ORTHODOX. ADVENTISTS. BAPTISTS. PENTECOSTALS. CATHOLICS (MOLDAVIA)
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1. ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS
The trial of Tatyana Shchipkova (CCE 54.19) was fixed for 17 December 1979 but did not take place, because the ‘injured party’ did not turn up.
The trial resumed on 27 December, but was postponed at the request of the accused, because her glaucoma had worsened.
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2. ADVENTISTS
1979 Tashkent Trial
The Adventists sentenced in Tashkent in March 1979 (CCE 53.3-1 & CCE 53.3-2) have been sent to the camps.
On 30 July the 84-year-old Vladimir A. Shelkov was sent from Tashkent to Yakutia in the Far East, to serve his five-year sentence. In the Tashkent prison he had constantly been under observation by doctors.
Arnold A. Spalin was sent to the Kurgan Region (Urals) at the same time.
On the eve of his departure his wife received information that he was in the prison hospital: Spalin suffers from a stomach ulcer. After the trial she had not been allowed the visit to which she was legally entitled. While Spalin was being transferred to the transit prison, he had the notes he had taken during the trial hearing (45 notebooks) confiscated. When Spalin asked that they be returned, the books were destroyed. The KGB officials explained this by saying the notes were libellous.
Sophia P. Furlet was sent to the Chelyabinsk Region (Urals).
Ilya S. Lepshin was transferred from Tashkent Prison to the prison in Kokand (Uzbekistan).
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3. BAPTISTS
3.1 Trials
On 6 December the trial of Ivan Grigorevich DANILYUK, Presbyter of the Baptist congregation in Chernovtsy, took place. He had been arrested on 1 August after carrying out a baptism by immersion in the river Prut (CCE 54.19).
On 4 December Danilyuk’s wife was told that the trial would be in the Chernovtsy Regional Court (UkSSR). Danilyuk’s relatives and fellow-believers, who gathered outside the building, were told by the Court Chairman that the trial would be at the accused’s place of work (the ‘Izmeritel’ factory), and were offered a minibus with 10 seats.
The wife and parents of the accused got in, but were driven to the other end of the town instead. Meanwhile the buses from the town to the ‘Izmeritel’ factory stopped running for over two hours. Those who had been left outside the court-house began to try to reach the factory by taxi or by thumbing lifts from traffic going in that direction.
However, on the way the police stopped cars, turning them back or confiscating the drivers’ licences. Many people walked. Those who managed to reach the entrance to the factory began to demand free admittance to the courtroom, as the trial had been declared to be open. Danilyuk’s wife, relatives and some of those who had gathered by the entrance were given permission to go in. They refused to do so, demanding free admittance for all, including those who were still to arrive. As a result, none of the Baptists got into the courtroom. The trial took place in working hours. Most workers were not allowed to enter the room where the court sat.
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Danilyuk refused the services of a lawyer appointed by the court.
As he could not see his relatives and fellow-believers in the courtroom, Danilyuk refused to participate in the trial. The judge told him that his relatives and the believers had refused to attend the trial, but Danilyuk did not believe them as the singing of the believers in the street was audible in the courtroom.
Danilyuk was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in ordinary-regime camps under two Articles of the UkSSR Criminal Code: 187-3, “Organization or active participation in group activities which violate public order”; and 138, “Violation of the laws separating Church from State and School from Church”.
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On 22 October, in Donetsk, F. V. Gordienko (CCE 53.24, CCE 54.19) was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment under Articles 187-1 and 187-3 (UkSSR Criminal Code = Articles 190-1 & 190-3, RSFSR Code).
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In the city of Beltsy (Moldavian SSR) F. Borinsky (CCE 53.24) was sentenced to three years in ordinary-regime camps.
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3.2 ARRESTS
On 13 November N. I. Kinash was arrested in the town of Gorlovka (Donetsk Region). He faces a charge of parasitism: Kinash is 33 years old and has 15 years’ work experience.
For the past eight months Kinash has been unable to get a job because of the constant surveillance of State Security; over the past two years, for the same reason, he had to change his place of work four times. He tried to take up permanent residence in the Far East (Khabarovsk Region), but when the authorities found out he was a believer, they refused him a residence permit.
