In accordance with new regulations, confiscated letters are now destroyed.
*
1. CHISTOPOL PRISON
On completion of their prison terms R. Zograbyan and Josif Mendelevich (in April) and G. Sheludko (in July) were sent to the camps.
In February Vladimir Konstantinovsky (CCE 40.9-1) returned (CCE 51.9-1) to the prison. In camp he had refused to work and been put in the punishment block.
*
Boleslav Lizunas (b. 1920) from Lithuania has arrived at the prison.
In 1944-6 he was a partisan, one of the leaders of “the Forest Brethren”. He was arrested in May 1979; earlier he evaded arrest by living under an assumed name. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for “Betrayal of the Motherland”, the first 10 years to be spent in prison. Lizunas was accused of taking part in the execution of Communists: he denies this.
Lizunas is unable to bend his fingers (a salt deficiency); in spite of this he has been banned from using the shop, for not fulfilling his work norm.
*
Yu. Bogin (b. 1959), Yurev (b. 1957) and Ivlyushkin (b. 1959), all sentenced in the same case, have arrived at Chistopol. They were arrested in the army in the period December 1978-January 1979. The charge was attempted espionage (Articles 64 & 15, RSFSR Criminal Code).
Bogachov (b. 1959), sentenced on a similar charge, has also arrived here.
*
During the spring the prisoners were given a mixed salad on Sundays — the only dish which contained fresh vegetables. (Before this they had been served fresh vegetables only in September 1979: one piece of cucumber on three days.) Since May they have started serving pasta instead of salad.
The prison library contains around 4,000 books. A special list, of around 200 books, has been drawn up for political prisoners: they are allowed to order only books off this list.
*
On 24 December 1979, Yury Shukhevich and Vladimir Balakhonov sent the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet a protest against the despatch of Soviet troops to Afghanistan.
On 5 March 1980, Balakhonov was given six days in the cooler for refusing to hold his hands behind his back during exercise. In response Balakhonov staged a total hunger-strike and started shouting to prisoners through the door of the cooler, telling them about political prisoners.
Prison officials, including the head of the prison, threatened Balakhonov that they would put him in a cell with prisoners who would rape him. When that did not work, they chained him with his back pressed against hot radiators. Two hours later one of the warders, noticing that Balakhonov did not seem to be suffering pain, tightened the chains. They released him after six hours. On 10 March Balakhonov was let out of the cooler ‘for medical reasons’.
In April Balakhonov started to send statements to various Procuracies protesting against the theft of food from prisoners’ rations and the theft and confiscation of letters. In June the prison administration began to confiscate these statements: the majority began to ‘go astray’ at the end of warders’ shifts. Letters addressed to Balakhonov are also ‘disappearing’.
Parcels sent to Mikhail Kazachkov and Balakhonov when they ended their hunger-strike in October 1979 (CCE 54.13-1) were returned to their senders. It transpired that the head of the prison, Malafeyev, when he returned from holiday, cancelled the permission for the parcels given by his deputy.
In January-February 1980 Kazachkov was put in the cooler for 15 days and then placed in solitary confinement. Malafeyev’s report on this said that a warder had seen Kazachkov go to a part of his cell which was out of sight and eat the rations of his cell-mate, Balakhonov, who was fasting at the time, thus endangering his life.
On 14 June Kazachkov, in protest against the prison administration’s suppression of his correspondence not only with his family but with official organizations and lawyers, and its opening of his letters to the Procuracy, again (CCE 53.19-1) started a hunger-strike. On 29 June he agreed to end his strike on condition that his demands for normal correspondence were met. A KGB major from Kazan promised him this. Kazachkov agreed with a deputy head of the prison the text of a telegram to his mother in which he hinted that he had ended his hunger-strike, but Malafeyev forbade it to be sent. Kazachkov then resumed his hunger-strike.
On 26 July Procurator Galimov from Kazan visited the prison and, according to several reports, told the administration that they must not confiscate whole letters; they should either give them back to be rewritten or delete the impermissible passages.
*
On 17 September 1979 Maigonis Ravins was taken to Riga for ‘re-education’. On 29 November he returned to Chistopol.
