheese, milk, margarine, sweets, processed cheese.
The Prison Head is Lieutenant-Colonel V. Malafeyev, the Deputy Head for Political Matters is Captain Mavrin, and the Deputy Head for Regime is Captain Nikolayev.
In the camp shop the prisoners are allowed to spend only money they have earned in prison. They are not even allowed to spend money they have earned previously in the camps, a prohibition which contravenes the Corrective Labour Code.
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Political prisoners were transferred from Vladimir Prison to Chistopol on 8 October 1978 in a special transport: six prisoners in ‘black’ (Gilel Butman, Roman Gaiduk, R. Zograbyan, Josif Mendelevich, G. Sheludko and Anatoly Shcharansky) and eight in ‘striped’ costumes (V. Bondarenko, Viktoras Petkus, F. Trufanov and V. Fedorenko are known to have been among them).
Before the transfer the prisoners had all their belongings taken away (they were returned to them in Chistopol). The ‘striped ones’ (named after the striped prison clothing worn by especially dangerous recidivists) refused to leave without their things: Fedorenko undressed completely and was dragged into the Black Maria in this state; Petkus was struck in the face by Ugodin, Head of Vladimir Prison, then thrown to the ground by several people and beaten with rubber truncheons. On the morning of 10 October 1978, the Stolypin wagon arrived in Kazan. From there the prisoners were taken on the three-hour journey to Chistopol in Black Marias.
In November 1978 Vladimir Balakhonov and Mikhail Kazachkov (CCE 51.9-1) were brought to Chistopol Prison from Camp 36. They were put on strict regime: Balakhonov for six months (until 21 May) and Kazachkov for two months.
Igor Ogurtsov (on 27 July) and Maigonis Ravins were brought here from Perm Camp 35 (see ‘The Perm Camps’ this issue CCE 51.9-1).
In December 1978 Sergei Grigoryants (CCE 48.10-2, CCE 51.9-1) was taken away to a prison in the Urals. He is now in the town of Verkhne-Uralsk (Chelyabinsk Region) in penal institution YaV-48/ST-4. His sentence ends in March 1980.
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Conditions in Chistopol Prison are considerably harsher than those in Vladimir Prison. Both ‘incoming’ and ‘outgoing’ letters are delayed.
For example, Gilel Butman used to receive 20-30 letters every month in Vladimir Prison; in Chistopol he receives 2-3 letters a month, from his close relatives only, and not even all of these.
Shcharansky is rarely given his letters, and then only those from his family. For five months they did not give him any letters from his wife (in Israel), then they gave him one. He was not given the greetings telegrams which arrived for his birthday. Shcharansky has submitted a complaint to Procurator Zakirov.
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On 4 December 1978, Kazachkov wanted to send a letter to his mother. It transpired that Chistopol has its ‘own’ rules. The censor does not accept registered letters accompanied by a card for notification of receipt. Moreover, he does not accept telegrams at all, and statements must be addressed to the Procuracy or the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD).
On 11 January 1979, in support of his demand that his letter, registered and with notification, should be sent, Kazachkov declared a hunger-strike. For declaring a hunger-strike he was put in the cooler, where he maintained a ‘dry’ hunger-strike for eight days. On the ninth day he was force-fed. Until 15 June he was fed on alternate days, then every day. During his hunger-strike Kazachkov got food poisoning three times from the force-feeding mixture. By the end of July, he had already lost 20 kg. He underwent two psychiatric examinations. He was pronounced sane both times. He is at present in a ‘hospital cell’.
As a result of this hunger-strike the prison postal ‘regulations’ have been changed: prisoners are permitted to send registered letters with notifications and telegrams. Kazachkov’s voluminous letters (over 200 pages in all) are however ‘stuck’ with the censor, so he is continuing his hunger-strike, demanding that the letters be dispatched to their destinations, with the censor’s cuts if necessary, Balakhonov has supported Kazachkov’s hunger-strike.
Recently Shcharansky has been suffering from severe headaches and pain behind the eyes. His head begins to ache if he reads for more than 30-40 minutes at a time; the pain lasts for several days. Shcharansky was examined by an optician, who found nothing abnormal. Both Shcharansky and his family are trying to arrange an examination by specialists. In response to their enquiry his family were informed by the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions that Shcharansky was in good health and not in need of an examination. The latest reply from the Medical Department of the MVD is that Shcharansky had been examined by five specialists and nothing abnormal had been found. The ‘examination’ consisted in checking Shcharansky’s sight by using a standard optician’s chart, and measuring his blood pressure.
