EIGHTEEN ENTRIES
(Periodicals, 8-18)
[1]
Sergei Soldatov
“10 years of the Democratic Movement, 1969-1979” (1979, 33 pp.)
There is a subtitle, ‘A jubilee collection’, on the title page, together with a dedication “To democrats and people with moral standards”. The ‘Editor’s Preface’ points out that all seven works included in the volume were written by Soldatov in captivity.
The contents:
- “Towards a moral renaissance in society!”,
- “Twelve principles of the Russian cause: a letter to Russian patriots” (dated March 1978);
- “Six propositions for a nationally free Russia”, Open Letter to a Russian economist;
- Russian Thought (Russkaya Mysl, Paris);
- “In defence of family and home”, against the socially aggressive policies of the authorities;
- “A complaint to the Soviet government”;
- “To Academician Sakharov and the UN Commission on Human Rights” (1979);
- “To the government of the USSR” (30 September 1979);
- “Foundations of a policy for the future: a political perspective”.
From the letter “To the government of the USSR”:
“As a leading activist of the Democratic Movement and member of its Coordinating Council, I ask the Soviet government:
“1) To legalize the activities of the Democratic Movement and its republican branches …
“2) To allow the publication of an uncensored newspaper by the Democratic Movement …
“I am prepared to enter into discussions of these questions with representatives of the Soviet government.“
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[2]
Victor Nekipelov and Ksenia Velikanova
“Tribute and Tribute-Collectors:
Soviet customs posts guard the Achievements of October”, (October 1979, 11 pp.)
The authors examine various aspects of the Soviet customs system.
The high customs duty levied on articles sent to Soviet citizens by their friends and relations abroad does not correspond either to the price of these items, abroad or in the USSR, or to the income of the addressee. In addition, the amount of tax is always changing, depending on the number of identical articles in the parcel, the place it was sent from (the further it is, the higher the tax) and sometimes on quite arbitrary factors.
Because of these extortionate customs duties, the good intentions of the sender — to cheer up people close to him in the USSR and give them some material help — are distorted to form the opposite.
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New regulations, introduced in 1976, for the transfer of money from abroad have made these transfers so crushingly disadvantageous to the sender that most of them have given up this method of postal ‘service’.
If not sent through the Foreign Parcels Trading Organization [Vneshposyltorg], parcels are subjected to a barbarous search, during which many articles are damaged. Very often books disappear from parcels, all the more easily as the vaguely formulated instructions allow customs officials to do what they like with books.
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The customs authorities are even less scrupulous in examining and despatching the property of citizens who are leaving the USSR.
Constantly changing, vaguely formulated and illogical regulations for the transport of luggage, the procedures for its customs examination and for body-searches reduce departure into a series of humiliations. After the luggage has been examined and is about to be sent off, it is deliberately and barbarously damaged — but none of the people in charge bears any responsibility for this.
The state of affairs outlined in the article is backed up by statistics and concrete examples. The authors conclude that the legal regulations, as well as the practical application, of the Soviet customs system are directed against the lawful property and rights of citizens and are intended to cause them material and moral harm. (“Myt” — tribute — is the ancient term for customs duty.)
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[3]
Victor Nekipelov and Felix Serebrov
“A Democracy Faculty”.
Foreign radio broadcasts in Russian: Advice and Suggestions (November 1979, 7 pp.)
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[4]
Nikolai Tolmachev
“What are we Feeding our Young People?” (September 1979, 8 pp.)
A pamphlet about Soviet schools, written by teacher Nikolai Tolmachev (b. 1949).
His stories “Live in hope” and “Buy our souls” (1978) have also been circulating in samizdat.
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[5]
S. Cheremukhin
“On Technical Grounds” (January 1979, 2 pp.); “Love with Time off” (January 1979, 2 pp.); “Hopes for the Olympics” (September 1979, 2 pp.); “The Potato that Feeds us” (October 1979, 4 pp.)
The first sketch, about the massive cancellations and delays on the railways in January 1979, says that even in such an insignificant matter the authorities fear to tell the truth.
The second sketch deals with the system of compensatory leave — in return for speaking at a meeting, or taking part in meeting a foreign guest, etc.
Quotation from the third sketch:
“But the greatest hopes of ordinary Soviet citizens about the Olympics are linked, of course, with the question of food supplies”.
The fourth sketch comments on figures given in Literaturnaya Gazeta: small private allotments take up 1% of all arable land used for potato production, yet produce 60% of the potato harvest.
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[6]
A. Kamensky
“There will be no Second Coming” (1979, 12 pp.)
“To the evil memory of Josif Vissarionovich Stalin” (epigraph) [1].
The concluding sentences read:
“Stalin lies by the Kremlin wall, still awaiting the day of his second coming, but the cause of human rights, stronger than curses, defends us from the blind monster. There will be no Second Coming! Resign yourself to that, Comrade Stalin — you will not wake again.“
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[7]
L. Larina
“Agriculture in the USSR” (1979, 30 pp.) and “Children in the USSR” (1979, 25 pp.)
Both subtitled “Facts from the official Soviet press”, they are collections of quotations from newspapers and journals, with short commentaries by the author.
The first anthology is divided into the following sections: Cultivation, Cattle-breeding and Chicken-farming, Animal feed, The Gifts of Forestry, Fertilizers, Science, Agricultural Engineering, Losses, Private Farming, Construction.
Sub-divisions in the second anthology: Nurseries and kindergartens, Toys and Games, School, The School of Life, Health.
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EMIGRATION TO ISRAEL (8-11)
[8]
“A Legal Commentary for Soviet Citizens Emigrating to Israel”
(January 1979, 30 pp.). Editor, I. Tsitovsky.
