Interrogations in connection with the case of the journal Poiski, which began after the searches on 25 January 1979 (CCE 52.4-4), are continuing.
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At an interrogation on 12 April Investigator Yu.A. Burtsev presented member of the editorial board Valery Abramkin with a resolution about the institution of proceedings regarding the publication of Poiski. The new case is numbered 5061/14-79.
The resolution states that during the pre-trial investigation in connection with Case No. 46012/18-76 (the case number which appeared on the 25 January search warrants), it became clear that the editorial board of Poiski was not connected with the publication of the ‘slanderous’ bulletin A Chronicle of Current Events. It was established, however, that Poiski also contains deliberate fabrications discrediting the Soviet system. Therefore, the case against Poiski is being treated separately and will be conducted independently of the investigation of Case No. 46012/18-76.
Valery Abramkin was subjected to more intensive interrogation than the others. He refused to answer any of the questions put to him. Investigator Burtsev threatened Abramkin: “As soon as the sixth number comes out, you will be charged in connection with the Poiski Case. We know that you are the journal’s chief editor and are inciting other members of the editorial board to continue publication”. The investigator invited Abramkin to think about his family and the fate of his baby.
Burtsev said that other members of the editorial staff would be banished from Moscow by administrative order.
On 12 April 1979, the editorial board of Poiski made a joint statement in which they evaluated Investigator Burtsev’s threats as an attempt to cause a split in the board by turning Abramkin into a hostage.
“We, the editorial board of Poiski, reject the ultimatum delivered to us as illegal blackmail.
“We again assert: all the editors of Poiski bear equal and indivisible responsibility for the publication of the journal…
“We appeal to everyone to speak up for the journalist Valery Abramkin. It is essential to avert the reprisals with which he is threatened. The practice of taking hostages — a terrorist method condemned by the whole world — must benefit no one!”
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On 15 March 1979, a search was conducted at the home of Mikhail Yakovlev in Odessa.
Yakovlev (pen-name Liyatov, his mother’s surname) is a regular contributor to the journal Poiski, in which a play and some comic short stories written by him have been printed. A number of Poiski, Venedict Yerofeyev’s Moscow–Petushki, and some of his own writings were confiscated from Yakovlev. Two days later, during a second visit, his typewriter was taken.
Shortly after that, officials had a chat with him. They asked him whether Poiski printed his works with his consent. He replied in the affirmative. He refused to talk about his acquaintances in Odessa or Moscow.
On the day after the talk an official interrogation took place. Yakovlev still refused to give evidence and was threatened with a trial. The next day he was summoned to the Procuracy, where he was cautioned in accordance with the ‘Decree’. He signed the cautioning statement.
When officials arrived to search Yakovlev’s home, they found Vyacheslav Igrunov (CCE 51.8) there. In March he was summoned three times for ‘chats’, and once again in June.
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On 19 March 1979, a search was conducted at the Moscow home of Alexei Smirnov (CCE 7.10), again in connection with Case No. 46012. During the search a copy of the fifth number of Poiski was confiscated (among other things).
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On 17 May 1979, Burtsev interrogated member of the editorial board of Poiski Pyotr M. Egides. Although Egides refused to answer questions, Burtsev wrote down all his questions accurately in the record, and after each one he wrote, “I refuse to answer”.
Here are some of the questions put by Investigator Burtsev: Where, when and by whom was the journal thought up? Who looks after its materials and where? Who is the chief editor? Which department is Egides in charge of? Will a sixth number be produced? If so, will Egides take part in its production? If so, why? If not, why not?
At the end of the interrogation Egides asked Burtsev to explain where he saw anything criminal in the journal and to cite examples of slander. Burtsev replied that the journal ‘blackens Soviet reality’. To Egides’s question “Have you read my articles?” Burtsev replied, “I haven’t gone into them in depth”.
Egides explained in writing, on the record, why he had refused to give evidence. He noted in particular the groundlessness of charging Poiski with slander and the immorality of persecuting free thought.
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On 29 May member of the editorial board of Poiski Victor Sokirko was detained in the Moscow metro. He was taken to the police station attached to the Metro station, where Investigator Burtsev was waiting for him. He showed Sokirko a warrant for a body-search in connection with Case No. 5061/14-79.
Victor V. Sokirko, 1939-2018
After the search, during which 11 copies of the fifth number of Poiski were confiscated, they tried to interrogate Sokirko. He refused to take part in the interrogation, however, on the grounds of the illegality of the criminal prosecution of Poiski. During the search, Procuracy officials started several conversations about the pointlessness of all the ‘dissident noise’ and said that any Soviet person, seeing the ‘bits of paper’ confiscated from Sokirko, would beat up their authors mercilessly; it was about time for Sokirko to think of himself and his family, since he’d been ‘caught red-handed’ and there was no escape: his only real way out would be a sincere promise to ‘start talking’, etc.
They then took Sokirko back to his flat and conducted a search there. As a result of both searches, typewritten materials for Poiski, Sokirko’s manuscripts, and a typewriter were confiscated.
During the search Gleb Pavlovsky (CCE 40.5 & CCE 52.4-4) dropped in. Typewritten and handwritten texts of G. S. Pomerants’s essay “Dreams of the Earth” were confiscated from him. Both Sokirko and Pavlovsky refused to sign the search records.
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On 24 July 1979, at 6 pm, member of the Poiski editorial board Yury Grimm was detained in the Moscow Metro. He was taken to the police room at the Metro station and told that he looked like a criminal for whom they were searching. He was asked to show the contents of his bag. Grimm refused and asked to see the search warrant. He was then taken to police station 1 (in the area where he lived) where Captain Ivanov who was on duty at the station, in the presence of policemen and vigilantes [druzhinniki], took his bag from him and made a list of its contents.
Grimm refused to sign the list of articles confiscated. After the search the station’s Deputy Head for Criminal Investigation Dugin interrogated him. Grimm was allowed to leave at 11.30 pm. On 31 July, Grimm sent a statement to the Procurator of the city’s Moskvoretsky District in which he enumerated the violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure which had taken place during his detention: he demanded that the people who had broken the law receive official punishments, and that all the documents, books and personal possessions confiscated from him be returned.
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Raisa Lert, a member of the Poiski editorial board, was expelled from the Soviet Communist Party on 21 March for “actions incompatible with the high calling of a member of the CPSU”. (Raisa Borisovna joined the Party in 1926.) In violation of the regulations, the expulsion took place without the consent of her local Party organization and in her absence.
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A decision was taken by the administration of the institute where Master of Philosophical Sciences Assistant Professor Egides taught, to dismiss him. The reason for the dismissal was his involvement with Poiski, which was regarded as an ‘amoral act‘ (Article 254, Code of Labour Law). The trades union committee approved the administration’s decision.
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