Not long before his arrest Kinash wrote a declaration to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, asking that he and his family be allowed to leave the USSR.
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On 13 December a resident of Novosibirsk, Yu. Khandeshin, was detained on the street in Moscow, carrying two bags containing various journals: Vestnik Istiny (Messenger of Truth), Bulletins of the Council of ECB Prisoners’ Relatives and Bratsky Listok (Fraternal Leaflet). He is being held in the pre-trial investigation prison on Matrosskaya Tishina Street. The investigator in charge of his case is refusing to tell his relatives the charge against Khandeshin.
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3.3 SEARCHES
On 22 June a search was carried out at the home of A. D. Leshchenko in Kiev. Religious literature and tape-recordings were confiscated.
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On 31 October in Kishinyov the Muscovite Veniamin Naprienko, brother of prisoner Valentin Naprienko (CCE 53.24), was searched. He had driven to Moldavia with his mother and two children. Naprienko was deprived of his passport, the keys to his car and flat, and 3,000 roubles. He was not given a copy of the search record.
On the way to the police station, he was beaten up. On 14 December Naprienko’s Moscow flat was searched.
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On 3 December a search was carried out at the Rytikovs’ house in the Ukrainian city of Krasnodon (CCE 51.15). On the same day N. P. Morozov’s flat in Donetsk was searched.
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On 4 December in Beltsy (Moldavian SSR) the homes of Misuruk and Zheleznov were searched; on 12 December I. Oselsky’s home was also searched.
On 5 December in Brest a search was carried out at the Vilchinskys’ home.
On the same day N. I. Yeremenko’s home in Kaluga was searched.
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3.4 BREAKING-UP OF PRAYER-MEETINGS,
CONFISCATION & DEMOLITION OF HOUSES
In Vladivostok the house of Terekhova, where the believers used to gather for religious services, has been demolished by bulldozers. Prayer-meetings now take place in the open air.
A house in Djambul (Kazakhstan) where prayer-meetings take place, is under threat of confiscation.
In Perm a house in which believers used to hold services has been confiscated. The owners of the house (one is 84 years old, the other 70) have been evicted.
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KAZAKH SSR
On 27 October the prayer-house in Nikolsky city (Djezkazgan Region) was demolished.
Policemen led by Major L. Yavorsky dragged all the believers who were found there out of the house. They then brought in a group of young men and handed out axes to them. I. Frizen, who tried to photograph this pogrom, was beaten up and later sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment for allegedly trying to throw a tile off the roof at one of the officials.
On 5 November the believers of Nikolsky [Satpayev] sent Brezhnev a declaration – with copies to the Moscow Helsinki Group; Waldheim; First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Kunayev; and the Council of ECB Prisoners’ Relatives – in which they describe what happened and ask to be granted the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution and the Decrees of Lenin. The declaration was signed by 48 people.
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UkSSR
On 16 and 21 December prayer-meetings in the small city of Khartsyzsk (Donetsk Region) were broken up. Deacon V. Chepikov was sentenced to 15 days’ imprisonment.
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On 25 December in Chernovtsy a hut registered by a Baptist congregation for religious services was demolished. The hut was built by members of the congregation, wired for sound and equipped with electricity.
That morning policemen in uniform and in civilian clothes surrounded the district, stopped the traffic and would not allow anyone to pass. People living in neighbouring houses were not allowed to come out; it was explained to them that there were bombs in the hut. Soon three buses drove up, full of students from an engineering college. They were ordered to demolish the hut. It was dismantled and all the materials were taken to the Housing Department. The operation took five hours. Then the cordon was removed and the police answered enquiries by saying that all the bombs had been defused.
The next day the believers held a service on the spot. They are now meeting in the open air. Police officers threaten them with arrest. The authorities are constantly fining Presbyter V. E. Shvets and the chairman of the Chernovtsy congregation, A. P. Romanishin. Other believers are also fined. Those who drive to services in their own cars are deprived of their licences.
The congregation has appealed to the municipal authorities, asking them to put an end to this oppression. The believers declare that if the persecution does not stop the whole congregation (1,200 people) will apply for exit visas to any country where religion is not persecuted.
