soviet communist political prisoners
With the capitalist mass media wide ly propagating the views of Solzhenitsyn, Maximov, and others inside and outside the Soviet Union who share their views, many militants have begun to wonder whether any left oppositional current exists in the Soviet Union. The document below, drafted several years ago but available only recently, answers that question in the affirmative. One of the important aspects of the document is that it provides a partial list of Marxist groups in the USSR and mentions some of their members who have been discovered by the secret police and dre now languishing in concentration camps. Of course, even before this text came into our hands, we knew that there were Marxist groups in the Soviet Union. We knew because the secret police announced their existence to us by arresting their members. Some examples of such groups not mentioned in the document below are: the Russian Socialist party, the Party of non-Party (T.e., non-CP) Workers Struggling for the Restoration of Socialism, the Democratic Union of Socialists, the Party of Real Communists, and the Union of Workers and Peasants (in the Ukraine). Because of the strict secrecy that surrounds their activities, we know little about these groups. Unlike other opposition currents, Marxist groups shun contact with foreign jouralists and embassy officials - for political and security reasons. Consequently, samizdat, much of which comes out of the Soviet Union through such channels, does not reflect the full panorama of active groups. While it is difficult to ascertain the present relative weight of the Marxist opposition in the Soviet Union, it is certain that its influence will increase, The economic, social, and ideological crisis of the regime has created an atmosphere in which Marxist ideas can begin to find a ready response. Moreover, there are now signs that the Soviet working closs is slowly reentering the political arena through strikes and other forms of protest. The fact that Marxist groups have been formed in factories, as is mentioned by the document below, testifies to the growing politicization of the working class. One factor of great Importance in strengthening the Marxist current is the visible crisis of capitalism. The present crisis, with its inflation and unemployment, has forced those in the USSR who saw an alternative in capitalism to rethink their attitude toward the West. The growing disillusionment with the West of many Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union is especially important here. Unable to find jobs and living in difficult material conditions, they have begun to write back to the USSR that the West is no paradise and that it is preferable to remain at home. This sort of "unofficial" confirmation of the crisis of capitalism is a thousand times more effective than all the articles and editorials in Pravda, which nobody believes anyway. The authors of the document have chosen to direct their appeal to the Communist parties of the West. There is a widespread belief in the Soviet Union that "their" CPs, that is, the Western CPs, cannot be like "ours." While the authors' faith in the Communist parties of the West may be naive, their forthright appeal to the opinion of the rank-and-file militants of those parties can have significant potential effect. The Soviet bureaucracy and the Western bourgeoisie have one common interest as regards the Soviet opposition: to suppress the news of the existence of left-wing currents. Our task is therefore clear. Readers of INPRECOR are urged to distribute this document at trade-union, student, and other meetings and to vote resolutions of solidarity wherever possible. The document appears here for the first time in print, it has been translated from the Russian.
On March 18, 1971, the newspaper Izvestia published an article entitled "The Faisifiers." If mentioned the fact that the international committee of Amnesty had published a "protest" in the Scandinavian countries against prosecutions in the USSR. This "protest" bore the signatures of well-known public figures from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Further on in the article it mentioned the fact that your newspaper, Land og Folk, had decided to verify the authenticity of the signatures, and it was allegedly revealed that the signatures to the Amnesty Committee's declaration were "without any foundation. " It may well be that the initiators of the declaration were not wholly accurate and that they had not thoroughly coordinated their activities with the people whose signatures were attached to the declaration. Of course, this is an annoying misunderstanding. But it is something else that surprises us. It is incomprehensible to us why the central organ of the Danish Communists should have decided to verify the signatures to the above-mentioned protest. Could *Amnesty International - INPRECOR 16
ТО СОЛ TO THE GANS C ROPE Al OF THE COMMI DENMAI INTERN this possibly have been prompted by any particular partiality for accuracy? Or could it possibly be that Danish Communists find the very idea of possible prosecutions against dissenters in the USSR monstrous and unbelievable? You may possibly not even suspect that in the USSR people are being held in the labor camps of Mordovia and in Vladimir prison not merely for dissenting, but even for holding Marxist communist beliefs. We feel that most Communists in Denmark and in Land og Folk can know nothing of this, otherwise we are quite convinced that the newspaper of the Danish Communists would not merely have confined itself to verifying the authenticity of the signatures on the protest published by the Amnesty Committee, but would itself have protested, in the name of Danish Communists, against prosecutions in the USSR. In connection with this, we Soviet communist political prisoners consider it necessary to bring the following facts to the attention of our comrades, the Danish Communists, to the central organ of the Communist party of Denmark, and also to the public figures in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway whose signatures were attached to the protest.