At the end of April 1980, he was given 15 days in the cooler for shouting an appeal through the door of his cell to political prisoners to protest against the way Lizunas was being treated: Lizunas was not allowed to go to the prison shop even though he was working nine hours a day and had money in his account; this money was being drawn on for his upkeep and prison clothes.
On 20 May Ravins sent a statement to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet renouncing his citizenship — the statement was confiscated. On 1 June he sent a similar statement via the USSR Procurator-General.
On 17 June Ravins sent the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet a statement requesting that it permit the conducting of propaganda in favour of the independence of the Baltic republics. In support of his statement, and as a sign of protest against the occupation of Latvia on 17 June 1940 by Soviet troops, he staged a one-day hunger-strike.
*
In June Shukhevich had an operation for a stomach ulcer. F. Trufanov is ill with sclerosis, high blood pressure and a stomach ulcer; since January 1979 he has been partially paralysed on the right side of his body. On 24 July he appealed to Zaitsev, the Chistopol Procurator, with a statement saying that he was suffering from scurvy due to lack of vitamins.
From August 1979 to January 1980 about 20 letters addressed to Igor Ogurtsov were confiscated. He refuses to work, demanding work in his specialist field (literature). Consequently, he has not once been able to use the prison shop. Apart from Ogurtsov, Kazachkov and Balakhonov are not working. The others sometimes work.
*
PROTESTS
On 23 July Balakhonov, Kazachkov, Ravins, Petkus and Shukhevich started their third protest (CCE 51.9-1, CCE 53.19-1) “Ten Days of Struggle by Oppressed Peoples against Russian Communist Imperialism”. As in 1979 the word ‘Russian’ in the title was replaced by the word ‘Soviet’ in Ravin’s statements.
On 23 July they appealed to contestants in the Olympic Games “to support the struggle of oppressed peoples”: the statements were sent via the Procurator-General.
*
On 25 July they protested against ethnic and national discrimination in the prison; in particular they demanded the right to send and receive letters in their native languages without delays.
On 29 July they protested against the forty-year occupation of the Baltic States.
On 1 August statements were sent in connection with the 5th anniversary of the Helsinki Agreement.
*
2. MORDOVIA
2.1: Camp 3
Vladimir Osipov’s wife Valentina Mashkova issued an Open Letter appealing to people to take part in a “week of universal repentance” from 18 to 25 July. On a short visit to her husband at the beginning of July she appealed to him to take part in the ‘week’.
*
In July, in a statement “to the Soviet Government and World Society”, Robert Nazaryan, Yury Badzio, Sergei Soldatov and Vladimir Osipov announced they would stage
- a hunger-strike on the opening day of the Olympic Games in protest against Soviet aggression in Afghanistan and against the intensification of oppression within the country, and
- a work-strike throughout the Games.
Nazaryan was put in the punishment block (he was already there by 19 July). Badzio was taken to hospital. On 2 July KGB officials threatened to deport Soldatov from the USSR.
Soldatov was given five days in the cooler and then put in the punishment block.
Soldatov has coronary sclerosis, high blood pressure, low acidity, oedema and progressive loss of vision. His prison term ends in January 1981.
Osipov has been given five days in the cooler.
*
3. PERM
Before the Olympic Games all taxi-drivers in the town of Chusovoi — all three Perm camps are situated in Chusovoi district — were given an order not to take passengers, under any circumstances, to Camps 35 (Vsesvyatskaya), 36 (Kuchino), or 37 (Polovinka).
During the Olympics and for a short time afterwards, it was explained to them, foreigners might want to visit the camps.
*
3.1: Camp 35
Nikolai Matusevich has been taken from the cooler to hospital.
On 4 June Paruir Airikyan was given 12 days in the cooler for a statement protesting against the confiscation of letters from Ida Nudel, Iryna Stasiv-Kalynets and Nijole Sadunaite.
While there his temperature went up, but the doctor said she would only examine him when he came out. After serving his 12 days, however, Airikyan was immediately given another 15 — for using abusive language.
Vladimir I. Sverdlov (CCE 52.5-1) has been transferred to Camp 36.