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[9]
Emigration to Israel: Legal Theory and Practice, No. 2 (March 1979. 54 pp.)
Compilers: M. Ryabkina and L Tsitovsky.
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[10]
Emigration to Israel: Legal Theory and Practice, No. 3 (June 1979, 57 pp.)
Compiler, M. Berenfeld.
The issue covers the case of Amner Zavurov (CCE 44.11) and the situation regarding legal registration of Hebrew-language teachers.
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[11]
ECONOMIC FREEDOMS
“In Defence of Economic Freedoms”
No. 8 (1979, 119 pp.) Compiler, V. Grin.
This issue includes articles
- V. Brutskus, “Problems of National Economy under a Socialist System”;
- V. Grin, “How to Survive in Conditions of Economic Bondage”
- V. Grin, “The Legal Foundations of Economic Coercion in the USSR” (part 2);
- Vsevolod Kuvakin, “The Right to Work in the USSR”;
- a letter from Kronid Lyubarsky about Life in the West.
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Lithuanian Samizdat
[12]
LCC CHRONICLE, 40
The Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church No. 40 (19 October 1979)
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AUSRA (issues 17-19)
[13]
AUSRA, 17
“The Dawn”, No. 17 (57), August 1979
Most of the journal is taken up by a document headed “A Moral Ultimatum to the Soviet Government”, signed by the League for the Freedom of Lithuania (CCE 51.14).
The League for the Freedom of Lithuania (LFL) demands, in the name of the Baltic Peoples, the liberation of Lithuania, the publication of all secret documents relating to the agreement with Hitler’s Germany and a publicly-expressed apology for the 40 years of occupation.
After that, declares the LFL, talks could start between the Soviet Union and Lithuania, on the basis of the peaceful treaty of 12 July 1920 between the RSFSR and Lithuania. The document also includes a call for the dissolution of the Soviet ‘empire’. The LFL calls on all governments and nations of the world to boycott the USSR if the Soviet government does not carry out its demands. Documentation of the agreement between Stalin and Hitler is published in a supplement.
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The next item is an appeal by the ‘National Council of the LFL’ to all Russians living on Lithuanian territory. The LFL asks them to leave the country “to avoid useless bloodshed”.
The issue also prints an article on the case of Romualdas Ragaisis (CCE 54.18), and an essay on the fate of the artist Jurate Masiuliene-Biciunaite’s family: her father V. Biciunas, a well-known cultural figure in Lithuania, and almost all his family perished in camps and exile in the 1940s.
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[14]
AUSRA
“The Dawn”, No. 18 (58), October 1979
An appeal by the LFL to the United Nations, asking for help from the UN Special Committee on Decolonialization in “freeing the Baltic Peoples from colonial dependence”.
A collective letter on the 40th anniversary of the Soviet-German Pact (CCE 54.23-1) and an appeal by Mart Niklus on the same subject.
In addition, the issue includes: material on the difficulties encountered by former political prisoners registering for residence in Lithuania; and brief reports on political, cultural and public life in the republic. These include a report entitled ‘Cesiunas in Vilnius’.
According to Ausra Vladislavas Cesiunas — the Soviet sportsman and Olympic rowing champion who asked for political asylum in West Germany and then unexpectedly turned up back in the USSR — was forcibly taken out of West Germany with the aid of KGB agents. He is allegedly seriously injured and under guard in the MVD Hospital in Vilnius. The official version of Cesiunas’s fate differs considerably [see Literaturnaya Gazeta, 17 and 31 October 1979].
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[15]
AUSRA, 19
“The Dawn”, No. 19 (59), November 1979
This issue includes:
- an appeal to Kurt Waldheim, the States which signed the Helsinki Final Act, Amnesty International and Helsinki Groups in Europe and America to help Antanas Terleckas;
- articles, pamphlets, essays; in particular, an essay on ‘Our Leader Kalpokas’, about one of the leaders of the partisan movement in Lithuania in the years 1944-58;
- a collection of material attacking alcoholism.
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[16]
RUPINTOJELIS
“The Mourner” No. 10 ( September 1979) 66 pp.
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[17]
PERSPEKTYVOS
“Perspectives”, No. 17 (1979) 25 pp.
The issue contains an article by M. Baskas, “The Triumph of Peace”
an editorial comment states that this article was received from the ‘Union of Lithuanian Communists for Lithuania’s Secession from the USSR’.
and a supplement to Baskas entitled “Practical Realities are still not respected”.
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Estonian Samizdat
[18]
SUPPLEMENTS
“Additional Material on the Free Circulation of Ideas and Information in Estonia”
(Nos. 3 & 5; in Estonian)
Nos. 1 and 2 were summarized in CCE 52.17 (although the title was inaccurately translated).
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Issue 3 includes:
- a report on the incident in Kirkvekulla on 25 February 1979, when the national flag of independent Estonia was hoisted on a school building;
- the exile of 80,000 Estonians to Siberia in 1949 as part of “the campaign against the kulaks”;
- biographical details on former political prisoner Taivo Praks (CCE 51.9-2);
- a translation of ‘Charter 77’ from Czech; and
- letters about violation of secrecy of correspondence and Russification in Estonia.
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Issue No. 5
subtitle: “Special Issue, Today and 40 Years ago”.
The first page bears photographs of Stalin, Hitler, Molotov and Ribbentrop.
It includes the collective letter on the 40th anniversary of the Soviet-German Pact (CCE 54.23.1); a report on the interrogation and persecution of some Estonians who signed this letter; a letter protesting against the arrest of Velikanova, Yakunin and Terleckas (CCE 54.1-3); and texts of the secret protocols to the treaties between Germany and the USSR in 1939-1941.
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NOTES
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A Chronicle of Current Events 