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3.5 Dismissals from Work
L. Andryushchenko worked at the municipal heating department in Voroshilovgrad [Luhansk].
She was constantly visited at work by a KGB official and a deputy commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs. The administration asked L. Andryushchenko to resign and she submitted.
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In the town of Valga (Estonian SSR) M.L. Petrov has been sacked from his work.
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3.6 School and Religion
KAZAKH SSR
A. N. Sokolov, headmaster of a school in the town of Makinsk (Tselinograd Region), and V. F. Yakovleva, the senior teacher, spent the school break telling the pupils about the bestial activities of believers, and insulted religious pupils Ya. Schmidt and R. Kiyatt. Afterwards their fellow-pupils began to beat them up, egged on by the teachers.
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S. Gura was a student at the Novokakhovsk Technical College. The director and a class instructor tried to persuade him to abandon his religious beliefs and incited the other students against him.
When he refused to join the Komsomol, Gura was beaten up by fellow-students. Yu. Smirnov, leader of the group which organized the beating, said; “Do you really think I can’t beat you? I wasn’t in the Army for two years for nothing.”
Class instructor T. Tishchenko rummaged through Gura’s personal effects in the college hostel and confiscated religious books (in spite of the fact that they had been published in the USSR). Gura was accused of spreading religious propaganda – although keeping these books in the hostel was not illegal. In addition, the order for his expulsion (of 13 December) stated that S. Gura had been expelled for refusing to do socially useful work and speaking tactlessly to the class instructor.
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3.7 The Family and Religion
L. V. Shirobokova from the village of Shpakovskoye (Stavropol Region [Krai]) is the mother of three children. Her husband beat her cruelly and threatened to kill her if she did not stop believing in God. When they were divorced the court awarded the custody of the children to the father. Shirobokova took the children and left Shpakovskoye. She is compelled to live without work and without a residence permit.
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Mothers with large families are being deprived of the benefits to which they are entitled, because of their religious convictions. For example, M. Fot with 12 children (town of //Prokopyevsk); A. Kozorezova with 10 children (Volgograd) and S. Yudintseva (from Khartsyzsk) have been deprived of the awards and benefits due to them for having many children.
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N. Kravchenko (CCE 46.8, CCE 47.6) was discharged from the Army after breaking his lower jaw and crushing a facial nerve.
This injury was the result of being beaten up by his fellow conscripts (they beat him because he was a believer). The Medical Commission on Labour Fitness in the city of Sumy (Ukraine), where Kravchenko lives, will not give him invalid status.
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The Council of Baptist Prisoners’ Relatives reports that S. Bulygin and V. Gotman, now serving in the Army, have been threatened with arrest. They both refused to take the military oath.
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On 1 October V. N. Konyayev, an investigator of the Kuibyshev district Procuracy in Tashkent, summoned 13-year-old Pavlik Khrapov as a witness.
Pavlik’s mother E. A. Khrapova refused to take her son to the Procuracy. On 19 October Konyayev ‘chatted’ with Khrapova. He accused the Baptists of committing all the mortal sins and then demanded that she bring her son for interrogation. Khrapova refused and Konyayev took her to the Procurator. The Procurator threatened to put Khrapova in a detention cell and demanded that she sign a promise not to leave town. (The Procurator did not give his name and Konyayev also refused to name him.)
Meanwhile the Khrapovs decided that Pavlik should leave home. At the Procuracy E. Khrapova was told that she would be held responsible for every school-day that her son missed.
On 20 October Konyayev sent a note stating that “E. A. Khrapova is required here, together with her sons, daughters and husband.” On 22 October, in a letter to the USSR Procurator-General, Khrapova asked for a guarantee that Pavel Khrapov “may freely and fearlessly live with his family and be guaranteed safety while studying at school”.
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4. PENTECOSTALS
4.1 Breaking up Weddings
On 3 August in the Ukrainian village of Gritsevola (Radekhov district, Lvov Region), the wedding of Yevgeny Alexeyenko and Anna Prokulevich was broken up.
The village was surrounded by soldiers. The radio forbade anyone to go out in the direction of the woods until midday. The roads leading to the village were blocked. All the wedding-guests were detained. Over 30 people who had come in their own cars had their driving licences confiscated. The chief of police, the chairman of the collective farm and the chairman of the village soviet took turns to guard the house and yard. The electricity in the house was cut off.
