<< No. 43 : 31 December 1976 >>

Antanas Patackas, an assistant professor at the Agricultural Academy in Kaunas, was not ‘retired on his pension’ (CCE 41), but removed from his post without the right to continue in teaching work; this was done not because of his ‘religious prejudices’ but because of his ‘nationalism’ and ‘unsuitable ideological beliefs’ (according to the LCC Chronicle No. 24).

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In commenting on the letter by K. Jokubynas, CCE 42 distorted the reason for his second arrest. He was arrested (and sentenced) not merely for ‘an attempt to converse with a foreign sailor in the port of Igarka’, but for attempting to arrange his escape from the USSR on a foreign ship.

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Mistakes in the report on the arrest of Niklus (CCE 42) have been corrected in the corresponding report in this issue.

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Additions to the report on Vladimir Prison in CCE 42.

The order limiting the sending of complaints was summarized inaccurately. Complaints are permitted to the CPSU Central Committee, as well as to the Procurator’s Office and the organs of the MVD. Appeals to deputies of Soviets at all levels are forbidden, as well as those to the Council of Ministers, the press and public organizations.

As before, no food is provided in the cooler on ‘hungry’ days, apart from bread and hot water (CCE 42 stated that they had begun to provide soup once a day). The only improvement achieved over two years of struggle is that, since spring 1976, food is provided three times a day instead of twice on ‘full nourishment’ days.

Pashnin and Khnokh were not transferred to strict regime.

Khnokh got 7 days in the cooler for refusing to work. He was not in the hospital.

In September Pashnin got 15 days in the cooler for ‘communicating between cells’. He sat in cooler number 7, nicknamed ‘the death-cell’, without warm clothing and ill, with a high temperature. He carried out the hunger-strike reported in CCE 42, while in the cooler.

Before him, Yakov Suslensky spent 15 days in the same cooler. Suslensky landed in hospital, not before he was in the cooler, but afterwards.

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31 August is the anniversary of Marina Tsvetayeva’s death, not of her birth, as stated in CCE 42, in ‘Sent to Hospital for his Songs’.