*
3.2: Camp 36 (special regime zone)
On 1 March special-regime prisoners from Mordovian Camp 1 were transferred to Perm Camp 36, to a specially created special-regime zone half a kilometre away from the strict-regime zone (CCE 56.21).
Before the transfer Yury I. Fyodorov and Bohdan Rebrik had their personal possessions confiscated.
The cells in the new zone all have running water, a wash-basin and a lavatory pan (in Mordovia there was only a latrine bucket). The cells in which the prisoners work in are opposite those in which they live. The prisoners are taken out to work cell by cell, so that there is no contact between prisoners from different cells: in Mordovia all the prisoners worked together. The prisoners are also taken out for exercise (in a small yard with bars over the top) and to the bath in turn, one cell at a time. The work consists of making components for electric irons.
In contrast to Mordovia, administrative officials here avoid giving their surnames and functions.
*
There are 32 prisoners in the zone.
Among them is Anatoly Filatov, whose trial was deliberately timed to coincide with Shcharansky’s. He was sentenced to death for ‘espionage’, but his sentence was commuted by an act of clemency to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Alexei Murzhenko and Lev Lukyanenko share a cell with three ’policemen’ (who served the Nazi occupation) and a common criminal.
Originally Dmytro Shumuk and Bohdan Rebrik were in the same cell. On 1 May Shumuk was taken to hospital — he was suffering from retching, dizziness and fainting — and Oles Berdnik was transferred to Rebrik’s cell.
(In CCE 55.1-1 it was erroneously stated that Berdnik was confined under strict regime — according to the judgment in his case, one of the incidents with which he was charged took place before the time when his previous sentence could no longer be referred to — hence he is on special regime.)
In June, in accordance with Article 51 (RSFSR Corrective Labour Code), Fyodorov was transferred to a barracks. One of the incentives listed under Article 51 is “transfer of prisoners in a Special-Regime Corrective-Labour Colony … from a cell-type premises to ordinary living quarters in the same colony”.
On 1 July Shumuk returned from hospital. He too was put in a barracks.
*
3.3: Camp 36 (strict-regime zone)
At the beginning of June, the wife of Zinovy Krasivsky (CCE 56.21) was not granted a ’long’ visit, due to ’repair work’. She left, having made a fruitless journey from Ukraine.
*
SERGEI KOVALYOV
In December 1979 Sergei Kovalyov was sentenced to six months in the punishment cells (CCE 56.21).
//For refusing to work when in the punishment cells, he was sentenced to 15 days in the cooler in both December and February; to 10 days in both March and April; and to another 13 days in May.
The parcel his wife Ludmila Boitsova sent in December was returned to her: when it arrived in camp, Kovalyov was already in the punishment cells. On 26 January 1978, Kovalyov was deprived of his regular parcel and on 2 June he was deprived of his next parcel — for 1981, his last year in camp. Kovalyov’s camp sentence ends on 27 December 1981, after which he will have to serve three years in exile.
In July, Boitsova received back a package containing baked items which she had sent to her husband in May. In answer to her enquiry, Camp Head Zhuravkov informed her that the parcel had been returned “because it contained unpermitted items”, although the contents had been the same as usual.
Between November 1979 and May 1980 at least five letters from Boitsova were confiscated (the reason: “code words in the text” and on one occasion: ‘dubious content’). A letter from her son was also confiscated.
In response to several telegrams, Zhuravkov informed Boitsova that Kovalyov’s health was ‘satisfactory’ and that she should address her other questions — she had asked about her husband’s sentence in the punishment cells and about the parcel — to Kovalyov himself.
Zhuravkov also referred Ivan Kovalyov, who had enquired about the delivery of his own letters to his father, to Sergei Kovalyov (Zhuravkov had replied to such enquiries on previous occasions).
In July Kovalyov was sent to the central hospital (Camp 3) for observation.
In a letter dated 18 July Kovalyov wrote that he had been ill for some time, but his condition had noticeably deteriorated recently.
