Politburo decision. Publish a brief report in Moscow evening newspaper about trial of Vladimir Bukovsky, Vadim Delaunay and Yevgeny Kushev, arrested after 22 January 1967 protest on Pushkin Square (total 4 pp). [R 4 September 1967, Pb 1393]

Contains joint KGB-Central Committee Agitprop Department memorandum (2 September 1967, 2241-A), pp. 2-3, and draft text of newspaper announcement, p 4.

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[Page one of four]

Publication of a report “In the Moscow City Court”

Proposed Comrades Andropov, Stepakov [1]

Voted

Comrades Brezhnev – for

Voronov – for

Kirilenko – for

Kosygin – on vacation [added by hand]

Mazurov – no comment

Pelshe – agreed

Podgorny – on vacation [added by hand]

Polyansky – for

Suslov – on vacation [added by hand]

Shelepin – for

Shelest – on vacation [added by hand]

Original

P 1393, 4 September 1967

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[page two, 2 September 1967]

SECRET

To CPSU Central Committee

On 1 September the 3-day trial of Bukovsky, Kushev and Delaunay at the Moscow City Court came to an end. They were arrested in January this year and charged under Article 190-3 of disturbing public order in Moscow. All of them were organisers and participants in a demonstration on Pushkin Square on 22 January this year. Previously they repeatedly took part in various types of anti-social actions, they tried to establish contact with the NTS, a foreign anti-Soviet organisation, in order to use the latter’s press for publishing ideologically harmful works, sent abroad from the Soviet Union.

All three admitted their guilt during the investigation and the trial.

The accused Bukovsky, guilty before else of being the main organiser of this anti-social demonstration, tried during his speech in court to give the trial a political aspect. He declared that the authorities and the courts were acting in an unconstitutional way. His behaviour in court showed a clear wish to be reported in the foreign press not as an anti-social criminal but as a person accused of a political crime.

Delaunay and Kushev offered sincere repentance and asked the court to take into account their desire to pursue an honest life in future.

In accordance with the law Bukovsky was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in a corrective-labour colony while Kushev and Delaunay were given a one year suspended sentence.

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[Page three]                                                                                                          2.

Since reports, distorting the nature of this trial, have appeared in the West it would seem reasonable to publish a short report (attached) in the “Vechernyaya Moskva” newspaper.

We request your agreement

ANDROPOV                   STEPAKOV

2 September 1967, No 2241-A

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[page four]

IN THE MOSCOW CITY COURT

From 30 August to 1 September the Moscow City Court considered the criminal case of Bukovsky, V.K., Delaunay, V.N., and Kushev, E.I., persons without a fixed occupation, arrested for disturbing public order in Moscow.

All the accused, charged under Article 190-3 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, admitted their guilt and told the court about their criminal actions. Their guilt was confirmed by many witnesses.

Bukovsky has not worked anywhere for a lengthy period and has been warned by the authorities many times for committing anti-social, hooligan actions. He is also guilty that Delaunay and Kushev were sitting in the dock beside him.

The court sentenced Bukovsky to three years imprisonment. Delaunay and Kushev were given a one year conditional sentence.

[signatures of Andropov and Stepakov]

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NOTES

[1] V.I. Stepakov, head of the Central Committee Department for Agitation and Propaganda.

[2] NTS – The People’s Labour Union (Narodny trudovoi soyuz), an émigré organisation based in West Germany. For Bukovsky’s assessment of the NTS, see Judgement in Moscow, Chapter 3.11, “The NTS and the dissident movement“.

General

• 1. Notes and additions by translator and editor are bracketed, thus [ ];
• 2. Text added by hand is indicated in italic script;
• 3. when a handwritten phrase, figure or word has been inserted in a previously typed document it is indicated by underlined italic script.

Translation, John Crowfoot