MUNISTS OF EUROPE AND THE USA,
EDITORIAL BOARDS OF CENTRAL OR-
F THE COMMUNIST PARTIES OF EU-
D THE USA. TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD
CENTRAL ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL
TEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF
K. LAND OG FOLK. COPY TO THE
TIONAL COMMITTEE OF AMNESTY.
In 1964 in Moldavia KGB* agents arrested and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment a group of Marxist Komsomol (All-Union Communist Youth League, the Communist party youth organization - INPRECOR) members called All Power to the Soviets, which was organized by N. Dragosh, director of a secondary school and deputy to the regional soviet, and by two teachers, P. Tarnavsky and Cherdyntsev. In 1965 KGB agents arrested and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment a Leningrad group of Marxist Komsomol members called Union of Communards, which had been producing by photocopy a journal-cum-newspaper called Kolokol (The Bell). The Union of Communards was organized by S. Khakhoev, former secretary of the Komsomal organization at the Technological Institute, and by V. Ronkin, a party activist, S. Khakhaey and V. Ronkin were sentenced to seven years imprisonment followed by three years exile. *KGB - initials stand for State Security Committee, that is, the Soviet secret police.
document tU In 1967 in Alma Ata KGB agents arrested and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment some communists and Komsomol members called the Young Worker group, organized by B, Bykov, a Komsomol member working for the Alma Ata MVD (the Ministry of Internal Affairs; as opposed to the KGB, the MVD carries out the normal functions of a police force, and supervises certain "sensitive" industries, e.g. nuclear industry - INPRECOR), and by G. Deonisadi, a secretary of the committee of the Komsomol at one of the major enterprises in Alma Ata and a candidate for membership to the CPSU (Communist party of the Soviet Union). In 1968 Leningrad agents of the KGB arrested the Marxist group of L. Kvachevsky and Yu. Gendler. The members of this group, which advocated the extension of democratic liberties in the USSR, were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. In 1969 in Tallin the Marxist "Union of Struggle for Political Freedom" group wos arrested. The organizer
USSR of this group, G. Gavrilov, a VMS (navy) officer, was sentenced to six years imprisonment. In 1969 in Ryazan, Saratov and Petrozavodsk KGB agents arrested a young Marxist group called Communard. The organizers of this group, O. Senin, a state attorney, Yu. Budka, 5. Grilyus, O. Frolov, and A. Uchitel, were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. In 1970 in Sverdlovsk KGB agents arrested the Marxist "Urals Worker" group. Five people from this group were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. In 1970 in the town of Voroshilograd agents of the KGB arrested the Marxist group Leninist Ideas in Proctice, Its organizer, A. Chekhovskilch, who edited a section of the newspaper Kerch Worker, was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. In 1970 in the town of Bendery agents of the KGB arrested the Marxist group of Meshirer and Ya. Suslinsky. 1. Meshirer was sentenced to six years imprisonment. Unfortunately, we could continue this list at great length. But we are not aiming to list all the communists who are languishing in prisons and labor camps. For is the important point really to establish how many of them there are? The most Important point is that in all their activities these men were working for a more successful construction of a socialist and communist sociefy, the construction of this society by the best path and without tragic mistakes. The most important point is that if these people were of fault in any way, the faults were made by friends of communism. "I was, 1am, and 1 shall always be a communist. It is only my passionate love for my country, for Soviet authority, and for socialism that has led me to the dock, said Fedorov in 1969 ar his trial, where he was sentenced to six years hard regime for attempting to organize the Union of Communists group. "And even if I am sentenced ten more times, I shall continue, as long as I have the strength, to defend the ideals of communism which c-e so dear to me from attempts to disgrace them before the whole world, turn them into a scorecrow and a laughing stock, whoever may corry out these attempts and whatever these people may call themselves." "Communism is the destiny of all humanity. In all my activities I have been guided by this thought alone and have done everything in my power to attempt to promote this destiny, " said O. Frolov from Ryazan, a member of the Communard group. "I can conceive no purpose in my life other than fighting for the victory of communism, " said the Komsomol member V. Uzlov, one of the Urals Worker group. In their own countries the Communists of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden enjoy political liberty. They can form parties and publish party newspapers, journals, and books; they have their own presses, shops, premises, and all the equipment