On 18 and 19 September the Kuibyshev Regional Court, presided over by V. M. Mitin, heard the case ‘for the use of compulsory medical treatment’ on Viktor Viktorovich DAVYDOV (b. 1956; arrested on 28 November 1979, CCE 55.2-4), ‘charged with socially dangerous acts specified in Article 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code’.
Davydov, having been ruled mentally ill by a commission, was not present in the courtroom. Procurator V. A. Korostelev and defence lawyer V. N. Tershukov took part in the trial. All those who wished were admitted to the courtroom.
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From the resolution of the court (orthography and syntax of the original):
“V. V. Davydov, also known as V. V. Ryzhov, being negatively disposed towards Soviet reality, produced, using tape-recordings of extracts of Solzhenitsyn’s book The Gulag Archipelago broadcast by Western radio-stations, typed texts and circulated them among persons of his acquaintance. In the same way he produced and circulated a broadcast interview of V. Maximov and four articles from the collection From Under the Rubble [ed. Solzhenitsyn].
“In connection with the above-mentioned actions Davydov was summoned to the offices of the Committee of State Security [KGB] in the Kuibyshev Region so that prophylactic measures could be taken with regard to him. However, Davydov did not draw the right conclusions, did not hand over his negative literature to the KGB organs, nor did he cease his acts of circulation.
“Davydov formed a group of negatively disposed young people around himself. At the end of 1975 he established a close relationship with Bebko, Bogomolov, Gabdrakipov and Loshkarev, and, having made the acquaintance of Kalyagina, Samuseva and Getmanova, fostered in them a negative attitude towards the Soviet political and social system.
“For this reason, on 12 May 1976 Davydov was issued an official warning, based on the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of 25 December 1972, that if he continued to engage in acts forbidden by law and contrary to the interests of State Security of the USSR, then his actions would lead to crimes liable to prosecution.
“On 28 November 1979 at a search of V. V. Davydov’s flat the following books were found and confiscated: New Journal [Novyi Zhurnal] No. 93, Yu. Annenkov’s Diary of My Meetings, published in New York, and the book “Herald of the Russian Christian Movement” No. 114, published in Paris, as well as nine copies of an unfinished typed text, ‘The Phenomenon of Totalitarianism’, 140 pages long, and five copies of a typed text entitled ‘There Will Be No Second Coming’ [1], containing libel against the Soviet political and social system. At the same time an Erika typewriter was confiscated.
“On 12 March 1980, at a search of the flat of witness N. V. Romanova, Davydov’s so-called ‘archive’, which he had given to her for safekeeping shortly before his arrest, was found and confiscated. Among the documents in Davydov’s ‘archive’ were found dissident and negative literature, including the Chronicle of Current Events, The Phenomenon of Totalitarianism, a significant number of Davydov’s manuscripts containing libel against the Soviet political and social system, including Davydov’s manuscript of ‘There Will Be No Second Coming’ and an elaboration of various themes related to the typed works called The Phenomenon of Totalitarianism (vol. 2 pp. 128-154).
“Davydov’s authorship, production and circulation of the typed works entitled The Phenomenon of Totalitarianism and ‘There Will Be No Second Coming’ is corroborated by the results of a graphological examination showing that the author of the rough drafts of the above-mentioned works is V. V. Davydov, and the results of a technical examination showing that the above-mentioned works were typed on an Erika and an Optima-Elektrik 202 typewriter at his former place of work in a dispensary for skin and venereal diseases.
“According to the results of a socio-political expert examination both typed works entitled The Phenomenon of Totalitarianism and ‘There Will Be No Second Coming’ constitute a gross falsification of Marxist-Leninist teaching on the State and its class character and structures. They expound the theories of several bourgeois authors, including the rabid anti-Communist and anti-Sovietist Zygmunt Brzezinski in defence of the bourgeois State and the capitalist system. The works, according to the conclusions of expert Kudinov, contain lies and libel against the socialist planned economy, the collective farm system, socialist culture, and the growth of the prosperity and culture of Soviet people, as well as cynicism and mockery of patriotic Soviet people and their ideological convictions, gross falsification of Marxist-Leninist teaching on Communism, the peace-loving Soviet foreign policy and the spread and growth of socialist democracy in conditions of developed socialism, and exaggeration of the role and significance of bourgeois democracy (vol. 2 p. 302).
