- 27-1. Letters and Statements (10 items)
- 27-2. Moscow Helsinki Group Documents (117-129)
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SOKIRKO (1, 4)
[1]
Victor Sokirko
“To F. A. Abramov” (20 November 1979)
Having read F. Abramov’s article “What We Eat and Live On” in Pravda (17 November) the author writes:
“Our only salvation from advancing economic bankruptcy and future Stalinism would be a radical reconstruction of economic relations …
“A radical re-evaluation of the leadership’s relation to people is essential … To provide the means to industrious and resourceful people and not to prevent them from achieving full success … without interference or unnecessary restrictions from above … by forbidding such interference even by Party bodies, on pain of criminal prosecution …”
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[2]
To the USSR Supreme Soviet (28 November 1979)
A letter concerning the seizure of the American hostages in Iran states:
“We, the undersigned, propose the following measures to the Supreme Soviet and its Presidium:
“[1] To demand that the Iranian government and the Revolutionary Council immediately release the American citizens;
“[2] If they refuse, to recall all or a substantial number of Soviet diplomatic personnel from Iran, for as long as the hostages remain in custody and until the Iranian authorities ensure normal working conditions for the diplomats of all states;
“[3] To call upon the states which participated in the Helsinki Conference to take similar steps in their relations with Iran …”
Below the document is written:
“Signed
- “For the Free Inter-Trade Association of Working People: V. Kuvakin, N. Lesnichenko, V. Novodvorskaya;
- “For the Christian Committee to Defend Believers’ Rights in the USSR: V. Kapitanchuk, K Shcheglov;
- “For the Editorial Board of the free Moscow journal Poiski (Searches): V, Abramkin, V, Gershuni;
- “For the independent group ‘The Right to Emigrate’: M. Novikov, V. Shepelev.”
Thirty-four other people signed the document. They include:
T. Osipova, V. Bakhmin, F. Serebrov, G. Vladimov, Yu. Grimm. V. Sorokin. S. Sorokina, V. Kormer, M. Zotov, P. Podrabinek, N. Galaibo, A. Smirnov, M. Solovov, N. Shatalov, T. Shatalova, A. Shatalova, M. Antonyuk, B. Perchatkin, V. Shilyuk, A. Agapova, L. Agapova and A. Naidenovich.
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AFGHANISTAN (3-6)
[3]
V. Tomachinsky
“To the United Nations Organization” (7 January 1980)
“At a time when the defence of peace is essential, when Soviet troops are carrying out military operations against a poorly-armed small nation, I appeal to you to act:
“to unite; to cut off (across the board) all supplies to the Soviet Union of strategic raw materials, foodstuffs, industrial equipment, credits, licences, etc; to introduce UN troops into Afghanistan to confront the Soviet Army for the purpose of maintaining peace in that area of the world, so that the Soviet Union will be faced with the choice of either withdrawing its troops or fighting the UN; to help the Afghan people by providing weapons, medicines and military experts; on the international level, to regard the Soviet-Afghan friendship treaty as void, since it was signed by a government which no longer exists, the existing self- proclaimed government being no legitimate successor, but a terrorist usurper; and to work for a national referendum in Afghanistan, to be held under UN supervision to determine the country’s political system.”
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[4]
Victor Sokirko
“To L. I. Brezhnev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet” (10 January 1980)
“Request
“Having become aware of my personal share of responsibility for the future of my country and to my children, I consider it my duty as a citizen to appeal to you to order the immediate withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Afghanistan …
“The policy of non-intervention and refusal to export revolution to other countries must be reintroduced in full. You have the duty to save the country from ruin and our young people from senseless deaths!”
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[5]
Leonard Ternovsky
“Open Statement” (17 January 1980)
“I welcome the decision of the UN General Assembly calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan. In my opinion, the invasion by Soviet troops is a dangerous and irresponsible step, and constitutes intervention of the crudest kind in Afghan internal affairs.
“Those who sent them there have no pity either for our boys or for the Afghans.”
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[6]
On 20 January the Moscow Helsinki Group adopted Document 119:
“We appeal to all people of good will … to strive for implementation of the resolution (of the UN General Assembly — Chronicle) on the immediate withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, and to strive for the implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in all countries.”
