Source: https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2014/05/10/15-11-samizdat-update/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 14:58:54+00:00

Document:
Pointing out the continuing repressions of a political nature in the USSR and instances of “the grossest violation of the most elementary human rights in our country”, the author urges Theodorakis to protest against the violation of democracy in the Soviet Union.
This essay assesses the destiny [sudba] and work of A. Amalrik as an important contribution to the recent history of “the independent word in Russia”.
In the conditions of a totalitarian regime, with the rule not of law but of custom, it is as essential as it is difficult to achieve such freedom. It is not simply a question of overcoming the “fear reflex”, but of real independence both from compulsory norms and from bogeys of every sort. An a priori, uncritical acceptance of existing prohibitions is, generally speaking, inherent in the Russian national make-up, especially of the traditional prohibition against “washing one’s dirty linen in public”. This is so even despite the general dissatisfaction with that “dirty linen”. Independent thought precludes an uncritical attitude. “Amalrik is washing our dirty linen in public” – and that is “the only promising long-term course of action” which will be able to get rid of the dirt.
Internal independence presupposes a high level of objectivity in one’s judgments and arguments. In his works Amalrik shows genuine respect and tolerance towards his opponents, and dignity both in the defence of his views and in his refusal to impose them on others.
His view of the future is ultimately pessimistic, but this pessimism, in combination with internal freedom, leads not to the destruction of his personality but, on the contrary, to its affirmation. He remains himself with respect to the regime and to the various opposition streams, embodying one of them himself: “the position of internal freedom”.
On A. Amalrik‘s essays see CCE 11.14, item 1 [“An open letter to Anatoly Kuznetsov”], CCE 12.10, item 8 [Will the Soviet Union survive until 1984?] and CCE 13.9, item 10 [“The foreign correspondents in Moscow”].
The manuscript is of an autobiographical nature. In order to enter the Suvorov [military] Academy he turns from an average pupil into a first-class one, and in the Academy he is most highly thought of. But two months before being commissioned he leaves the Academy.
Vatslav Leonovich Sevruk is a junior research officer in the sociology section of the philosophy department of the History Institute of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.
In his letter Arkady Belinkov [CCE 14.11, item 23] sharply attacks the pro-Soviet orientation of western liberal intellectuals and points out that it is impossible to fight for democracy in the west by holding the Soviet Union up as an example. Any compromise, any co-operation with the Soviet regime by the western intelligentsia Belinkov regards as treachery against the common cause of democracy. Hopes that the Soviet regime will change, or that it will in some way become more moderate when younger and more educated men come to power, Belinkov regards as illusions and wishful thinking.
The only thing which can be done is, in Belinkov‘s words, “to prevent them trampling to death everything that is alive [vytoptat vsyo zhivoye]”.
The letter is dedicated to the second anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by forces of the Warsaw Pact.
The early period of the Second World War and the Soviet Union.
Stalin and Hitler in recent history.
Discussion of these subjects would help towards a better understanding of the history of the world over the last forty years. The author draws attention to the violation of human rights in the USSR and as an example enumerates more than forty people who have been arrested or sentenced on political grounds.
The epigraph to the poem is an excerpt from the memoirs of Marshal Zhukov, describing the case of a pointless order of Stalin’s which cost the lives of two companies. The poem is dedicated to the memory of the victims of Stalinist tyranny.
Addressed to [writers] Yu. Dombrovsky, Yu. Dubyago, P. Dudochkin, E. Gerasimov, A. Zhigulin, T. Zhuravlyov, V. Kaverin, R. Kutui, V. Maksakov, G. Pautkin, F. Svetlov, A. Taktan and L. Topchy///.
In his emotional appeal to his “old comrades” the author writes that together with the bust of Stalin placed next to Lenin’s mausoleum, neo-Stalinism is appearing and becoming more and more active, as has been especially clear at the political trials of the last two years. But, writes the author, the democratic movement in the USSR is also growing, although at present it is still very weak. Realising that the choice of the method of struggle against tyranny depends on a person’s character and on his material circumstances, the author calls for the initiation of a campaign for the release of the victims of the famous political trials and for the re-examination of the cases of all political prisoners. Otherwise our descendants will not pardon our inactivity and silence.
An essay in the form of an open letter to A. Solzhenitsyn.
V. Gusarov writes that many problems are not even mentioned in the article, and that its author V. Perelman deals only with the lawbreaker’s problem of finding employment, his difficulties with the residence permit, his everyday troubles. No light is thrown on the methods of the investigating bodies, the fate of his co-defendants, etc.
The letter is written in an ironic manner, in the form of a pamphlet.
It asks them to pass a law on repatriation.
This volume contains individual and collective appeals by Soviet Jews, relating mainly to the period May-June 1970, addressed to various public figures and statesmen of the entire world and to international organisations.
The authors of the letters and appeals live in Riga, Vilnius, Minsk, Leningrad, Moscow, Kiev and other cities. The addressees include: the UN General Secretary U Thant; the chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet; the President of the International Red Cross; the Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir; the chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, A. N. Kosygin; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the UN Human Rights Commission; the Presidium of the 14th Congress of the Komsomol; the USSR Procurator-General; and the parliaments of the member-nations of the Convention for the Liquidation of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
Some of the letters end with a long list of people who are trying to obtain permission to be re-united with their parents, who live in Israel.
This issue also contains a letter from five Leningrad Jews of May 1970. The signatories include L. Kaminsky, V. Mogilyover and D. Chernoglaz, who were arrested on 15 June, and G. Vertlib, arrested a month later; a letter from 37 Leningrad Jews written on the eve of 15 June; letters by G, Vertlib, G. Shur and V. Boguslavsky; L. Kaminsky‘s correspondence with Pravda on the subject of bringing up children in accordance with Jewish tradition.
This issue closes with a letter from Victor Boguslavsky (now arrested) to the Procurator-General, in which he describes the “crime” committed by his comrades.
“The searches were being carried out with the aim of confiscating the ‘instruments of the crime’. The confiscated ‘instruments’ turned out to be letters and post-cards from close friends in Israel, and also any texts containing the words ‘Jew’ and ‘Jewish’ … In the course of the search a ‘weapon’ was also discovered – seven cartridges for a small-calibre training rifle in the home of Grigory Butman (G. Butman formerly worked as a police investigator).

References: V. 
 V. 

V. 
 V. 
 V. 
 V.