Chronicle

Summaries of Events and Background Information

Religious Policy' under Andropov and Chernenko

The death of Andropov and rapid selection chinskaya. Each had been sentenced in of Chernenko as the new General Secretary August 1980 to three years for their activi­ of the Communist Party of the ties in organising a summer camp for the in February this year gave rise to extensive children of Baptist prisoners. Rytikov was speculation on the likely implications ofthe rearrested in April 1983 and charged with changeover. Any prognosis or comment, "parasitism"; he had been unable to find however, has to be restricted by the know­ employment because his work-book had ledge that the leadership will remain to a been kept by the court in L'viv and returned large extent collective. Under Chernenko only after he had been sentenced to a this will probably prove to be the case to an further two years' strict regime camp. even greater degree than it was- under Galina Vilchinskaya was rearrested in Andropov. Konstantin Chernenko, already November 1982, only three months after showing signs of physical frailty in his public completing her sentence. She was detained appearances, is unlikely to have the force­ at Vladivostok airport and in February 1983 fulness to impose any significant changes. was sentenced to two years' camp on Andropov, who showed more inclination charges of possessing drugs. Her Christian and potential for doing so, in the event had friends believe that the drugs were planted insufficient time to make any major impres­ in her luggage at the airport. Another mea­ sion on the Soviet system. sure which, although it has been used Despite the brevity of his Presidency, against dissidents for some years, has only Andropov did without doubt make a not­ over the last two years been brought into able impact on the lives ofreligious believers force against Baptist prisoners, is that of re­ in the Soviet Union. The increase in repres­ sentencing in the camp before completion sion of any attempts to extend religious life of the existing sentence. Four leading Bap­ beyond the officially stipulated boundaries tist figures were given such additional sen­ has been part of a general clamp-down on tences in 1983. Rudolf Klassen, a popular dissent which began with the pre-Olympic youth evangelist, and Yakov Skornyakov, purges in 1979-80 when And~opov was pastor-evangelist and member of the un­ head of the KGB. The number of known registered Baptists' national leadership (the Christian prisoners rose to almost 400 in Council of Churches of Evangelical Chris­ 1982; although it has since decreased to 323 tian Baptists), were arrested in the summer this is still over twice the number of known less than a month before they were due to cases in 1977. be released and sentenced in September to For many years, Baptists have made up a three more years of camp. Alexei large proportion of the imprisoned Chris­ Kozorezov, also a pastor-evangelist and a tians. Under Andropov several Baptists .national leadership figure - his wife were rearrested and given fresh sentences Alexandra is president of the Council of only months after completing a previous Baptist Prisoners' Relatives - was arrested term of imprisonment. Two such cases were in December 1983 less than a week before those of Pavel Rytikov and Galina Vil- the end of his sentence and is now awaiting Chronicle 199 trial. Perhaps the most prominent of the Christian prisoner to be resentenced under four is Nikolai Baturin, who succeeded the new law was a Russian Orthodox be~ Georgi Vins as secretary of the CCECB. He liever, Valeri Senderov. He had been sen­ was rearrested in September with more tenced only in February last year to the than a year of his sentence still to run, and maximum term of seven years' imprison­ given an additional three years' strict ment and five years' exile, on charges of regime camp. Since his first arrest in 1948 "slandering the Soviet state and social sys­ Baturin has spent over 18 years in Soviet tem" which were based mainly on his work prisons and camps for his religious activi­ in documenting evidence of the discrimina­ ties. tionagainst Jews in the entrance examina­ Su!=h resentencing was made an even sim­ tions to the Mathematics faculty of pler legal practice when, following an edict State University. The fact that his original from the USSR Supreme' Soviet, certain offence was considered to be an '~especially changes were made in the RSFSR Criminal dangerous State crime" enabled the Code. These came into effect as from I authorities to extend his sentence by a October 1983, and corresponding changes· further five years. The pretext for this was can be expected. to follow in the Criminal probably the hunger strike which Senderov Codes of the other Soviet Republics. conducted in August 1983 in protest at the . A new article of the Criminal Code, No. camp authorities' confiscation of his Bible, his prayer book and cross, a mathematical 188-3, gives administrative authorities in paper which he had completed while under labour camps a new sanction against those who show "malicious disobedience" and investigation in Lefortovo Prison, and a who have already been punished for letter to his mother. .Orthodox believers have also been suf­ breaches of camp discipline by a period in fering increasingly over the last two years solitary confinement or prison. Such prison­ from the attack on clandestine religious ers can now be punished by having a labour literature, although this attack has in the camp sentence extended by a period of up past been, focussed mainly on the activities to three years. Especially dangerous of the evangelical groups. Arrests have recidivists, or those who have committed taken place of Orthodox believers for the "especially dangerous State crimes" , can be writing and circulation of purely religious punished by an additional sentence of samizdat. Zoya Krakhmal'nikova was between one and five years. Into the latter arrested in August 1982 for her editorship category fall all those convicted under of a purely devotional journal, Nadezhda article 70 of the Criminal Code of the (Hope) (RCL Vol. 11 No. 1, p. 77, and Vol. RSFSR, "anti-Soviet agitation and propa­ 11 No. 2, pp. 210-213). Viktor Burdyug was ganda". The new law means that anyone arrested in April 1982 for photocopying and who is involved in any kind of breach of circulating religious samtzdat; and in March camp discipline can now be kept in labour 1983 Father Alexander Pivovarov, the camp, in effect, indefinitely, and this will