“The fact that V. V. Davydov committed socially dangerous acts is corroborated by the evidence of witnesses Bekker and Konstantinov, who testified that they had read Davydov’s work The Phenomenon of Totalitarianism on Zelenenky Island and that they had received and read the two typed works ‘Open Letter to Stalin’, signed by F. Raskolnikov [2], and ‘Letter to the Soviet Government’ signed M. Bulgakov, given to B. V. Zubakhin by Davydov and subsequently found at Konstantinov’s home. These two documents were confiscated from him during a search.
“The witness M. V. Mukhin confirmed that during repairs in his flat he had found manuscripts of works of anti-Soviet content in his daughter Olga’s room. His daughter had explained to him that these works were by V. V. Davydov, who had asked her to correct grammatical and stylistic errors in the manuscript.
“The witness Konstantinov confirmed that he shared many of Davydov’s views on contemporary life in Soviet society, and stressed negative aspects of of life. The same was confirmed at the trial by the witness Romanov, who explained that Davydov’s ‘archive’ had in fact been kept for some time in their flat, as he had found out later from his wife.
“The witness M. V. Mukhin confirmed the harmful influence of Davydov’s ‘ideas’ on his daughter Olga, who, having graduated from the State University, was now demoralized and unable to cope with life. Davydov had previously, in 1977, committed socially dangerous acts covered by Articles 206, part 2 and 191-1, part 2 of the Criminal Code, but, in view of the fact that he was ruled not responsible by a forensic psychiatric commission, the case had been closed (vol. 1 pp. 283-8, 289). A commission of psychiatric experts recommended that Ryzhov-Davydov undergo treatment in a psychiatric hospital in his home town, as an ordinary patient.
“In view of Davydov’s continuation of his socially dangerous acts, an in-patient forensic psychiatric examination was carried out in connection with the case at the Serbsky Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry (pp. 21-25, vol. 2). V. V. Davydov, who suffers from emotional and volitional disorders, a tendency to philosophize and a decline of his critical faculties with regard to the acts with which he is charged, was again ruled not responsible. Because he is especially socially dangerous, he must be sent for compulsory treatment to a psychiatric hospital of special type.“
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PROSECUTION AND DEFENCE
The Procurator said that Davydov’s acts represented a grave danger to society; he could not be put in an ordinary psychiatric hospital, as he would have the opportunity there to continue spreading his views. The Procurator submitted a petition to institute criminal proceedings against Olga Mukhina, who had renounced her evidence against Davydov and failed to appear at the trial.
Defence counsel said that those patients were put in an SPH whose actions were judged especially dangerous to society. It would be politically incorrect to put Davydov in an SPH, as his works and views did not represent an especial danger to society and the State, and consisted merely in clumsy paraphrases of bourgeois ideologists! ‘The State needn’t fear the ravings of a lunatic, to put it in plain Russian,’ said the lawyer. The court sent Davydov to an SPH for compulsory treatment.
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After the trial was over G. Konstantinov (CCE 55.2-4) beat up his wife O. Mukhina and Davydov’s wife, L. Davydova, breaking the latter’s arm. At a police station he explained the incident by saying that he did not share their views. The explanation was considered perfectly adequate and Konstantinov was released.
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Davydov is being held in Kazan SPH [3].
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NOTES
- Mentioned in Samizdat Update (CCE 54.24 [6]) in November 1979, this 12-page article “There will be no Second Coming” (of Stalinism) was there attributed to A. Kamensky.
↩︎ - A reference to the letter of the Bolshevik Raskolnikov (Ilyn), criticising Stalin. Dated 17 August 1939, it was first published in the Paris émigré newspaper Novaya Rossiya on 1 October 1939 (see note 1, CCE 13.3).
↩︎ - In November 1980 Davydov was transferred to the Blagoveshchensk SPH in the Soviet Far East.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 