Since the end of December he had had a persistent sub-febrile temperature; for several months his legs had been continually swollen; his left hand had been numb since the beginning of June; the muscles in his left leg ached; he suffered from frequent, nauseous headaches; he had attacks of weakness and dizziness to the point of almost passing out. In June his temperature rose to 38 degrees Centigrade for a short time, and in June and July his blood pressure remained at 180 or higher.
*
3.4: Camp 37
ORLOV
On 15 May Yury Orlov, founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, declared a two-day hunger-strike to mark the fourth anniversary of the Group’s foundation and the second anniversary of his own trial. He demanded an amnesty for political prisoners and an end to the suppression of public organizations acting in defence of human rights.
Orlov appealed to the forthcoming OSCE conference in Madrid:
“Aggravation of international relations worsens the situation of the human rights movement in the Soviet Union. Therefore, all of us who act in defence of human rights have a stake in a detente which acknowledges that public monitoring of governments is an important factor in world peace, I call on the Madrid conference to support this principle in its work.
“I propose that Heads of State should meet at the Madrid conference, and I appeal to them to make every effort to return to their previous — pre-crisis — positions.“
Orlov was deprived of his scheduled ‘short’ visit (it was to have taken place in June or July) for falling asleep at work. In actual fact, he had dozed off after finishing work and was waiting for the escort guards.
When the guards arrived, the prisoners wanted to wake Orlov, but the commander forbade them to do so and made out an official report.
While Orlov was in the punishment block (CCE 54.13-1) some drunken warders threatened to kill him. When he left the punishment block in April, Orlov informed the Camp Head about this. In July Orlov was deprived of access to the camp shop.
*
4. OTHER PRISONS AND CAMPS
Eduard Arutyunyan (trial CCE 56.16) has arrived in a camp with the address: 663850, Krasnoyarsk Region [Krai], Verkhnyaya Yaugusha settlement, penal institution UP-288/28.
*
Vladimir Burtsev (CCE 56.11) is serving his sentence in Smolensk Region.
The camp administration advised him to put his religious faith into store along with his belongings. He has been sent to work as an orderly in the Sychovka SPH.
*
In May Igor Polyakov (54.12 [2]) was given a conditional release ‘with compulsory labour’; he works at a brick factory in the city of Balakovo (Saratov Region), as a metal-worker. In June he was given permission to go home for a week.
*
In May Alexander Gotovtsev (CCE 54.12 [4]) was transferred to a new camp (CCE 56.21) with the address: Moskva K-575 (this is Zelenograd), penal institution UU-163/2V. His one-year sentence ends on 12 September.
*
At the beginning of July Yury Litvin [1] was again (CCE 56.21) transferred to a new camp. The address is: Kherson-32, penal institution 17/90.
*
As a result of a clash with a camp KGB official, Shagen Arutyunyan was deprived of a visit (it was to have taken place in May). His sentence ends on 22 December 1980.
*
KIRILL PODRABINEK
In March-April Kirill Podrabinek, who is suffering from tuberculosis, was transferred from Yelets Prison to a prison hospital in the town of Usman (CCE 56.21).
In his June letter Kirill asked his father to come and collect him from Usman on Saturday 28 June.
Ten days later Pinkhos A. Podrabinek received another letter from his son; despite official assurances that Kirill Podrabinek would be released at the end of his sentence from Usman, the letter came from Yelets Prison.
At 6 am on 28 June Pinkhos Podrabinek was told at Yelets Prison that Kirill would be released ‘today, at 8 am’. At 8 am an administration official told Podrabinek that his son had been charged under Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code: “Two days ago he received and signed the warrant for his arrest” (during the investigation of his previous case Kirill Podrabinek had not signed a single piece of paper). When asked what Kirill had done, the Major replied: “He refuses to admit his errors”.
On 29 June Pinkhos Podrabinek appealed to the “International Committee to Defend the Podrabinek Brothers”, Amnesty International, the Moscow Helsinki Group and ‘All People of Good Will’, asking for help in obtaining the release of Alexander (see CCE 50.7) and Kirill Podrabinek.
On 1 July Pinkhos Podrabinek received the following reply to his telegram of enquiry: “In the matter of your son’s release, apply to the Yelets City Procurator. [Penal] Institution Head.”
