PERM
(concluded)
Camp 36
The camp ‘Diary’ is still being compiled.
*
Camp 36 is situated by a river in very marshy surroundings. During this year’s spring floods the camp was inundated — the water came to about knee height. The whole camp was evacuated to a nearby hilltop for a week. All the prisoners were kept together in one Army tent. They were guarded by soldiers with dogs, and a few days later a barbed-wire fence was erected.
*
On 15 March Roman Gaiduk (CCE 52.5-2) was dispatched on his journey into exile. On 23 March he was released in east Siberia: Chuna Station (Irkutsk Region). After five years in the camps, he has to serve two years in exile.
*
At the beginning of March Captain Nelipovich told Trofimov in conversation that Sergei Kovalyov’s involvement in the food control section (CCE 52.5-2) was undesirable because Kovalyov had broken regulations in the past, and also because he would tell the prisoners about the shortcomings he noticed in the kitchen.
On 1 March Sergei Kovalyov was kept in the visiting room for 24 hours, having been summoned there for a visit from his lawyer. The same day he was informed that lawyer Reznikova had ‘not wished to see him’ (see above). Later, after two written inquiries as to the reason for the cancelled visit, Kovalyov was told by Camp Head Zhuravkov that Reznikova had not agreed either to hand over for safe keeping, or to leave in her room, the things she had brought with her (excluding reference books and some paper).
On 4 June Kovalyov’s wife Ludmila Boitsova, his son Ivan Kovalyov and his eldest daughter arrived for a scheduled ‘short’ visit. However, it turned out that he had been deprived of his visit five days previously, on the grounds that on two occasions — 17 and 21 May — he had not greeted Fyodorov. (Long before this, Kovalyov had informed the administration that he refused to have anything to do with Fyodorov, CCE 48.10-2). On their return from the abortive visit, Ludmila Boitsova and Ivan Kovalyov published a joint ‘Open Letter’, dated 15 June, part of which states:
‘We do not know and do not wish to know whether this actually happened. If so, it is possible that it was an accident, but perhaps it was deliberate. It is not the job of the camp administration to teach the scientist Sergei Kovalyov the rules of politeness, nor to dispute his concept of worth …’
‘However, we are not concerned at present with the violation of rights, or with the legality of camp punishments. We emphasize: the authorities are concentrating their efforts not only on breaking of the prisoner’s physical contact with the outside world, but on blocking all channels of communication. It was perfectly obvious to us, and we did not conceal our opinion from the camp administration, that such a hasty cancellation of the visit… was connected with events which are being carefully concealed from the prisoners — the exchange of several political prisoners, including one from Corrective Labour Institution 36, Zalmanson. The administration’s reaction confirmed us in our suspicions.’ [See this issue ‘Political Releases’, CCE 53.1.]
On 7 June Sergei Kovalyov sent a warning letter to his former investigator, Istomin, concerning his intention to commence on 15 June a hunger-strike of unlimited duration, if by 11 June no concrete steps had been taken to improve the situation.
He described in detail the circumstances which forced him to take such extreme action: the blocking of his correspondence, which had forced him to stop writing letters, the prevention of visits from his family and his lawyer (for example, in December 1978 Reznikova was not permitted to come because of a fictitious redecoration of the premises), and finally, he had been trying since 1975 to get back some extracts he had copied out from his ‘case file’ and other documents essential to him for composing a supervisory complaint. Kovalyov especially pointed out that, having been placed in such a situation, he considered himself morally responsible not only for himself, but also for other prisoners.
On 12 June Kovalyov sent a statement, addressed to Brezhnev, to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, in which he renounced his Soviet citizenship. He stated that irrespective of where he might choose to live after his release, and for reasons which he did not consider it necessary to explain in the present statement, he asked no longer to be considered a Soviet citizen. If, however, there was any difficulty with the legal registration of this request, Kovalyov proposed that he be stripped of his citizenship ‘for actions unworthy of the title of Soviet citizen’, since he had never striven to be worthy of this ‘high title’. Zhuravkov confirmed that this statement had been forwarded to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. In July a reply from the RSFSR Procuracy was read out to Kovalyov. It recommended that the administration explain to Kovalyov that the matter raised in his statement were under review by the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet.
