On 23-24 and 28-29 April the trial was held in Simferopol of Crimean Tartar Gomer Bayev.
An engineer, Bayev was accused of distributing “deliberate fabrications defaming the Soviet State and social order” (Article 187-1, UkSSR Criminal Code = Article 190-1, RSFSR Code).
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The evidence for the prosecution was:
- several letters from Crimean Tartars to official departments, unsigned but allegedly distributed by Bayev;
- one of the Crimean Tartar information bulletins (newsletters), copied out by Bayev into a notebook, an action designated as “distribution” because, according to a witness’s evidence, Bayev read out something from some notebook at a meeting;
- letters written by Bayev himself about the position of the Crimean Tartars.
In connection with the last mentioned, it is extremely interesting how one of these letters became involved in the trial.
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EXCHANGE WITH SENICHKINA
A senior research worker at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, Senichkina, a Party member, published an article on the nationalities question [1] in which she wrote that the nationalities question in the USSR had been completely solved.
Gomer Bayev wrote a private letter to Senichkina in which he asked whether she considered the Crimean Tartar question solved as well, and if so, he asked her to explain why he, Gomer Bayev, had been sacked from his job, turned out of the hostel and advised to leave the Crimea.
Instead of replying, Senichkina sent the letter to the KGB as it “contained provocative questions”.
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TRIAL
The judge A. A. Avramenko presided over the proceedings, the prosecution case was argued by the procurator Terentyev, and the lawyer N. A. Monakhov defended the accused.
The trial was conducted correctly: those who had in fact come to the trial were present in the courtroom instead of a specially chosen audience, as is common in Moscow.
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One witness was Yelkhov, the head of the Simferopol Visa & Registration Office (OVIR). He confirmed that it was virtually impossible for Crimean Tartars to be registered for residence in the Crimea.
The same was said by the senior engineer of a state farm where a work-gang of Crimean Tartars (including Bayev) had been employed and immediately dismissed when their identity was discovered.
The prosecutor said this was so because they lacked specialized knowledge. The engineer confirmed that the work-gang had the necessary qualifications, however, and that the State farm [sovkhoz] was still in need of workers: up to a hundred, in fact, and the State farm could provide them with accommodation, moreover.
“And if a similar work-gang were to come to you now,” asked the prosecutor, “would you employ them?” the engineer quite frankly answered: “But they won’t be given residence permits!”
The procurator, having taken into account the defendant’s hard-working way of life and the absence of any previous conviction, pointed out that the defendant had not pleaded guilty and had not recanted and therefore represented a danger for society. The procurator demanded that Gomer Bayev be given three years in a labour camp, i.e. the maximum under that Article.
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The defence lawyer made no reference to the contents of those documents which Bayev denied having helped to compile and distribute, and he convincingly showed that his client was speaking the truth.
As regards the documents which Bayev had compiled, the defence lawyer adopted the following line: the facts, set out in the documents, are indisputable; strongly-worded phrases – the product of the emotions not the mind – are to be found, but they cannot be called slanderous. The defence lawyer asked the court to acquit Bayev, there being no basis for a criminal charge.
In his final speech Gomer Bayev described the 1944 deportation of his people from the Crimea, the way they starved to death in exile, and their struggle for the restoration of their national rights.
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SENTENCE
The court found Gomer Bayev guilty according to Article 187-1 (UkSSR Criminal Code) and sentenced him to two years in a labour camp.
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NOTES
- This probably refers to Nina Senichkina, a researcher at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, and her article “A fraternal union of free nations”, Kommunist Tadzhikistana, 30 December 1967 (p. 2).
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