priest of the church in the Siberian town of affect not only those people who take part Yeniseisk, was charged with distributing in hunger-strikes and other forms of pro­ religious literature. Father Pivovarov was test, but in theory anyone who infringes any "known and respected for .his exceptional aspect of camp discipline, down to such preaching and deep faith, and not only in his details' as wearing an unbuttoned jacket. native Tomsk. People came to see him from There has also been a change in Article 198- all the surrounding areas and he. was popu­ 2 of the Criminal Code which deals with larly referred to as the 'Light of Siberia'. "* "malicious infringement of the rules of administrative surveillance". This "surveil­ A specific offensive has been launched lance" refers to periods in which prisoners against the administration of the Russian will be under "surveillance" after comple­ Social Fund for aid to political prisoners and tion oftheir camp sentences. Until the latest their families (established by Alexander change came into effect, attempts to escape Solzhenitsyn with the royalties from from places of exile or to evade surveillance Archipelago). The work of administering could be punished by six months to ':I year in the Furd was undertaken by Sergei Kho­ detention, and·then only after two previous dorovich; he was arrested in April 1983 and warnings within a year. The new law makes provision for detention of between one and * Anatoli Levitin-Krasnov, in Keston News three years for a first offender. The first Service No. 188, 1 Dec. 1983, p. 15. 200 Chronicle reports have emerged of his being subjected tery.* Rumours have also been circulating to brutal punishment in Butyrki Prison. His of increasing official pressures on the monks successor, Andrei Kistyakovsky, was at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity and St forced by ill-health to give up the work in Sergius at Zagorsk, near Moscow. Visitors October 1983 and the duties of Adminis­ to the USSR during the last year have had trator were briefly taken over by art expert their requests to visit Zagorsk turned down Boris Mikhailov. The Fund now has no although such visits have been possible in publicly-declared Administrator. the past. However, according to an article Clearly the risks and problems associated in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate with such work have become more acute (No. 7 1983, p. 8) there are currently "over over the last two years. This applies equally 100" monks at Zagorsk. If this figure is cor­ to the work of the Christian Committee for rect it represents an increase from that of the Defence of Believers' Rights, as was 80-90 monks reported in the late 1970s, but pointed out by a member ofthe-Committee, it is conceivable that the article is intended Vadim Shcheglov, who was forced to emi­ to counter the rumours of a deterioration in grate last year. Since new members joined the situation at Zagorsk.The return of the the Committee after the arrest of several Danilovsky monastery, near Moscow, to founder-members their names have not the Church (the monastery was seized by been made public, in the hope that they the authorities after the 1917 Revolution) may continue their work with the minimum was publicised in the Western press last hindrance. (RCLVol. 11 No. 3, pp. 332- year, but it is not certain whether there is to 334.) The Christian Committee's sister be a monastic community living there. A organisation in Lithuania, the Catholic large proportion of the monastery buildings Committee for the Defence of Believers' will no doubt .be taken up by offices, since Rights, has also suffered harsh repression most of the departments of the Moscow during Andropov's presidency. (See pp. Patriarchate (at present scattered around 202-3 of this issue of RCL.) Moscow) are to be centred there. The In an attempt to crush the protests on closure of a Georgian Orthodox monastery behalf of the illegal Uniate church, the in 1982 (RCL Vol. 11 No. 1, p. 73) high­ leader of the Committee for the Defence of lighted a series of repressive measures taken the Catholic Faith and Church, Iosif against the religious festivals and services of Terelya (who has already spent 18 years in the Georgian Orthodox Church which have prisons and camps), was arrested at the end given rise to renewed appeals from clergy of 1982 and sentenced to a year's strict and lay believers since 1980. regime camp on charges of "parasitism". The departure of the "Siberian Seven" During his imprisonment the duties as head families from the USSR at the end of their of the Committee were taken over by Vasili 20-year struggle for exit ·visas attracted a Antonovich Kobrin. great deal of publicity in the West. The Reports of the worsening plight of the general trend, however, has been a sharp Russian Orthodox monasteries· have been decline in the number being. allowed to reaching the West with increasing fre­ emigrate. Few Pentecostals, out of the esti­ quency over the last 18 months. The repres­ mated 30,000 who would like to leave, sions and malpractices at the· Pochayev have ever been allowed to do so, and Monastery have been a matter of concern recently harsh sentences have been im­ for many years, but details about recent posed on the leaders of the Pentecostal events there have reached Keston College emigration movement. Pavel Akhtyorov in the form of appeals from a senior monk was sentenced to twelve years; Eduard who was expelled from the monastery in Bulakh was resentenced, without being re­ 1981, Hegumen Apelli (Stankevich). Even leased from his previous one-year term, to a more disturbing have been reports from the further 2Y! years. The decline in emigration normally peaceful Monastery of the Caves among the two major ethnic groups of at Pskov, on the border between Estonia would-be emigrants, Germans and Jews. and the RSFSR. A document which reflects the cooling of EastlWest relations, reached Keston College in 1983 described which for the immediate future at least does the demoralising effect of recent KGB not give grounds for optimism for those who manipulation and violence at the monfls- have submitted applications for an exit visa. The number of Germans leaving the Soviet *See this issue of RCL, pp. 193-4. Union dropped from almost 10,000 in 1975 Left: the interior of the Mihai Bravu Baptist Church in Bucharest in 1982 with Pastor Vasile Talo~ at the micro­ phone; below: the site of the church after its demolition on 12 September 1983. See Chronicle item on pp. 204-5 of this issue.