On 15 June Kovalyov declared a hunger-strike of indefinite duration. On 16 June Kamil Ismagilov declared a hunger-strike in support of Kovalyov. Kovalyov and Ismagilov were put in the punishment cells, in isolation. However, Ismagilov was not given a bed until the fifth day of his hunger-strike, and then only after strong protests from Kovalyov. On 28 June Ismagilov was forced to call off his hunger-strike for health reasons.
On 22 June Miroslav Marinovich, who was also in the punishment block, declared a hunger-strike in solidarity with Kovalyov. Several more prisoners staged short-term hunger-strikes in support of Kovalyov.
The hunger-strike continued for 27 days.
Kovalyov was force-fed for the first time on the fifth day and then every three to five days. As a result of his hunger-strike Kovalyov was given several letters and telegrams which had previously been held back, and several documents: his indictment, a list of witnesses, the record of a search and confiscations. The rest of his papers (extracts he had copied from newspapers, from his ‘case file’, some personal notes on his case) were burned, since they ‘contained slanderous fabrications’.
On the evening of 11 July, after Kovalyov had had a visit from lawyer Reznikova, he and Marinovich decided to call off their hunger-strike. During the night Marinovich felt ill: there was blood in his faeces, he had acute pains in the heart and stomach and he lost consciousness three times.
At the beginning of August Kovalyov is to have a ‘long’ visit from his family.
***
On 1 March a mobile court examined the application of three prisoners for a transfer from camp to ‘chemistry’ (see ‘Camp 35’ this issue CCE 53.19-2).
One of them, Zagrebayev, was refused on the grounds of a decision of a medical commission that his hypertension and sciatica prevented him from doing construction work. This same decision attested, however, that Zagrebayev was fit for any work without restrictions. Throughout his whole sentence to date (over 13 years) Zagrebayev has never been let off work due to illness, with only one exception — in 1970 he spent three days having false teeth fitted. He has had numerous commendations and not one reprimand.
The other two prisoners — Kotok (Katok in CCE 52.5-2) and Stepanov — were transferred. Kotok was dispatched from the camp on 28 March.
*
Prisoners are forbidden to inform senders that their incoming letters have been confiscated.
In the spring Olga Geiko sent M. Marinovich a stereo post-card in a registered letter. In response to her enquiry. Zhuravkov told her that her letter had been put in store, since ‘stereo post-cards are not given to prisoners’.
*
In March, when news of the death of E. Pronyuk’s father (CCE 52.5-2) reached the camp, Marinovich asked the administration for permission to visit Pronyuk, who was then in the punishment cells, so that he could break the news to him. Permission was refused.
*
On Sunday 11 March an antedated order was issued concerning the transfer of a working day from 10 to 11 March, in connection with the switching off of electrical power on 10 March. Grigoryan, Ismagilov, Kalinin and Kulak did not go to work. For this, Grigoryan was deprived of access to the camp shop.
Thereupon. Grigoryan, Zalmanson, Ismagilov. Kovalyov, Marinovich, Trofimov and Yuskevich sent statements to the Regional Procuracy protesting against the transfer of a working day for reasons not specified in the Code of Labour Law.
*
On 16 March Marinovich was deprived of a scheduled visit for ‘cynical and insulting expressions’ allegedly contained in his statement to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet regarding the imprisonment in prisons and camps of women and old men.
On 18 June Marinovich was punished with six months in the punishment cells because some papers allegedly written by him had been found during a search. The official reason for his punishment was a traditional one: violation of the regime and being a bad influence.
*
At the end of June and the beginning of July N. Grigoryan went on strike for ten days and on hunger-strike for three days, demanding a longer visit from his very old parents (they had been granted only 24 hours).
*
On 19 February I. Serksnys (serving 15 years for ‘betrayal of the Motherland’; his term ends in 1983, CCE 33.6-3 No. 71 & CCE 46.23-2) handed camp Head Zhuravkov a statement requesting hospitalization, Serksnys is already 62 years old; he suffers from hypertension and heart trouble, and his blood pressure sometimes rises above 200. During the past year he has been trying, without success, to persuade the doctors at the Medical Section to send him to hospital.
