That same month, Peter Vins was arrested and sentenced to forced labor. Many other friends and associates of Ginzburg's have sought to testify on Ginzburg's behalf during the investigation and at trial. In each instance, their offers have been rejected, thus violating Article 46 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Finally, Kiril Vladimirovich Uspensky, another friend of Ginzburg's provided this description of Alexander Ginzburg's life just before he was arrested, giving us an unusual insight into KGB surveillance techniques:

"Ginzburg was surrounded by spies using the most modern technology, eavesdropping devices inside the house, highly sensitive telescopes and microphones from the houses across the road from his. He was being constantly summoned to the militia and the KGB offices where they would try to intimidate him.

"But this sick man never lost his characteristic courage and spiritual strength, and when friends made gloomy prophecies predicting his arrest, he would counter with jokes."

These are but a few of the incidents reported to me over the past 16 months. Just last week, I spoke with Aleksandr Ginzburg's mother over the telephone in Moscow. She is over 70 and in very poor health, and she fears that she may die without ever seeing her son again. She told me that she had learned that Alik would be charged with a violation of Article 70 of the Soviet Criminal Code, that is, distributing anti-Soviet material, and that he would receive the maximum sentence as a second offender of 10 years imprisonment under the most punishing conditions-the notorious "special regime"-followed by 5 years of exile in a distant province should he survive his imprisonment. His mother was totally distraught.

More recently, I learned from Andrei Sakharov that the telephones of Alik Ginzburg's wife and his mother had only recently been disconnected to isolate them from all communication in anticipation of the trial. Dr. Sakharov told us further that Alik would be tried in Kaluga far away from the reach of the Western press, and that all friends and correspondents would be prevented from traveling to Kaluga to attend the trial. As with the trial of Yuri Orlov, only a handful of selected officials will be permitted to attend, and, according to Dr. Sakharov, there is considerable doubt whether Ginzburg's immediate family will even be allowed entry into the courtroom.

That Aleksandr Ginzburg is innocent of any wrongdoing needs no great elaboration. That he has become a blazing beacon of hope and courage to free men and women everywhere goes without saying.

As Director of the Russian Social Fund, Aleksandr Ginzburg's crime has been to feed the hungry, to care for those in need, and to inspire those otherwise without hope. As a member of the Helsinki Watch Group, Ginzburg's crime has been to speak the truth, openly and honestly. As a devoutly religious man, Ginzburg's crime has been to serve his God and love his fellow man.

If the Soviet Union carries out its plan to punish Aleksandr Ginzburg, it will itself guarantee that people throughout the world and for all time will remember what Aleksandr Ginzburg's crimes really were. As Chief Justice John Marshall once wrote:

"There are certain great principles of justice whose authority is universally acknowledged. Nations may differ from each other in condition, and that of the same nation may change by the revolutions of time, but the principles of justice are the same. They rest upon a base which will remain beyond the endurance of time."

Before concluding, I would like to speak briefly as an American citizen.

With the arrest, prosecution, trial and sentencing of Aleksandr Ginzburg, Yuri Orlov and Anatoly Shcharansky, the Soviet Union will have proven to the world that it has no intention of abiding by its pledges to respect human rights as set forth in the Helsinki Accords.

The Soviet Union began ignoring its human rights promises the day after the Helsinki Agreement was signed. Emigration was curtailed, dissidents were rounded up and jailed, and refuseniks were harassed.

What did we get for agreeing to the ratification of boundaries in Eastern Europe that the Soviets wanted so badly-a horse laugh.

The Helsinki Accord is a farce and a charade. It is time it is recognized as such.

The Soviets have broken their word. We should notify the world that the U.S. signature is nullified.

I therefore urge the Congress of the United States to pass a resolution urging the President to take such action.