they need; they are offered the chance of playing some active part in the political life 18 of their country. Now just imagine for a second that you are forbidden to form your own party, to have a press, to publish party newspapers, to have premises and all the equipment you need to carry out your activities properly. Your part in the political life of your country will be confined simply to reoding government newspapers and culogizing official circulars put out by government functionaries. Obviously in such a situation the defenders of communism will gather somewhere on the street, in private flats, in the universities, in factories, in small groups, and discuss the situation in the country, and criticize the regime that deprived them of their elementary democratic and personal liberties, whatever this regime may call itself. In a situation like this the boldest members of your newspaper's editorial board would be forced to meet unofficially somewhere in a private flat to inform each other about the manuscripts of their articles, and then their wives will retype these manuscripts wearing rubber gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints on the paper, Then the members of the Land og Folk editorial board might decide to duplicate the manuscripts of their articles by photocopying them, and might even start mailing these photocopies to Danish cifizens. After that, the boldest editors of this secret newspaper might even decide to appropriate certain ...* from some government press so as to make a printing press - which, even if it was only a small one, would nevertheless be their own - to print their own manuscripts on. And for all these activities they will be arrested and senf to labor camps. Arrested for meeting in groups, for discussing and criticizing, for producing articles, for reading these articles to each other, for duplicating their manuscripts by typing or photocopying them, and for trying to set up a homemade press in the cellar of some docha, in order to duplicate their own manuscripts. Remember the occupation! *But as regards the Soviet Union this is rather a comical situation, " you will say. And you may possibly even smile, comrodes on the editorial board of Land og Folk, You will smile as you sit in your cozy flats, by your own. firesides, or in your armchairs at party offices. But at this very moment we communists in the USSR are being arrested, tried, and confined in labor camps for five to seven years, under strict or special regime, separated from our mothers and fathers, our wives and children, our friends and acquaintances. We are sure, comrodes, that you will not feel like smiling when you read that in the birthploce of V.I. Lenin, Chekhovsky, a Komsomol member who fully admitted his guilt in struggling to accomplish the ideas of Lenin, was sentenced to six years strict regime, and Dragosh, who had advocated extending the power of the Soviets, to seven years strict regime. At a meeting in Yugoslavia Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party of the Soviet Union, said: "We are opposed to *There is a gap here. The word is possibly equipment -INPRECOR
obstructing different countries in the task of building socialism, and all the more opposed to any one country thrusting its own concrete methods of development on another. The main concern for us Communists and Marxists-Leninists is that our countries should belong to one social and economic structure. And that, comrades, in the final analysis, is the most important point." It may be that in its international relations the Communist party of the Soviet Union abides by these principles, but in its own country it has monopolized the right to the truth. "And woe betide those whose ideas do not conform to the official circulars." While they are calling the Yugoslavs their "comrades, *they are detaining numbers of us in labor camps just because we have spread propaganda about their path of development! In no other country do they deal so harshly with dissenters as in ours. We can ascertain this even from the information in the Soviet press. The Soviet newspapers in August and September 1971 contained the following information: on August 8, 1971, Izvestia announced in an article entitled "The Verdict on the Patriots" that on Athens court had ocquitted groups of nineteen and twenty-five prisoners, while the rest "were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, three years, ten months, five months, etc.. " for publishing and distributing underground newspapers and leaflets. In September 1971 Pravda announced: "Two Spanish students, Filip Martines and Roman Sines, were sentenced by a Madrid court to one year and three months imprisonment respecfively for distributing Marxist literature at underground stations in Madrid." In August 1971 Pravda announced in a paragraph under the headline "Verdict of the Izmir Tribunal" that the supreme Tribunal of Izmir had sentenced six men to terms of imprisonment ranging from six months to three years for "conducting communist propaganda." For these kinds of activities we are sentenced as a rule to five to seven years imprisonment under strict regime, sometimes