On 18 March, having received no reply from Zhuravkov, Serksnys handed in a copy of his statement, to be forwarded to the Medical Department of the Perm UVD and the Medical Department of the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions. Only on 4 April was he informed that his statements had been sent to the addressees on 27 March. At the end of July, he had still not been hospitalized.
*
On 15 February Valery Marchenko was taken to the city of Perm, where he was put in the prison hospital (CCE 52.5-2).
There a course of treatment was started for tubercular pleurisy and chronic nephritis and he was granted a visit from his mother. Marchenko and his mother were informed that he would be transferred to the central hospital of Corrective Labour Institution 389 (in Camp 35), where the course of treatment would continue for two months. He was, in fact, transferred there, but as early as 20 March, without explanation, he was sent back to Camp 36. Soon afterwards he was placed in the Medical Section with a high temperature.
In June, at the end of his six-year sentence, Valery Marchenko was dispatched under guard into exile. His place of exile is: Saralzhin State Farm, Uil district, Aktyubinsk Region (Kazakh SSR).
*
At the end of June Boris (Ganibari) Mukhametshin was transferred to Camp 37.
*
On 11 June Kazys Baranauskas [note 1] died in hospital in Perm.
In 1971 he was sentenced to ten years in the camps for ‘Treason’. In camp he suffered for a long time from a blockage of the urethra; from time to time, he was bedridden in the Medical Section. It was often necessary to use a catheter and occasionally, when even that did not work, his urine had to be drawn out by means of a direct injection into the bladder.
In June 1979, Baranauskas was again in the Medical Section, then he was discharged and almost immediately taken to Perm. There he lay slowly dying in his cell, without any medical assistance. During the three days he spent lying there, he was no longer able to relieve himself. On 11 June, after protests from his fellow prisoners, he was taken away for an operation. Soon after the operation he died.
*
Stasys Morkunas [note i] is about 70 years old. In 1965 (there is a misprint in ///CCE 51) he was sentenced to 15 years in the camps for ‘Treason’. He suffers from oedema. His legs swell up so much that he is unable to walk in any form of footwear apart from slippers. Even the Medical Section has allowed him to ‘violate’ the regulation clothing in this way.
*
On 16 July a new daily timetable was introduced in the camp. It differed from the old one in that a 10-15-minute period of ‘preparation’ was introduced before breakfast, before dispersal for work, before the commencement of work itself, etc.
The administration explained that the new system was a relief for the old prisoners who found it difficult to keep up, and that besides this, it had been introduced to ‘spoil various people’s game’. As a result of this new system the working day ends approximately two hours later.
*
Camp 37
Semyon Gluzman, who was in the punishment cells in Perm Camp 37, began a hunger-strike on 8 January (CCE 52.5-2).
Gluzman’s blood pressure was checked regularly until the end of February and then even this precaution was no longer taken. On the morning of 14 April, he was force-fed for the last time in the camps and during the night of 15-16 April he was dispatched on his journey into exile, without an accompanying doctor or medicines. Gluzman had heart trouble on several occasions during the journey. He was not given any medical assistance.
On 17 April he sent a statement to Brezhnev from a Sverdlovsk Investigations Prison, in which he informed him of his critical condition and declared that he would not call off his hunger-strike until such time as the law was applied to him. On the same day he handed over a statement to be forwarded to the Head of the Medical Department of the Main Administration for Corrective Labour Institutions, in which he described his condition in detail; marked general dystrophy, weakness, dizziness, sharp pains in the heart and stomach, increasingly severe headaches.
On the morning of 18 April Gluzman was transferred to a cell with a broken window. He requested three times that the glass be replaced. During the evening roll-call he was promised that the glass would be replaced — on the following day. At night the outside temperature in Sverdlovsk was minus 10 degrees Centigrade. The window was not, however, replaced.
On 10 May, a day before his sentence ended, Gluzman was released in his west Siberian place of exile: Tyumen Region, Nizhnyaya Tavda settlement.
He was immediately admitted to hospital. Gluzman now works as a dispatcher on a collective farm.