[Materials submitted by Mr. Williams follow:]

(The Russian originals of most of the documents which follow are available from the Commission files)

DOCUMENT No. 1

The arrest of Alexander Ginzburg, main representative of the Russian Social Fund in the USSR, is not the usual act of violence against a single dissident, it reflects the decision of the Soviet authorities to crush by hunger and poverty hundreds of families of persecuted and imprisoned people and to force thousands of others into fear and silence. This act of vi ence concerns Western people more than can be imagined at first glance. It is ssential link in the unflinching total preparation of the Soviet home front so that it should not in any way hinder the external offensive conducted so successfully during these years and which will yet be broadened: against the strength, the spirit and the very existence of the West.

February 4, 1977.

ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN.

DOCUMENT No. 2

To: The Substitute Procurator in charge of controlling the KGB.
To: The KGB prison administration.

From: Irina S. Zholkovskaya, Moscow, Ul. Volgina 13 kv. 31.

COMPLAINT

Concerning the behavior of the administration of the Kaluga KGB prison for pre-trial investigation.

On February 3, 1977 the KGB in Moscow arrested my husband Alexander I. Ginzburg and on the same night they sent him to Kaluga, to prison No. IZ 37/1. On the next day, February 4, I took a food-parcel to the prison; a month later, on March 4, I took there my second parcel (one a month is allowed.) I live in Moscow, with my two little children, 2 and 4 years old, so I have to buy all the food products for these parcels in Moscow. In purchasing such products I follow the indications given on the list of allowed products which hangs in the Kaluga prison, precisely in the room where you have to go to leave your parcel. On April 5 I again went to the Kaluga prison with my monthly parcel and to my great surprise I discovered that they would not accept products which they had taken on the previous occasions. They would not accept cookies bought in Moscow (declaring that they were "home-made" and contained raisins) a 100-gram can of fish (on the grounds that "the doctor doesn't allow that", cheese (because it was soft cheese) candy (because it hadn't been bought in Kaluga) parsley and dill (without any explanations). The prison employee receiving the parcel told me that sausage was not allowed unless it was Soviet made and that if I brought Finnish sausage (as on the previous occasions) they would not take it. In Moscow stores you sometimes can buy Hungarian apples or Bulgarian tomatoes; does that mean that the Kaluga prison authorities will not allow them either? I also brought some school-copybooks for my husband, but they refused to take them, although copybooks are listed as permitted. Their explanation was: if it is necessary, he will get some from us. They also refused to take a pair of trousers, though I explained that he had been arrested wearing a pair of old and almost torn trousers.

Finally they proceeded to explain to me that they would accept only products bought in Kaluga. This is particularly absurd if you consider that there is almost nothing you can buy in Kaluga. Thus, in the large supermarket Voskhod the saleswoman told me on April 5 that they had not had any cheese for about three months.

I tried to get in touch with the prison manager Kuznetsov and with investigator Oselkov but they both refused to see me.

This situation is particularly cruel in view of the fact that my husband was sick when he was arrested. He had been treated in hospital for pneumonia, a TB condition and a bad case of stomach ulcer and his treatment had not been completed.

The behavior of the Kaluga KGB and prison personnel is inhumane and illegal. I demand your intervention. I also ask you to give the necessary instruc

tions so that the products which were illegally refused on April 5 be accepted without waiting until the next scheduled date. This is necessary in view of my husband's physical condition.

April 11, 1977.

(Signed) IRINA ZHOLKOVSKAYA.

DOCUMENT No. 3

To: The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

COMPLAINT

On June 21, 1976 (i.e. 17 months ago) my home telephone was suddenly disconnected. My phone number was 129-46-35. I never received any explanations as to the reasons why it was done although I complained both to the town sector and to the city telephone exchange, as well as (repeatedly) to the ministry of communications. I have to assume that the telephone was disconnected after my husband, Alexander Ginzburg (now arrested and charged with anti-Soviet propaganda under article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR) had talked to Natalya Solzhenitsyn, wife of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the writer who was exiled from the USSR. However, none of the offices where I complained ever gave me any official reply. During the past months I have been asking in vain that my telephone be connected again. I live alone with two small children (5 and 3 years) and I need the telephone badly. For 17 months I have been paying the monthly amount due as if my phone had been working, because I know of cases when telephones had been taken away because people had not thought it neecssary to pay for a disconnected telephone: this was used as an excuse not to restore the connection.