The document is signed by Group members Yelena Bonner, Sophia Kalistratova, Ivan Kovalyov and Malva Landa. On 29 January the document was signed by Group member Tatyana Osipova, who had just been released from custody. The following declared their support of the document: Georgy Vladimov, Leonard Ternovsky, Andrei Sakharov, Alexander Lavut, Avgusta Romanova and Mustafa Dzhemilev.
The Moscow Helsinki Group received a letter from three Muscovites: the teacher T. Trusova, the artist V. Grinev and the journalist F. Kizilov, expressing their wish to add their signatures to document No. 119. On 13 February the Group adopted ‘A Supplement to Document 119’, which states that the Group “considers the people listed here as having joined our protest …”
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[7]
T. Samsonova
“Statement to the Party Bureau, SiMO Research Institute (USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences)”
March 1979
Tamara V. Samsonova (b. 1927), assistant professor and D.Sc. (Philosophy; CCE 14.11 [2], CCE 15.9), is the wife of P. Yegides, a member of the Poiski editorial board, who has emigrated (CCE 56.20).
“What has always attracted me to Marxism is its deeply humanitarian foundation; this also led me to the Communist Party, of which I have now been a member for over twenty years [since 1956, Chronicle] …
“Judging by the literature I have managed to read, the basic principles of Eurocommunism are as follows:
- Socialism cannot be attained by establishing any kind of dictatorship, including the dictatorship of the proletariat;
- Socialism is not possible without democracy for all;
- Socialism presupposes pluralism, which at a minimum means the right to opposition ….
“The practices which have become established in our Party and our society do not correspond to the principles of democratic communism. This is clear from the following:
- Persecution for unofficial views, including socialist and communist opinions …
- The absence of the right to opposition;
- The impossibility of criticizing the higher leadership of the country;
- The absence of open debates on questions of domestic and foreign policy;
- ‘Elections’ without choice.”
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[8]
T. Samsonova-Yegides: “Defend Our Ideals!” (February 1980)
The author was dismissed from her job and expelled from the Party “for views and actions incompatible with the high calling of a member of the CPSU”.
“… The present situation in the CPSU — the suppression of democracy, the epidemic of coercion and the tyranny — can become the future of any Eurocommunist movement unless it speaks out at once, today, against every manifestation of Party intolerance …
“I consider it my duty as a human being and a citizen to appeal to all Communists: defend our ideals, demand that the CPSU must genuinely — not just in words — re-establish democratic institutions, and demand the annulment of the administrative exile … imposed on A. D. Sakharov … and the immediate release of the editors of the journal Poiski who have been arrested.
“I do not intend to request readmission to the ranks of the CPSU. Until the shameful persecution of free thinking ceases in my Motherland, I do not wish to remain in a Party which sanctions this persecution.”
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[9]
L. Sadygi
“To Olga Ivinskaya” (January 1980)
Having read Olga Ivinskaya’s memoirs A Captive of Time, the author writes concerning the chapter “In the Bedlam of the Un-People” about the camps [1]:
“… with the dirt you have poured over Anna Barkova and other political prisoners who offended you in some way, you have spoiled your book beyond redemption.”
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[10]
Yelena Bonner
Statement (22 April 1980)
In a conversation with an Agence France Presse correspondent, Bonner said that “leading Soviet scientists are extremely interested in contact with Western scientists; for this reason, intensifying the defence of suppressed Soviet scientists at this particular time can significantly change their fate.” In this connection she mentioned the following names: Sergei Kovalyov, Yury Orlov, Alexander Bolonkin, Anatoly Shcharansky and Andrei Sakharov.
The Voice of America radio station quoted these words as follows: “Yelena Bonner urged Western scientists to support their Soviet colleagues.”
Bonner asks the Voice of America to broadcast a correction without delay: otherwise “I shall be forced to regard this event not as an annoying misunderstanding, but as a deliberate distortion.”
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NOTES
- Olga Ivinskaya became Boris Pasternak’s mistress and was convicted for receiving royalties from the sale of his novel Doctor Zhivago.
Anna Barkova, a poet praised by Lunacharsky, Pasternak and others in the 1920s, was arrested and sent to the camps three times between 1934 and 1957 (see CCE 40.15 [31] on her death).
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