*
On 30 October 1978, Yury Orlov staged a 24-hour hunger-strike, demanding the release of all the arrested members of the Helsinki Groups and the return of the scientific notes he had made in Lefortovo Prison (CCE 51.9-1 & CCE 52.2). He staged two more hunger-strikes in support of these demands; from 20 to 23 November and from 10 to 15 December.
On 10 December he wrote to the Soviet leaders as follows:
‘By stemming the flow of independent, humanitarian information you are destroying the buds of healthy political development in our country and driving the impatient among the dissatisfied to look for other ways. Your policy is short-sighted.
‘Your attempt to widen your influence in the world would be wise, if it were based on the ideals of democratic socialism. But you are helping the development of totalitarian systems. This is a risky business, dangerous for our country and for the world. For it is difficult to reconcile the various totalitarian ambitions. Peace based on principles of ideological intolerance and secrecy of information cannot be lasting. I ask you at least to think about this.’
The scientific notes Orlov had made in the camps were taken away from him. On 5 February he went on strike. At first, he was issued a reprimand; then deprived of a ‘short’ visit (in June), then punished with five days in the cooler. In the cooler he was unable to sleep because of the cold.
Towards the end of February, when Orlov came out of the cooler, his notes were nevertheless returned to him — ‘this time’. Orlov’s health worsened considerably during this period, He tired quickly at work, suffered from severe headaches and often felt sick. He fulfilled barely half the norm. The head of the workshop transferred him to general duties. Orlov’s basic job was cleaning, there was no norm, he could spend part of his work time outside. However, by 12 April KGB officials were demanding that Orlov return to his former work, as a lathe operator. Orlov refused. On 17 April he was again sentenced to five days in the cooler.
Orlov is in the ‘small’ zone of Camp 37 (CCE 51.9-1) where there are only 16 prisoners. These are primarily ‘long-timers’, serving sentences for ‘war crimes’. One of them has been ‘assigned’ to Orlov and follows him literally on his heels. In addition, Orlov is ‘shadowed’ by two KGB officials.
*
In the spring of 1979 Avtandil Imnadze (CCE 49.17; his article and sentence are unknown to the Chronicle [note 2]) was brought to this ‘small’ zone. At his trial he ‘repented’ but did not give evidence. Now the KGB investigators are ‘squeezing’ him in the camps, trying to obtain evidence.
*
At the beginning of May Merab Kostava was put in the cooler. In protest against the confiscation of his diary he declared a hunger-strike, which he kept up for a month. In the summer he was put in the punishment cells.
*
In Other Camps
Vasyl Ovsienko (trial, CCE 52.2) is in a camp with the address ‘penal institution YaYa-310/55-3-20’ (in the town of Volnyansk, Zaporozhe Region). In transit to the camp, legal Codes and the Gospels were confiscated from him and he was robbed by criminal prisoners.
*
On 16 May Yevgeny Buzinnikov, who is serving his sentence in a strict-regime camp in the Sverdlovsk Region (CCE 51.3 & CCE 52.5-2), was transferred from the 4th section to the 8th or ‘boss’s’ section (i.e., one which is more strictly controlled). Previously he had worked in the saw mill, now he is a general labourer on a building site.
In June 1979 Buzinnikov completed an internal camp course in ‘Industrial Electronics’, but he has not been given work in this field. Back in April the Camp Head, Major Maltsev, tore up Buzinnikov’s request for a transfer to work as an electrician; he told the power specialist that he could give such a job to anyone except Buzinnikov, because the latter was anti-Soviet.
Then Buzinnikov was deprived of access to the camp shop because he wanted to send a letter on another prisoner’s ‘allowance’ (according to the regulations, Buzinnikov is allowed to send two letters per month). Recently letters from friends have not been reaching E. Buzinnikov and many letters have been ‘lost’.
*
Oleg Volkov (trial, CCE 45) is still (CCE 48.10-2) in penal institution. AN-243/9-1 (Vetyu village, Komi ASSR).
In 1978 Volkov spent two weeks undergoing tests in a ‘health resort’ in the village of Veslyana. There they told him that he was suffering from a chest complaint, but refused to name it. For four months Volkov tried to obtain a precise diagnosis. Finally, he was told that he was suffering from ‘chronic bronchitis with asthma’. He was also given a medical certificate stating that he ‘must not work in very cold conditions’. The temperatures in these parts can fall as low as minus 50 degrees Centigrade. Volkov works as an electrician in the repair workshops.