Foreign doctors to whom his symptoms have been described suggested that he might be suffering from a developing brain tumour or an inflammation of the cerebral membranes.
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During his stay in prison Petkus has lost 25 kg in weight.
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In April Balakhonov, Zograbyan, Kazachkov, Shcharansky, Fedorenko and Yu Shukhevich (who had returned from being ‘re-educated’ in Kiev, CCE 51.9-1) signed a statement to the effect that they intended to stage another (CCE 51.9-1, CCE 52.9-3) “Ten Days of Solidarity between the Peoples Struggling against Russo-Soviet Imperialism and Colonialism”.
They were supported by prisoners from Mordovian Camp No. 1: Balys Gajauskas, Alexander Ginzburg, N. Yevgrafov, Svyatoslav Karavansky, Eduard Kuznetsov, Levko Lukyanenko, Bohdan Rebrik, Oleksiy Tykhy and Danilo Shumuk.
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During the summer Shcharansky did not fulfil the norm and for this he was deprived of access to the camp shop.
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2. MORDOVIA
2.1: Camp 1 (special-regime)
There has been a change in the official designation of the special zone of Camp 1. It is now: penal institution. ZhKh-385/1-8 (previously it was 1-6).
During the summer lavatory pans and wash-stands were installed in the cells. The sewerage system does not work, however, so latrine buckets have to be used as before. At approximately the same time, loudspeakers were installed in the corridors. They are never turned off during non-working hours.
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TYKHY
On 18 April Aleksei Tikhy (Ukr. Tykhy) suffered the beginnings of a perforated ulcer. He was not taken to hospital until the following day, after bleeding for 18 hours without medical aid and with a blood pressure of 70/40. In the hospital he was operated on immediately.
On 10 May a serious complication (peritonitis) set in; his stomach was cut open and washed out. On the same day he had a visit from his son (of about two hours). On 25 May the doctors submitted documents recommending that Tikhy be released in connection with his seriously ill condition. These documents got no further than the hospital.
On 16 July Tikhy’s wife telephoned Yavas and asked for Major Timofeyev, the head of the hospital. She was told that Tikhy had been sent back to his camp. On 17 July she again telephoned Yavas. Timofeyev told her that Tikhy was still in the hospital, his temperature was 37.5-38 degrees Centigrade, and there was no cause for alarm. He also said that the day before Olga Alexeyevna (Tikhy’s wife) had not talked to him, and that the conversation with her and the assertion that Tikhy had been sent back to his camp were ‘someone’s joke’. On 19 July Tikhy’s wife and son arrived in Barashevo. Timofeyev told them that on 18 July Tikhy had been taken to a hospital in Sverdlovsk — as he put it, ‘by order, to improve his conditions’.
In actual fact, by 14 July Tikhy was no longer in the hospital. On her return to Moscow, his wife received a telegram from Timofeyev which he had dispatched on the 20th, immediately after he had spoken to her: ‘For the second time, in case of non-receipt. Sent in satisfactory condition to a hospital of the Sverdlovsk Regional Soviet EC UVD’ (she had received no ‘first’ telegram). In response to her enquiry, she was informed from Sverdlovsk that Tikhy had not been admitted to the UVD hospital. Only after a number of enquiries was Aleksei Tikhy ‘found’ in a hospital in Nizhny Tagil.
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Alexei Murzhenko is ill: he suffers from gastritis, angina pectoris and inflammation of a shoulder joint. During the past year he has been forbidden to write about his health.
He was deprived of his parcel for 1979. He was also deprived of his parcel for 1978 (CCE 48.10-1). He was deprived of access to the camp shop for both November and December 1978 (see also CCE 52.5-1 and ‘Miscellaneous Reports’ in this issue CCE 53.29).
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GINZBURG & ZHOLKOVSKAYA
On 23 March Alexander Ginzburg had a scheduled ‘short’ visit from his wife Irina. She described this visit in an open statement dated 26 March:
Before the visit began, Major Nekrasov, the Head of the camp, said that he was giving us only three hours … Nekrasov said that he “had nothing against” Ginzburg, but that my “activities” (letters, statements, interviews) did not meet with his approval.
The Head of a corrective labour colony decides the duration of a visit according to the “behaviour” of the prisoner’s relatives! This seems to me both surprising and illegal…
The visit took place in a long room. The barred window had a thick curtain drawn across it. By the window stood a wooden table painted bright blue, with a large screen nailed to the front of it. The screen hides the person opposite so that only their head and neck are visible. This is the table for relatives. There is an identical one for the prisoner, just by the door. Between us is the empty expanse of the -room. Along the walls there are stools for the guards. (At our meeting there were between one and four of them; they came and went) …
My husband looks a little better than he did during the investigation and trial. But he said that his blood pressure often rises to 220/120 and that his stomach complaint is getting worse. Nevertheless, he is not even given a special diet.
