11 January 1976, 81-A [3.2; 2.2] – KGB MEMORANDUM. Measures to prevent an “illegal” commemorative meeting in honour of the 1825 Decembrist Rebellion [R: 11 January 1976, 81-A]. One page.

===============================

SUMMARY

In an 11 January 1976 memorandum to the Central Committee, Andropov reported how the KGB had prevented a “hostile demonstration in Leningrad” the previous month.

On 14 and 25 December a group had tried to hold a “provocative gathering”, supposedly to honour the memory of the 1825 Decembrist Uprising. The organisers were “avant-garde” poets and artists, who intended to gather 150 people and unveil banners and, by means of other anti-social activities, to give the event an anti-Soviet character.

Some of the organisers wanted to leave the USSR and were using this event, which had been agreed with Sakharov, to acquire a “political reputation”.

*

A contemporary account in the Chronicle‘s December 1975 issue (CCE 38.19 [31]) reports that the organisers subsequently requested permission to hold such an event and noted a rather different response by law-enforcement and publishers.

JC, December 2024

=============================================