On 24 August Natalya Lesnichenko (CCE 48.10-2) came to visit Volkov (the relatives entered in his personal file do not visit him). She was refused permission to visit since she was not a relative and, in the opinion of Deputy Camp Head for Regime Kiriyenko, would not help Volkov to ‘reform’.
*
During the summer, Alexander Bolonkin (trial, CCE 51.7) was punished on several occasions with 15 days in the cooler. He was even sent there when ill with a high temperature. They were compelled to take him straight to hospital from the cooler. Even in the hospital he was continually being called out for a ‘working over’.
On 5 July Bolonkin was punished with six months in the punishment cells. There he fell ill with dysentery. After this he was transferred to a cell on his own.
*
The Baptist Viktor Peredreyev is serving a three-year sentence (CCE 46.8) in the Gorky Region. Having served over a third of his sentence, he asked the camp administration for a transfer to ‘chemistry’.
Although he had on several occasions distinguished himself by his conscientious attitude to work, his excellent studies and good conduct, in February 1979 an administrative commission refused his request, since he ‘had not reformed’ — that is, he had not renounced his religious beliefs. His sentence ends at the beginning of 1980 or the end of 1979 [note 3].
*
The Baptist Pyotr Peters (CCE 47.6, ///CCE 48 & CCE 49) Is serving his sentence in Camp Ukh-16/7 in Omsk. On 1 April he was deprived of a scheduled visit, because a Bible and the pamphlet ‘The Genuine Christian’ were found in his possession. His sentence ends on 3 July 1980.
*
In Defence of Political Prisoners
E. M. Derevenskova: ‘To Comrade Brezhnev; to Mrs Carter’ (9 May 1979)
The mother of political prisoner Igor Ogurtsov describes her son’s situation. Igor is seriously ill. He was refused a transfer to the Leningrad Gaaz Prison Hospital for treatment. What he needs most of all are not doctors and medicines, but normal, human living conditions. In camp, however, doing hard, physical labour, on ‘semistarvation rations, without vitamins’, his health undermined, Igor will not last long.
‘Now it may still prove possible to restore his health to some extent, if he is released. I do not know what powers you have, but I appeal to you and I hope you will help. Save my son.
‘Ogurtsov’s father has addressed similar appeals to the Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, Brezhnev, and to US President Carter. He recalls that at his trial Igor, although admitting his guilt on some of the charges against him, denied the main one — that of ‘Treason’. But subsequent appeals by his lawyers for a review of the case, and his father’s appeal for clemency, have been refused.
‘I know you are humane. I know your attitude to the defence of human rights, I know your power. I appeal to you, as participants in the Second World War, to save the life of my only son.’
*
V. O.: ‘A Little about Igor Ogurtsov’ (15 July 1978; 32 pages)
A significant place in this study is occupied by extracts from I. Ogurtsov’s letters to his parents, in which he discusses his views on philosophy, religion and creativity in art, and describes his plans for literary work. The author concludes:
‘Moved by an irresistible desire to be useful to his people. Igor misguidedly embarked on the formation of an illegal organization, which brought on him an unjustifiably harsh sentence: deprivation of freedom for 20 years, Over the past 11 years, Igor has naturally rethought and re-evaluated many things.
‘What conclusions he has come to is not yet known, but it can be said with absolute certainty that if he lives to be released, he will follow only the path of a scholar and a litterateur …’
*
Igor Shafarevich, Father Dmitry Dudko, Josif Dyadkin: ‘To the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet’ (May 1979)
The letter calls for an ‘easing of the situation’ of the seriously ill I. Ogurtsov.
‘We derive hope for the success of our initiative from the recent release of a group of Ukrainian and Jewish prisoners — primarily Jewish nationalists sentenced in their time for attempting to hijack an aircraft. This act of clemency towards people convicted for actions arising from their national and religious beliefs should arouse sympathy all over the world. But one would hope that such actions are not based on perception of the prevailing political situation but on humane impulses, and that they are not restricted to the representatives of particular nationalities, but will be extended to others also — particularly to Russians.’