I had brought with me various medicines (essential to my husband) and multi-vitamins, but they were not accepted.
My husband is still grinding and polishing glass. During our meeting he told me that he receives only a negligible proportion of the letters sent to him by his family and friends. Over a period of two months (from 4 December 1978 to 4 February 1979) 24 of his letters were confiscated because they ‘contained undesirable information’ (including some letters from me and the children). Many letters simply disappear without trace, without anyone being informed that they have been confiscated …
The telegram I sent when our six-year-old son was discharged from hospital after a car accident lay around in Sosnovka for eight days and was not given to Ginzburg until the eve of my visit. All letters mentioning religion are confiscated. It is forbidden to write out the text of prayers, or texts from the Bible or New Testament; it is forbidden to send the Orthodox Church calendar for 1979, or postcards depicting icons.
The camp Head, Major Nekrasov, told me that ‘in our country the church is separate from the state and since Ginzburg is in a state institution, he is therefore separated from the church’.
On the same day Irina Zholkovskaya sent two further statements, one to the Medical Section of the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions and one to the Main Administration itself.
In the first she asks to be informed of her husband’s state of health, requests that he be given a special diet and that she be permitted to send essential medicines to the camp. In the second, she asks: ‘to be informed which documents of the internal regulations forbid religious subject matter in letters’; for an explanation as to ‘whether the camp administration has the right to shorten the length of visits, according to the behaviour of free relatives’; and that the situation with regard to correspondence be put to rights. Zholkovskaya received no reply on the substance of her questions.
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2.2: Camp 19
On 22 June Pyotr Sartakov, who had served seven years in camp under Article 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, was dispatched under guard into exile. He has a five-year exile term to serve. On 1 August he was still somewhere in transit.
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Leonid Lubman (CCE 51.9-1) has begun to suffer in camp from severe headaches, heart trouble, stomach pains and general weakness. On several occasions he has lost consciousness. (Until his arrest Lubman was in good health.)
From 2 to 22 April 1979, he underwent a psychiatric examination and was pronounced sane.
At the end of July Lubman’s parents were due to come for a three-day visit. In response to their telegram about the date of the visit they received the reply: ‘Addressee gone away’. They have so far received no reply to their numerous enquiries addressed to the camp and the MVD.
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On 23 March Sergei Soldatov had a long visit (24 hours). He was ill and had to lie down practically the whole time.
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3. PERM
REZNIKOVA
On 1 March lawyer E. A. Reznikova came to Camp 36 to see Sergei Kovalyov.
In the visiting room the Head of Operations, Senior Lieutenant Rozhkov, checked the blank paper and the copy of the Criminal Code which Reznikova had brought with her. Then he asked Reznikova what was in her handbag and asked that she show him its contents. Reznikova stated categorically that she would not do this without the sanction of the Procurator. Then Rozhkov proposed that she leave her handbag behind when she went in to visit Kovalyov. Thereupon, without coming to any agreement, Reznikova refused to go through with the visit under such conditions and left.
On her return to Moscow. Reznikova immediately complained to the Bar about the actions of the camp administration. The Bar simultaneously received a report from the camp, in which it was said that Reznikova had intended to take ‘unauthorized’ things into the meeting (her own money and food). The Bar sent a protest to the MVD about the illegal actions of the administration of Camp 36.
On 30 June Yury Orlov’s lawyer E. S. Shalman set off to visit him in Camp 37. Shalman did not intend taking his brief-case with him into the visiting room and it was therefore immediately suggested that he submit to a body-search. Shalman, too, was forced to forgo a visit under such conditions (neither the Corrective Labour Code nor the Rules on Internal Order’ for camps provide for searching a lawyer or checking his belongings).
On 11 July Reznikova was granted permission to visit Kovalyov.
There was no mention of a search or checking belongings (see also ‘Camp 36’).
Shalman has not yet been for another visit.
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3.1: Camp 35
On 29 May, on completion of their 25-year ‘basic’ sentences. Vasyl Pidgorodetsky [Ukr. Pidhorodetsky] and Miroslav Simchich were dispatched to ‘criminal’ camps, also of strict-regime [addition CCE 55.12]. Before their departure they were deceived into thinking that they were being released, so that they gave away their possessions and were left without warm clothing.