Left: Vasile Talo~, pastor of the Mihai Bravu church, with his wife CorneIia. (All photos courtesy Romanian Aid Fund.) Left: Members of the congre­ gation gather outside the Oradea Baptist church in Romania (photo courtesy Keston College); below left: Dr Nicolae Gheorgita, co-pastor of the Oradea church, with his family; below right: his fellow­ pastor Paul Negrur. (Photos courtesy Romanian Aid Fund.) See Chronicle item on pp. 204-5 of this issue.

Right: Medias Baptist Church, Romania. (Photo courtesy Romanian Aid Fund.) Chronicle 201 to 2,000 in 1982. The number of Jews who USSR, and a book The Communist Party of have been allowed to emigrate has dropped the Soviet Union and Human Rights pub­ dramatically over the last four years. After a lished in 1982. In the latter he describes high of51,300in 1979 it fell to 9,460 in 1981, religion as "a tenacious survival of the past to 2,692 in 1982. The 1983 figure was a mere with deep social and epistemological roots". 1,315. "" and activists have been He goes on, "The vitality of religious delu­ subject to an extensive propaganda cam­ sions is stimulated by the. activities of paign in the name of "anti-Zionism", religious organisations, by the propaganda brought to public attention in the West last of religious-idealist ideology from abroad, year by the protest against anti-semitism and shortcomings in atheist work." made by Russian Orthodox scholar Ivan Chernenko clearly saw the combatting of Martynov. The Anti-Zionist Committee of religious influences as an important part of the Soviet Public, set up during Andropov's the ideological work for which he was re­ time as Soviet leader, has been vociferous in sponsible following the death of M. Suslov condemnation of and of "Zionist" in­ in 1982, but he appears deliberately to stress fluence from the West on Soviet Jews. The that the struggle is against religious ideology sentencing of several leading figures in and not against believers themselves. The Jewish culture,. for example Yuri Tar­ spread of atheism, he argues, will not come nopolsky, and most notably Iosif Begun, from prohibitions but rather as a result of sentenced to twelve years, was part of a "drawing believers into an active social severe attack on the emerging interest life", and furthermore, "any violation. of among Soviet Jews in their own history, cul­ believers' feelings will only lead to the ture and religion, which has been going on strengthening of religious fanaticism" (June for the last two or three years. 1983 Plenum speech). Although the em~' Chernenko has on the "Jewish question", phasis Chernenko places upon. the role of as on other issues, reiterated the usual offi­ "socialist transformation and education" in cial views, claiming in his speech at the June the struggle against religious beliefs appears 1983 Central Committee Plenum that no to characterise his views as relatively mod­ such "question" exists in the USSR. As far erate, his statements are still awaiting prac­ as officially unacceptable religious activity is tical application, and may do so indefi­ concerned, he has also repeated the attitude nitely. It should also be borne in mind.that often put forward in propaganda. He stated since the 1978 and 1982 works both later in the same speech, "When we come across appeared in English, and the Plenum instances of violation of socialist laws and speech is of course tailored for Western as subversive political activity under the guise well as Soviet hearers, their contentis partly of religion, we act in accordance with the conditioned by the need to defend Soviet demands of our constitution", and went on policy against its Western critics. to make the usual accusation of manipula­ There can apparently be no major re­ tion of believers by Western "ideological think of the basic attitude toward religion centres of imperialism". within the framework of "building com­ He also stressed the need to combat "new munism". As Chernenko expressed it in his tendencies and fads among young people Plenum speech last year, "There are truths and to impart to them a proper ideological which are not subject to reexamination: orientation". Statements about religion at problems which were solved finally, long occasions such as the Plenum are rare, and ago. We cannot, if we wish to continue on it is particularly noteworthy that religion the basis of science, 'forget' the fundamen­ was openly acknowledged in Chernenko's tal principles of the materialistic dialectic." speech as a definite influence in the lives of Nevertheless, for believers in the USSR, "not a very insignificant part" of the popula­ the replacement of Yuri Andropov's more tion. A Plenum speech should be regarded forceful presidency by what must probably as a collective statement rather than a per­ be a more collective leadership under Cher­ sonal one, but in fact Chernenko has been nenko may give cause for a cautious hope unusual in making several public statements for a levelling off of the recent sharp escala­ on religion. Besides the June speech, the tion of repression. other sources for these statements are a 1978 pamphlet entitled Communists in the CAROLYN BURCH