Shafarevich received a reply to the effect that their request would be examined by the Clemency Department of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet if the authors gave I. Ogurtsov’s patronymic and sent a copy of the judgment in his case.
*
Irina Valitova, Irina Zholkovskaya-Ginzburg: ‘To US President Carter’ (26 April 1979)
The wives of Yury Orlov and Alexander Ginzburg express the hope that the values for which their husbands fought are dear to the US President. They hope that their husbands’ fate will occupy its due place in Carter’s discussions with Soviet leaders. (On the day this letter was dispatched Alexander Ginzburg was already on his way from Mordovia to the USA — see ‘Political Releases’).
*
Irena Gajauskiene: To the President of the US Union of Electrical Workers’ (January 1979)
The wife of Balys Gajauskas writes that her husband was unbroken by his first 25-year sentence and that after his release he engaged in activities in defence of human rights. He was an honest worker. ‘He did not learn how to get drunk and to steal state property’. He ‘did not succumb to any provocation’. Now he has been given another sentence: ten years’ imprisonment and five years’ exile.
‘So a person is sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment and five years’ exile solely for sticking to his convictions and fighting for the freedom of his people and for the rights of everyone.
‘I appeal to the Trades Union of Electrical Workers of the United States of America; I ask American workers, comrades in work, to raise their voices in defence of my husband, a man whose sufferings it is difficult to describe in words.’
*
RELEASES
JUSTAS GIMBAUTAS
On 4 April Justas Gimbutas (b. 1925), a prisoner from Mordovian Camp 19, was released in Klaipeda.
Gimbutas spent the year 1945-1946 in the camps for collecting vegetables from the fields after the harvest. In 1948 he was arrested for belonging to the partisan movement. He was sentenced to death by the secret police Special Board, but this was later commuted to 25 years in the camps. In 1955 his sentence was increased, due to an escape attempt. In 1974 Gimbutas sent a statement to the CPSU Central Committee in which he swore that he would not change his views. Gimbutas wrote that he was not and would not be a Soviet citizen, and demanded permission to emigrate. In January 1979 he sent a similar statement to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet — this was confiscated.
On 29 June Gimbutas again sent a similar statement to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet: again he received no reply. In an attempt to obtain permission to emigrate, either to join his sister in the USA, or to Israel, Gimbutas refuses to accept a Soviet passport. He is being threatened with criminal proceedings’ for violation of the passport laws.
At present, Gimbutas is living with his sister: Klaipeda, 84 Debreceno Street, flat 17.
*
On 21 February Emil Sarkisyan (CCE 46.23-2 & CCE 52.5-2) was brought in handcuffs from Camp 36 to Erevan, where he was eventually released on 2 March. Immediately after his release he was placed under surveillance for six months. His address is: Erevan-9, 42 Tumanyana Street, flat 1.
At the end of February Sarunas Žukauskas was brought to Vilnius Prison from Camp 36. On 27 March he was released at the end of his six-year sentence. Zukauskas was placed under surveillance for a year. His address is; Kaunas, 14 Mickevicius Street, flat 4.
On 11 March Georgian Helsinki Group member Grigory Goldstein was released at the end of his one-year sentence (trial, CCE 49.2; see also ‘Letters and Statements’ in this issue, CCE 53.30).
U Yao-Fen’s (CCE 48.10-2) three-year sentence ended on 25 May. Late in May he was driven away somewhere from camp.
*
See ‘Political Releases’ (this issue CCE 53.1) on the release of Alexander Ginzburg, Georgy Vins, Valentyn Moroz, the ‘aeroplane men’ (A. Altman, M. Dymshits, V. Zalmanson, E. Kuznetsov, B. Penson and A. Khnokh) and the ‘aeroplane circle man’ Gilel Butman.
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NOTES
[1] According to CCE 33.6-3 Baranauskas’s first name was Stasys.
[2] Stasys Morkunas: ///CCE 33, 46, 51, 52)
[3] In December 1978 Avtandil Imnadze was sentenced to five years in strict-regime camps plus four years of exile, under the Georgian equivalent of Article 70.
[4] See details about Peredreyev in the booklet Christian Prisoners in the USSR (1979), Keston College, 1979, p. 23.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 