Workers Against the Gulag. The New Opposition in the Soviet Union

146 Pages·1979·18.8 MB·English

by  Haynes V.

Workers Against the Gulag

Workers Against the Gulag
The New Opposition in the Soviet Union
Edited and introduced by
Viktor Haynes and Olga Semyonova
Preface by Richard Barnet
Pluto f§ P§ Press
First published 1979
by Pluto Press Limited
Unit 10 Spencer Court, 7 Chalcot Road,
London NW18LH
Copyright © Pluto Press 1979
ISBN 086104 072 4
Cover designed by David King
Cover picture: Alexander Podrabinek being arrested
by plain-clothes men in Moscow, April 1977
Copyright Peter Reddaway, reproduced with permission
Typeset by Red Lion Setters,
Holborn, London
This edition distributed in the USA
by Southwest Book Services Inc.,
4951 Top Line Drive,
Dallas, Texas 75247
Preface copyright ©Richard Barnet 1979
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Cox & Wyman Ltd, London, Reading and Fakenham
Contents
Glossary
Preface by Richard Barnet ★ ix
General Introduction: The Soviet Working Class ★ 5
1: The Right to Organise
Introduction: The Free Trade Union Association
of the Soviet Working People ★ 16
Selected Documents of the Free Trade Union Association ★ 23
Document 1:
Open Letter to International Opinion, 20 May 1977 ★ 23
Document 2:
Open Letter to International Opinion, 18 September 1977 ★ 24
Document 3:
Appeal to the ILO and to Trade Unions in the West ★ 29
Document 4:
Statute of the Free Trade Union Association ★ 36
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Klebanov: A Biography ★ 38
Members of the Free Trade Union Association:
Case Histories ★ 45
Other Known Members of
the Free Trade Union Association ★ 66
2: The Right to Strike
Introduction ★ 73
Revolt in Novocherkassk ★ 76
Document 1: Never to be Forgotten ★ 76
Two Further Accounts ★ 78
Vyshgorod ★ 81
Document 2:
Appeal of the Residents of Vyshgorod
to the Central Committee of the Communist Party ★ 81
3: The Right to Protest
Introduction ★ 87
Document 1:
Appeal to the Activists of the Communist and Socialist Parties
from Nikolay Andreyevich Yevgrafov, Ukrainian ★ 89
Document 2:
Open Letter to Harry Bridges from Gennady Bogolyubov ★ 91
Document 3:
Letter to George Meany from Bohdan Rebryk ★ 95
4: The Right to Emigrate
Introduction ★ 98
Document 1:
Four Workers Who Want to Emigrate ★ 101
Document 2:
Open Letter to Brezhnev from Leonid Sery ★ 109
Document 3:
Open Letter to George Meany and American Workers
from Leonid Sery ★ 112
Document 4:
To the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions:
Leonid Sery’s Resignation ★ 115
5: Solidarity
Introduction ★ 117
Document:
Appeal to the Workers
of the Renault Factories in France ★ 118
Notes ^120
Glossary
The KGB and MVD:
Since Stalin’s death the Soviet security services have been divided into
the KGB (Committee of State Security) and MVD (Ministry of Internal
Affairs). The MVD is responsible for the criminal police and controls the
Internal Troops. The KGB, as the political police proper, is responsible for
secret intelligence, counter-espionage and internal security. It controls the
Border Guards.
Nationalities and the Structure of the USSR:
The Soviet Union is a patchwork of different nationalities. Geographers
and philologists have identified nearly 200 distinct languages and peoples
within its borders. In 1970 Great Russians were 129 million out of a total
population of nearly 242 million. The constitutional structure of the USSR
is federal. It is composed of 15 Union Republics, each of which has the legal
right to secede from the Soviet Union. Some in turn include Autonomous
Republics (of which there are 22), Autonomous Regions (eight) and
National Areas (ten). By far the biggest Union Republic is the Russian
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic (RSFSR), which stretches right across
the USSR and embraces 16 Autonomous Republics, five Autonomous
Regions and 10 National Areas.
The Procurator’s Office:
The Procurator-General of the USSR and the procurators subordinate
to him are responsible for ensuring that state agencies, public organisations
and private citizens observe the law and for prosecuting breaches of the law.
The Procurator-General is appointed by, and responsible to, the Supreme
Soviet of the USSR and is, in theory, independent of the Council of
Ministers and the KGB. According to article 58 of the Constitution, ‘citizens
of the USSR have the right to lodge a complaint against the actions of
officials, state bodies and public bodies’. These complaints are addressed to
the Procurator’s Office.
Samizdat:
Literally ‘self-print’ — the literature secretly produced and distributed
by Soviet dissidents.

Preface
by Richard Barnet
The human rights issue in our day has become a political weapon.
The political sensibilities of a writer or a politician can be immedi¬
ately grasped depending upon whether he stresses deprivation of
rights in Iran, Chile, and Indonesia or in Cambodia, Cuba, or the
Soviet Union. Upon taking office, the Carter Administration
launched a supposedly global human rights campaign but its
primary thrust was to develop what Zbigniew Brzezinski called an
‘ideological weapon’ against the Soviet Union. The benefits of the
official human rights concern on the climate in certain countries,
particularly in Latin America are undeniable. I have been told by
persons living in some of the most oppressive dictatorships in the
world that without the expression of presidential concern for
human rights the situation would be much worse. But the Carter
human rights policy is highly ‘pragmatic’, a word we use in this
country as a euphemism for opportunistic, and it is certainly incon¬
sistent. The license to oppress without White House criticism
conveyed to the Shah of Iran as his soldiers fired into the crowds
symbolized the practical limits of the policy that, according to Vice
President Mondale, was supposed to make Americans ‘feel good’
again about their country’s role in the world.
As a domestic tool human rights was calculated to achieve
several results. It was an issue for presidential leadership. The
occupant of the White House could recapture control of foreign
policy from the Congress that had encroached on executive
prerogatives during the latter stages of the Vietnam War. It was
also an instrument for rebuilding a national foreign policy concen¬
sus that had been gravely weakened in the war. Liberals liked the
focus on rights and conservatives liked the focus on Russia.
Finally, the human rights issue provided an opening for launching
an ideological offensive against the Soviet Union to counter what
some Administration advisors called the ‘free ride’ the Soviets had
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