Simchich’s ‘additional’ camp sentence was mentioned in CCE 42.4-3 and CCE 48.10-2. Pidgorodetsky was given an additional sentence (it ends in 1981) for his part in a Taishet hunger-strike — ‘sabotage’. One of his co-defendants had his sentence commuted to ‘conditional release with compulsory labour’ (‘chemistry’ in common slang).
Pidgorodetsky’s address is: 618292, Perm Region, Gubakha-11, penal institution VV-201/7-Ts-8. When he was transferred, he was deprived of his Group II invalid status.
Simchich’s address is: 618292, Perm Region, Kizel, p/o Gashkova, V. Kosva settlement, penal institution 201/20. Each barracks in this camp is occupied by 200-300 people, the food is very poor, there is stealing at all levels. Simchich says that only in Kolyma was he so hungry.
He is the only political in the camp. The prisoners are urged to hound him. He works as a lavatory cleaner. Simchich, who suffers from an ulcer, hypertension and sciatica, is afraid of being sent to hospital: it is 150 km away, and the road to it is so dreadful that there is no guarantee he would get there.
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On 19-20 March Airikyan and Matusevich staged a hunger-strike in protest against the execution of Zatikyan, Stepanyan and Bagdasaryan (CCE 52.1). Many prisoners sent their condolences to Zatikyan’s widow. All statements were confiscated — in Matusevich’s case, six times.
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Airikyan’s letters to his family and friends are, as a rule, confiscated or ‘lost’. Similarly, almost all letters addressed to him are confiscated. Investigators from Perm have visited Airikyan several times. They were inquiring about his alleged intention to commit an act of terrorism after his release.
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On 16 April Ogurtsov, Lisovoi, Matusevich, Plumpa, Butchenko, Ravins, Airikyan, Tilgalis and Kvetsko began a ten-day strike. (A tenth prisoner — A. Altman — also intended joining the strike, but the day before it began, he was taken away from the camp. See ‘Political Releases’ this issue CCE 53.1).
Over a month previously they had all sent statements (individually, since collective letters are prohibited by the Corrective Labour Code) to the USSR MVD, in which they described the violation of their rights and demanded an end to these violations and to tyranny; they also demanded that foreign correspondents and representatives of the UN Human Rights Committee be admitted to the camp. They stated that they would strike from 16 to 26 April. If any of their number were punished, however, the strike would continue until the last punishment was over. All the statements were confiscated. The camp administration responded with harsh repression.
During the strike all the participants except Tilgalis (who was transferred to Camp 37) were sent to the cooler for refusing to work. Airikyan was given 15 days at the end of March, lasting until the beginning of the strike. Just before the strike he was sentenced to another 15 days. On 23 April he was put in the punishment cells for three months, where he was again punished with 15 days in the cooler.
Butchenko spent 15 days in the cooler during the strike and on 25 April he was put in the punishment cells for two-and-a-half months.
Lisovoi was punished in the cooler, then in April-May he was put in the punishment cells and at the beginning of July he was dispatched under guard [into exile], straight from the punishment cells, (On 6 July his seven-year camp sentence ended. He still has to serve a three-year term of exile).
Ogurtsov, Matusevich and Plumpa each spent a total of 40 days, with short breaks in between, in the cooler. In June Ogurtsov was sent to Chistopol Prison, where he is to stay until the end of his pre-exile sentence (15 February 1982). Matusevich was put in the punishment cells for five months, Plumpa for two months.
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While in the punishment cells Airikyan wrote to Khorkov, head of penal institution VS-389 (he has replaced Mikov in this post), complaining that the warders had used force against Matusevich. Khorkov considered the complaint a ’distortion of reality’ and gave orders for Airikyan to be punished. Soon afterwards both Airikyan and Matusevich were deprived of access to the camp shop and of a parcel.
During the summit meeting in Vienna, Butchenko, Airikyan, Matusevich and Plumpa were put in the cooler for seven, eight, nine and ten days respectively, for handing in a telegram to Carter.
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According to the Moscow Helsinki Group (Addendum to Document 87) all the strikers were deprived of access to the camp shop and scheduled visits. The Group also stated that the strikers in the punishment cells were fed according to norm ‘9-b’ (CCE 33.2).
During their exercise period the prisoners in the punishment cells collected grasses (plantains, nettles, milfoil). The warders, led by Captain Nikolayev, took all the grasses away from them.
In July Airapetov joined the strike. He was immediately sent to the cooler. The strike continues.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 