with up to five years exile specified as an additional measure - three years in the case of Ronkin and Khakhaev, organizers of the Union of Communards group, seven years imprisonment plus three years exile in the cose of Senin, the organizer of the Saratov Communard group. Fellow communists of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway! Imagine, for example, a situation like this: An assistant in the philosophy department of one of the universities made o speech at a departmental conference criticizing the Communist party of the Soviet Union and the government and also subjected the present situation in the country to his criticism. For this he was immediately dismissed from his job. For a while he made a living doing occasional jobs. Once he received a letter from his comrade and he wrote several letters in reply, in which he gave some news about himself as well as expressing some criticisms of the political leadership of the CPSU and the present government. On November 7, 1970, he joined some demonstrators holding a banner saying "shame on the present leadership of the CPSU, "for which he was arrested and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
We find it hard to suppose that anything like this could happen anywhere in your countries. But what If this happened in Spain or in Greece? All progressive public opinion, including you Scandinavian communists, would be incensed about this and would come out in protest against such an act of violence against an individual. But this dramatic situation, involving an assistant in the philosophy department, did happen, not in Greece and not in Spain; it happened in our country, in the USSR. Nikolai Vasilevich Bondar, an assistant in the philosophy department at Uzhgorod University and a consistent and convinced Marxist, who announced of his trial, "It was only my love of communism and my faith in it that forced me to do what I did, " was sentenced by the Kiev district court to seven years imprisonment for criticizing the politics of the CPSU at a conference of the philosophy department, for permitting himself, in a number of private letters to a comrade, to make o series of critical remarks directed or the CPSU, and for holding a banner saying "shame on the leadership of the CPSU" in a demonstration on November 7, 1970. And just for this a man was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. But that is monstrous, that is scandclous! This is what we feel, and this, sure, is what you feel too. So complain! Don't keep quiet about it: Address the CPSU - after all, you are not Soviet citizens and your voice means something to them - demanding that they take steps for the immediate release of V. Bondar. We await your help, comrades. Fellow communists of Scandinavial You know from articles in the Soviet press that the American Communist party condemns the cruel medieval system operating in American prisons (see Pravda, August 30, 1970). Obviously, criticism and condemnation of medieval procedures in the prisons of any country deserve all possible attention and support, and if such conditions still exist anywhere we join our voices with those of our American comrades. But for us, who are deprived of almost all information, it is hard to assess the present situation in American prisons. Once there was on article in the Soviet press saying that in one American prison the inmates had gone on hunger strike in protest ogainst being given broken chocolate for breakfast. And at the very same time at Vladimir prison an official directive wos issued forbidding prisoners to receive, even in packen, any foodstuffs except rusks, biscuits, sugar, and sweets -excluding chocolates! And so prisoners in America get chocolate for breakfast, while in prison in the USSR they are not entitled to it even in packets from their relatives, of which they are only permitted two a year, weighing not more than one kilogram each. Until November 1969, political prisoners at Vladimir prison were entitled to one parcel a year weighing up to five kilograms. After November 1969, they were deprived even of this pitiful means of sustaining their health. For a month the prisoners went on hunger strike; the administration created a situation of totally arbitrary rule and deliberately made it difficult to get hold of reading matter; the censors abused their official position; no sheets were issued; a razor became a machine
