The Trial of Goretoi, August 1980 (58.17)

<<No 58 : November 1980>>

From 5 to 8 August 1980 the Krasnodar Region Court, presided over by Anokhina, heard the case of Bishop Nikolai Petrovich GORETOI (b. 1921), presbyter of the Starotitarovskaya Pentecostal congregation.

Arrested on 13 December 1979 (CCE 55.8), Goretoi was charged under two Articles of the RSFSR Criminal Code: 70 and 227, pt. 1 (“Infringement of the person and rights of citizens under the guise of performing religious rites”). The first part of Article 227 is considered more serious than the second.

The prosecutor was Deputy Procurator Sorokin of the Krasnodar Region [Krai]; defence counsel was lawyer Merkuryeva.

*

Goretoi’s wife did not find out about the trial until the first witnesses were summoned on 6 August.

She was not admitted to the courtroom: “It is a closed trial and you have nothing to do there”. In fact, it was officially an open trial. After giving evidence, the witnesses were allowed to remain in the courtroom only until the next recess. All who wished were admitted for the reading of the judgment.

Goretoi [1] was charged with helping to organize a Pentecostal emigration movement, producing ‘statements on emigration’, sending them abroad, with “libellous statements” contained in them, and also with being the leader of an unregistered religious community [2]. Goretoi pleaded not guilty.

In addition to believers from Starotitarovskaya, Batumi, Rostov, Cherkassy, Zhdanov //[], Bataisk and Rovno, the following were summoned as witnesses: the chairman of the village soviet, Kirichenko; the headmaster of School No. 18, Kotov; and local policeman Moskalenko.

*

Goretoi was given the maximum sentence: seven years’ strict regime camps, three years’ exile and confiscation of his property. At the end of September, he was sent to a camp. He is serving his sentence in Perm Camp 37 [3].

Goretoi has 11 children and 29 grandchildren. One of his lungs is not functioning; his vision is +20.

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NOTES

  1. On Goretoi, see CCE 47.8-1, CCE 48.17-2, CCE 49.15 and Name Index.
    ↩︎
  2. The Pentecostal congregation of the Starotitarovskaya cantonment was not registered.
    ↩︎
  3. In October-November 1985, reported Vesti (1986, 1/2-21), Goretoi was released from the camps for a month and offered freedom if he would register his congregation. Then he was returned to the camps.

    Released in April 1987, Goretoi left the USSR that year.
    ↩︎

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