I know that according to Soviet internal regulations the authorities may disconnect telephones if citizens are using them for conversations which “damage the prestige of the Soviet state." It is also true that Soviet law forbids to listen in on citizens' conversations. However, be that as it may, the same internal regulations prescribe a maximum period of disconnection of one year. If a telephone is being taken away forever, which may happen for the same reason, the authorities are required to notify the owners. I was never informed or notified of any such decision. When I managed, after many vain attempts, to be received by the manager of the telephone exchange of the Cheremushkino town sector, he told me that my telephone would be connected after June 21, 1977. Nothing happened however. I have been writing and sending endless complaints on this matter. According to Soviet law, official institutions are required to answer citizens' complaints within two weeks, one month if it is a particularly difficult case. Obviously laws are not the same for everybody. I received no answer to my letters to the telephone administration or to my complaints to he ministry of communications. Therefore I have to ask you to do something about this matter, so that this illegal situation comes to an end and my telephone will finally be given back to me. I am sending a copy of this letter to the commission on violations of postal and telephone rules at the Belgrade conference which is checking the implementation of the provisions of the Helsinki Agreement, which was signed also by the President of the Supreme Soviet L. I. Brezhnev. November 30, 1977.

IRINA ZHOLKOVSKAYA.

DOCUMENT No. 4

To: The Head of Prison IZ 37/1

Kuznetsov.

From: I. S. Zholkovskaya.

STATEMENT

On February 3, 1977 my husband A. I. Ginzburg was arrested under article 70/2 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and jailed in your prison. 10 months have passed since then. During all this time I repeatedly tried to send him a pair of trousers and a shirt. He was wearing old clothes when he was arrested and by now they must be completely torn. I also wanted to send him a jersey slack suit. I was continuously denied permission to send him any of these things.

32-057-78-2

On December 5 I shall be sending my husband his monthly package. I ask you to allow me to send my husband:

(1) a pair of trousers;

(2) a shirt; and

(3) a slack suit.

If the reason for the previous denials is that fact that my husband has other things which he does not need, I am ready to take them all.

IRINA ZHOLKOVSKAYA.

P.S. On December 5, Major Kuznetsov gave the necessary order and after a ten-month struggle the prison administration finally accepted from me, to be given to Ginzburg, a pair of trousers, a shirt, one change of underwear and one pair of warm socks.

DOCUMENT No. 5

Below is a summary of official complaints, lodged by Yuri Mnyukh with the Motor Vehicle Commissioner of the Kaluga Region and by Vera Lashkova with the Commissioner, with the head of the KGB, Andropov, and with the Special Administrative Supervisory Sector of the Central Committee of the communist party. (The full texts in Russian are in the Commission files.)

These two individuals were among those who used to drive Mrs. Ginzburg to Kaluga whenever she had the use of a car, on the days when she was permitted to leave a parcel for her husband at the prison (once a month). Obviously her movements were watched closely enough for the KGB to know exactly when, how and with whom she would be going. Instructions were issued to the Kaluga police so that every time a police car would meet Mrs. Ginzburg's party outside of town and start harassing them there and then. They would be stopped and the driver issued a warning for some fantastic reason: speeding when they were driving at 30 km. an hour, or stopping in a forbidden place after the policeman had signalled them to stop there, etc. A warning in the Soviet Union is issued by punching a specially designated part of the driver's license. Once it has been punched three times, the license is revoked, so that it is a very serious threat; in this case it was used to frighten off those who would help Mrs. Ginzburg and to harass her and her friends. All the complaints point out that every time police blatantly violated Soviet laws, but they were obviously obeying orders which they can neither contradict nor resist.