USSR for shaving people's heads; most of the cells were unheated, and there was no water for washing. As a rule, the lives of political prisoners in labor camps and in Viadimir prison are governed by secret and illegal directives that allow the administration to abuse their official position and create a situation of illegal and arbitrary rule. For example, there is a secret directive containing a list of subjects that are not to be mentioned in letters. Any letter to or from a political prisoner may be confiscated if the censor so desires. We, for instance, are forbidden to describe the conditions of our confinement, the health of our comrades in prison, etc. In practice this means only one topic is permitted, the weather, and even then a letter may be confiscated, under suspicion of "conventionality. " Even a list of foodstuffs allowed (or forbidden) to be sold at the camp or prison foodstall (two to three rubles worth a month!) is checked by the Minister of the Interior. For example, the political prisoners in our labor camp, Zh. Kh.385/17, struggled for several years to get the foodstall to sell onions; but each time this was refused. The administration insisted that the foodstall was only allowed to sell onions in the case of a massive outbreak of influenza. Why is this so? Maybe the USSR has not enough onions? No, the USSR has a lot of onions. Is it not rather that onions are a highly vitaminized foodstuff? Does it not seem to you, comrades, that everything we have just related to you reeks strongly of the middle ages? Because of embezzlement and theft at all levels in the distribution of foodstuffs, and because of the disgusting way the food is cooked, in the labor camps even the officially appointed government norms for feeding are disregarded, and on top of that the government regulafions for prisoners on strict regime have reduced to the minimum their right to receive food parcels from relatives and friends. We are allowed only one parcel weighing 5 kilograms (after serving half our sentence), and two packets weighing 1 kilogram each. But in fact the administration can deprive us of even this minimal means of sustoining our health for any reason if chooses. Privileges and other kinds of material advantages are granted chiefly to people who perform various services for the labor camp administration in reporting rumors and informing on people. It may be incomprehensible to you, comrades, why we devote so much of our attention to parcels and pockets. The fact is that in your countries a prisoner is adequately fed, he does not know hunger, and so a parcel from home comes as a pleasant surprise or, say, as a Christmas present from his friends. We political prisoners in Mordovian labor camps and in Vlodimir prison often experience hunger. From one year to the next our organism is subjected to a latent. - and sometimes, in the first month in prison for example, a direct - starvation process from a deficiency of albumin, vitamins, and minerals. And so for us a food packet or parcel is a way of sustaining our health and keeping up our strength. Another reason why we go hungry is because the food we are given is not always edible. It is disgustingly cooked, and often in cooking it they use food that is not only of low quality but actually maggotty. The fish they give us is usually rotten. 20
Comrades! If is widely known that the regime system for the labor camps wos most thoroughly elaborated by the professional jailers of fascism. You are also probably very well aware that the fascist concentration camps were directly calculated to emaciate and destroy the prisoners. Later these principles were unfortunately adopted os the basis of the concentration camps in the Stalinist era, So it was that these principles were transferred from fascist Germany to our legal consciousness, and in 1960, on the basis of these same principles, the system of maintenance in Soviet prisons was organized. Examples of this system of maintenance are sometimes monstrously absurd. For instance, we are allowed to send only two letters a month, and in prison, one, or even one every two months! And one could cite many such examples. Fellow American communists! You profest against the medieval regulations in American prisons and you demand the release of Angela Davis. While expressing our sympathy with this American communist and joining with you in demanding her release, we nevertheless cannot compare her situation with the conditions under which we are held. We hear that while under interrogation Angela Davis was allowed to meet journalists and even her ally, Comrade H. Winston, national president of the Communist party of the United States, But we are restricted even in our meetings with our closest relatives. And in contravention of all the rules, we are almost always forbidden to meet our relatives and friends, even our distant relatives. We would like to be able to meet in person some communist journalists, for example, from the USA or Scandinavia, so as to tell them directly about the actual conditions under which we are held. The Soviet newspapers tell us that Angela Davis receives many letters from the public in America and throughouf the world. Here various pretexts are frequently used to hold and confiscate letters from our closest relatives and friends. We are not entitled to receive even one of your newspapers. The Soviet newspapers say that Angela Davis gave a letter to a visitor for the Committee of Soviet Women. We are not even allowed to pass over a simple everyday letter during visits. We ask our comrades from Land og Folk to forgive us for our eightmonth delay in writing. But there is no chance of sending you even this "open letter" directly, through official channels. In sending it to you, our comrades, we are "violating the regime" and await harsh punishments. The Soviet newspapers say that a mouse was found in Angela Davis's bed. Here in our barracks, mice are a commonplace sight, and in the therapy wing of the central hospital there are rats running around the wards! The patients are robbed, In the therapy building, for example, they have not been giving out the appointed rations of meat and sugar for many years, and they invent every conceivable excuse for stealing the meat and sugar. Visiting commissions do not notice these blatant thefts. The most elementary laws of dietology are not observed. All the Soviet newspapers reported angrily that George Jackson was killed while escaping from prison. In any