*
BOLONKIN
From a letter by Alexander Bolonkin (CCE 56.21):
“On 5 February I was released from the punishment cells and the terrorization began again (the Head of OV-94/2, L. A. Drui).
“On 29 February I was sent to the cooler for 15 days for writing ‘Stolen by Warders from Bolonkin’ on the front of a notebook. Two days after leaving the cooler I was sent back for another 15 days, for sending innocent letters requesting a parcel.
“From 4 to 15 April, I was ill (hypertension). On 15 April I was sent by the Special Section to work in the packaging shop, where I am physically unable to fulfil the norm; on 13 April, for twice failing to fulfil the norm, I was deprived of access to the camp shop and of a parcel, and sentenced to 15 days in the cooler (from 18 April to 3 May) and on 3 May 1 was put in the punishment cells for six months.
“I am in a cell measuring 7.7 square metres, where there are four of us. One (Victor Smogin) is crazy and may kill at any time.“
In a letter dated 6 May and addressed to the USSR Procurator-General and the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs, Bolonkin writes:
“The Head of OV-94/2, L. A. Drui, is terrorizing me in the most blatant fashion because he is afraid I will reveal his criminal dealings: these involve the theft of State property and its use for bribes, as a result of which the State has suffered a loss of about half a million roubles …
“As a result of these tortures, I have contracted chronic bronchitis, sciatica, gastritis, a duodenal ulcer, paraproctitis and other complaints.
“The administration openly says that during my last year in prison they will send me to my grave, or totally ruin my health, or fabricate a new case against me. For this reason they have once again put me in the camp prison for six months.
“I ask you to stop this terror and transfer me to another Corrective Labour Colony, outside the Buryat ASSR.“
*
In an appeal ‘To People of Good Will’, Bolonkin writes:
“It is impossible to describe what I have experienced and witnessed … in Communist prisons and concentration camps.
“I appeal to all people of good will to help me escape from the Communist torture chambers and to leave the ‘developed socialist paradise’ for the ‘capitalist hell’.“
On 19 May Bolonkin was sent to the cooler (where he spent 30 days). In the punishment cells he contracted dysentery. From 30 May to 9 June he was in hospital, where he alone was not allowed out for exercise and was taken to the toilet under guard.
On 6 June the Buryat ASSR Ministry of Justice informed Bolonkin that on 24 December 1979 a court had rejected his suit for 952 roubles against the Bagdarin village post office for loss of correspondence (a copy of the court’s decision was not sent to Bolonkin, so he was unable to appeal).
*
Yevgeny Buzinnikov was put in the punishment cells not later than June.
*
ZISELS
In April-June Josif Zisels suffered a periodic intensification of pain from his stomach ulcer, but he was not even let off work.
During such acute periods Zisels is given an extra 30 grams of meat and 17 grams of butter daily, and a glass of milk or some milky gruel twice a week. During a visit Zisels said that in future during an acute period he would refuse all treatment unless he was put in the medical block.
Recently, the majority of letters sent to Zisels have been confiscated. Sometimes an official report is issued, stating that the letters have been confiscated due to the presence of undesirable information; the remaining letters are confiscated without reports or reasons being given. Often Zisels is not even informed that letters have been confiscated. Zisels complained about this to the Deputy Regional
Procurator, M. K. Pashkovsky, but the situation did not change, although the latter had promised to sort things out. The administration tries to turn the other prisoners against Zisels, saying, for example, that he has an account in a Swiss bank. Several prisoners with whom Zisels was on friendly terms have been transferred to other camps.
*
In penal institution YaS-3/3 (address; Dushanbe 33, micro-district) prisoners who send statements and complaints to higher organs are put for a day or two in a cell where the floor has been sprayed with chlorine and water poured over it.
The Head of Camp 3 is Dzhalolov and the Head of Regime is Lapshin.
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NOTES
- On Litvin (Ukr. Lytvyn; 1934-1984), see CCE 37.13 [1], CCE 39.2-2, CCE 46.10-2; CCE 47.9-4 and Name Index.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 