The people standing guard in the street shouted threats at the believers.
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On 9 September, in the //town of Dzerzhinsk (Donetsk Region), Galina Cherneichuk should have got married. Many guests had been invited to the wedding.
During the night KGB officials broke into the yard and destroyed the tent which had been put up for the guests. They put the materials which had been used to build the tent in their car and drove away. In the morning patrols were posted on the streets who would not let wedding-guests pass. Only a few were allowed through to attend the ceremony. All those present had their names taken by Novikov, the commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs, and Police Captain Yegorov.
After the wedding a search was carried out in the house — written proof of ownership was demanded for each article there. As no document could be produced concerning a heap of bricks which had long been lying by the gates the police took it away, telling the mistress of the house that it had been stolen.
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4.2 School and Religion
In October 1979 Kolya Dzhuga and Tolya Faldshtein, pupils at School No. 18 in Rovno (UkSSR), were beaten up by their class-mates, with the knowledge of teacher V. V. Shemchuk, because they refused to join the Octobrists.
The next day the boys’ fathers came to the school. During a talk with them, the teacher asked them not to complain to anyone and promised that the incident would never be repeated.
However, after this conversation Shemchuk wrote a declaration to the Rovno UVD. In the declaration he alleged that the fathers of the injured boys, Porfiry Dzhuga and Vasily Faldshtein, had threatened to beat him up, had behaved rudely, and wrecked the class he was giving. As a result, P. Dzhuga and V. Faldshtein were given a 15-day sentence each, at work their ‘behaviour’ was discussed by a ‘comrades’ court’ and threats were made to both of them that the case would be sent to the people’s court.
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KHERSON. Volodya Polyansky is a pupil in class 5. He is being forced to join the Pioneers and is not allowed into the school without a Pioneer necktie. When he tries to enter the classroom, he is beaten up. (His father Josif Polyansky has renounced Soviet citizenship. The Polyanskys have applied to emigrate.)
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4.3 Fines
Pentecostalists who participate in prayer-meetings at private houses are constantly being arrested by the police.
In Zhdanov F. V. Lupanov and his wife L. A. Lupanova, parents of nine children, were fined 40 roubles on 28 September and 10 roubles on 1 November; S. V. Samoilovich, a life-long invalid who receives a monthly pension of 45 roubles, was fined 10 roubles on 16 June and 20 roubles on 28 September; A. P. Vinokurova was fined 20 roubles on 28 September and 10 roubles on 5 November; N. V. Makarov and his wife M. S. Makarova were fined 90 roubles on 28 September and 50 roubles on 1 December; I. S. Stepanov and his wife A. I. Stepanova were fined 25 roubles on 3 October; O. D. Stepanova was fined 10 roubles on 28 September, and P. D. Petrenko was fined 10 roubles on 30 October.
In the town of Taganrog A. F. Bavyko, a pensioner who has an income of 20 roubles a month, was fined 50 roubles on 29 November; her daughter L. M. Bavyko, who served a four-year sentence ‘for religion’ in 1952-56 (she earns 70 roubles a month), was also fined 50 roubles.
In the settlement of Starotitarovskaya (Krasnodar Region [Krai]) Senior Bishop N. P. Goretoi (see also this issue CCE 55.8) and A. Tishchenko were fined 50 roubles each in October.
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5. CATHOLICS IN MOLDAVIA
In November the fight put up for many years by the Catholics of Beltsy to obtain official recognition ended in victory. On 27 November they received permission to register their congregation and open a prayer-house.
On 2 December Vladislav Zavalnyuk [1], the only Catholic priest in Moldavia, travelled from Kishinyov to Beltsy for the first time.
On 5 December the Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs [CRA] summoned the chairman of the Kishinev parish council and stated that Father Vladislav would not be working in Moldavia any more.
On 6 December the Commissioner asked Father Vladislav to return his registration permit, as he had violated a CRA order forbidding him to conduct religious rituals beyond the limits of Kishinyov district.
Now there is not a single Catholic priest left in Moldavia.
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NOTES
- On Zavalnyuk, see CCE 47.6, CCE 48.16-1, CCE 53.24 and Name Index.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 