situation this would be a tragic event, and we Soviet communist political prisoners join with you in protesting against such actions by jailers. But in Mordovian labor camps prisoners have more than once been killed from watchtowers, and not only in cases of attempted escape. In 1964, for instance, in one of the Mordovian labor camps they killed a political prisoner called Romashov who was deeply distressed because of some family trouble and had thrown himself in despair one morning against the wire fence. In 1967 they killed a Lithuanian named B. Utkevichius who was seriously unbalanced of the time. In May 1970 they shot with machine guns a deranged prisoner called Maranov who was a patient in the psychiatric wing of the hospital in labor camp Zh. Kh. 385/3. They actually riddled with their machinegun bullets from two watchtowers a man of diminished mental responsibility. The political prisoners of this labor camp tried to protest against such a totally arbitrary act, but they were punished for breaking discipline and the political prisoners V. Aidov, N. Tarnavsky, L. Kvachevsky, S. Zatikyan, and Yurkevich were transferred to Vladimir prison. We believe you, fellow communists and Americans, when you say that some conditions in American prisons exist as vestiges of the middle ages, and once again we protest along with you, and demand of the American government their immediate abolition. But does it not disturb you, fellow communists and Americans, that in the USSR political prisoners are being held under the terrible conditions of the special and strict regime? We are sure that this will stir you to address the leaders of the CPSU demanding the abolition of the strict and special regimes for political prisoners in the USSR, 35 well as radical improvements in the conditions of their confinement in general. We are sure that you will act decisively and in good faith on this issue. Fellow communists and Americans! You, and in particsituation of political prisoners in the Soviet Union does no credit to the CPSU and to the policies adopted by the Soviet leadership in our country. It does no credit either to the international communist movement. It is not only we Soviet communists who bear the moral responsibility for this or that aspect of the political leadership of the CPSU but you too, communists from other countries. Moreover the general secretary of the Communist party of the United States said in his article "The Chinese Dividend on American Imperialism, "which was published in the Soviet Union in the weekly journal Abroad: "The argument that the international workers movement can be based on each country 'attending to its own business' is a false one." By putting up comrade Hall as a presidential candidate for the Communist party of the United States in the forthcoming presidential elections in the USA (and we Soviet communist political prisoners warmly congratulate him) we must suppose that you are presenting him to the American people as a man of principle who, if he criticizes the medieval regimes in American prisons, will not remain indifferent to the situation of political prisoners in the Soviet Union, and may even tell voters and journalists during the electoral campaign what he himself has done as a communist and as a presidential candidate to improve the conditions of political prisoners in the Soviet Union, where there are people in power who call themse Ives communists. Fellow communists! There is considerable evidence that the legal position and the actual conditions of confinement of political prisoners in various countries are in blatant contradiction to the principles laid down as the basis of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man. And so we call on communists of different countries to appeal to the competent international organization with a request to create on international committee: 1) to examine the legal position and the actual conditions of confinement of political prisoners in various countries, including the Soviet Union; 2) to draw up unified international principles and standards for the legal position and conditions of confinement of political prisoners in various countries, including the Soviet Union. There is no doubt that the process of reinforcing morality and social justice in the world involves controdictions and clashes of the most diverse social and political tendencies, each of which aspires to bring its own concepfion of morality and social justice to the lives of the people. This is why circumstances sometimes arise in the world such that when the representatives of one