DOCUMENT No. 6

STATEMENT FOR THE PRESS BY IRINA ZHOLKOVSKAYA GINZBURG AND IRINA ORLOVA

Eight months have passed since our husbands were jailed. We don't know whether they are alive or not, whether they are in good health, we don't know what the charges against them are. We don't know anything at all about their fate.

Fully disdaining public protest in our country and throughout the world, the Soviet authorities silently prepare the lynching of Alexander Ginzburg and Yuri Orlov.

On October 4, the opening day of the Belgrade conference, we shall go on a hunger strike.

We ask for the release of our husbands.

We ask that the inhuman treatment inflicted upon our husbands and their families finally be stopped. September 26, 1977.

IRINA ZHOLKOVSKAYA.
IRINA VALITOVA ORLOVA.

On the opening day of the Belgrade Conference which is meant to check the implementation of the Helsinki agreements, October 4, 1977, we proclaim a oneday hunger strike to protest against the arrest and sentencing of several members of the Helsinki agreement monitoring groups in the USSR and also as a sign of our solidarity with all those persecuted for their ideas and their faith.

(Signatures: 54 names).

DOCUMENT No. 7

OPEN LETTER FROM ALEXANDER GINZBURG'S MOTHER

I am addressing all people of good will in our country and abroad. My son Alexander Ginzburg has spent one year in the KGB's torture chambers. I know absolutely nothing about him. I don't know what his health condition is or how he is being treated.

I have lived sixty years under the Soviet regime and this long experience has made me wise. I know very well what terror means. They now call it Stalinist terror. People kept disappearing around me. Later on they were rehabilitated, that is the state itself admitted that they had been innocent. All this gives me sufficient grounds for frightening prognoses.

Alik was sick when they arrested him, barely a week after his discharge from hospital. The diagnosis had been a very preoccupying one, they were talking about tubercular condition. His temperature would rise every day. Besides, his old ailments-stomach ulcer and inflammation of the pancreas-had again become acute. Both are a consequence of his term in the Vladimir prison. You can well understand how terrible it is for us not to know anything about his physical condition for an entire year. All the thoughts that come to one's mind during endless sleepless nights and days full of anguish. Once a month we take a food parcel to the prison: ten pounds of food products allowed by the prison rules. We leave our parcel at the prison office window. That's all we can do. And hope that he will be given our parcel. We cannot be sure because we never get a message from him and they don't even show us his signature as confirmation of receipt.

For a long time, ten months, we had applied in vain for permission to send him some clothes and underwear. For ten months such permission had been denied. And so, of course, a terrible doubt would arise: Is he still alive? In November 1977 they allowed us to send him a pair of trousers and a shirt. But there is nothing to confirm that he has received them.

My daughter-in-law Irina does all she can possibly do. Her efforts are ceaseless but, alas, vain. My grandchildren, their children, are growing. Sanya is now 5, Alyosha is 3. They are beginning to understand many things. They are waiting for their father. And we all live only on hope. Justice must triumph. We deeply trust in your help. February 2, 1978.

LUDMILA GINZBURG.

DOCUMENT No. 8

(Copy for Mr. Williams)

To: The Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.

Article 34 of the Basic Principles of Criminal Procedure (dated December 25, 1958) proclaims that pre-trial imprisonment may not exceed 9 months. No law and no Article of the constitution foresees any legal possibility of an extension of this period.

Article 156 of the Constitution of the USSR proclaims all citizens' equality before the law and before the courts.

In view of the above, my husband's pre-trial imprisonment in excess of nine months is unlawful and a violation of our constitution.

My husband, a very sick man, has been in jail for over 11 months. During these 11 months he has not been allowed to see me or our two little sons. He has not been allowed to see anybody. I have not received one single letter from him and have not been permitted to write him. I do not know what his physical condition is. He has not been allowed to see a lawyer.

I insist that my husband be released from jail immediately.

January 10, 1978.

(Signed) IRINA ZHOLKOVSKAYA GINZBURG, Moscow, Ul. Volghina No. 13, apt. 31.