or another tendency sit in the offices of power, representatives of another tendency, or even representatives of the same tendency who are proposing somewhat different methods, are held in prison cells. But when circumstances change, the people in the offices of power change places with the people in prison. Obviously, the state powers of various countries recognize the dramatic effect of this process, and periodically carry out an amnesty, which means that in the course of history amnesty has been established as an institution. In 1971 there were amnesties for political prisoners in Bolivia, Peru, Pakistan, and Uruguay. Early in October 1971, Soviet radio reported that amnesty had been declared for political prisoners in Spain. In the Soviet Union there hos been no amnesty for political prisoners, as an act of law, since 1927, and we would like to know what this means and what communists of Europe and the USA think about this. We Soviet communist political prisoners find it hard to believe, despite our experiences, that the leaders of the Soviet Union who call themselves communists are less humane than the rulers of Spain! In 1971 President of the Council of Ministers A. Kosygin proposes to pay an official visit to Denmark and Norway. We hope, fellow Danish and Norwegian communists, that you will ask him this question, and perhaps the other questions too that we have raised in essence in this "open letter." Fellow communists of Europe and the United States! We Soviet communist political prisoners ask you to publish this letter in your newspapers. We also make this appeal in person to our comrades on the editorial board of Land og Folk, to whom we apologize once again for the delay in replying. We Soviet communist political prisoners are sure that now that you communists of Europe and the
The struggle of the Marxist opposition for the regeneration of Soviet society is taking place under extremely difficult conditions. The Stalinist purges physically liquidated an entire generation of Marxists, striking a heavy blow at the continuity of the Marxist tradition.
The bureaucracy has placed in vaults all important writings of the early Soviet period.
Censorship blocks out news of world revolutionary developments, which could serve as a source of encouragement and support for the Marxist opposition. To complicate matters, the only news from "outside" that reaches the USSR with any regularity is the voice of
The time is long overdue for Marxists in the West to attempt to break this conspiracy of silence. An important step in this direction is the appearance of Na Levo (To The Left), a series of brochures in the Russian language. The first issue of this series is out. It contains the first Russian translation of Kuron and Modzelewski's Open Letter to the Party, an important analysis and programmatic document on East Europe. This issue is in keeping with one of the basic aims of this series: to inform Soviet readers of revolutionary developments
Other issues of the brochure series will provide analyses of anticapitalist and anti-imperiia list struggles, reproduce Marxist writings of the 1920s not available in the USSR, and print original contributions analyzing current developments in the USSR. It is hoped by the editors of Na Levo that this series can serve as a medium of dialogue between Marxists
Readers of INPRECOR with a knowledge of Russian are urged to order copies of Na Levo
USSR
United States know the true situation in the Soviet Union you will do everything in your power to change it. We
Soviet communist polifical prisoners are sure that you will come out in defense of the rights of political prisoners in the Soviet Union, and particularly those of communist political prisoners.
With Communist Greetings,
Political prisoners:
YURI IVANOVICH FEDOROV, before being arrested member of the CPSU, a lawyer and an official in the
Ministry of the Interior
NIKOLAI VASILEVICH BONDAR, teacher in the philosophy department of Uzhgorod University
GENNADII VLADIMIROVICH GAVRILOV, before arrest a member of the CPSU, official of the Ministry of the Interior, engineer
ALEXANDR KONSTANTINOVICH CHEKHOVSKY, beimperialism: Rodio Liberty, Radio America, etc.
in other countries of the Soviet bloc.
in the East and the West.
by writing to:
Paris 75004, France.
fore arrest a member of the All-Union Young Communist League (Komsomal), secretary of a department in the trust company "Voroshi lovgradzhi listroi" We non-Communist political prisoners in the USSR, who are not adherents of Marxist doctrine and so in disagreement with a series of assumptions in the "'Open Letter" sign this letter, with the agreement of our comrades in prison who are communists, as an authentic document, protesting agoinst the violation of democratic standards in our country, and against the difficult conditions of political prisoners in the USSR. Political prisoners: NIKOLAI BITKOVICH IVANOV, before arrest a teacher at Leningrad State University YURI TIMOFEEVICH GALANSKOV, editor of the anthology "Phoenix" VLADIMIR KONSTANTINOVICH PAVLENKOV, historian Société Internationale d'Editions Departement d'Europe orientale 10 Impasse Guéménée
THE STRUGGLE