INTERVIEW with LAGLE PAREK in August 1987, Shortly Before the 48Th Anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Editor M. Kadast
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INTERVIEW WITH LAGLE PAREK In August 1987, shortly before the 48th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, editor M. Kadastik of the newspaper Edasi (Forward) interviewed former political prisoner Lagle Parek. The interview was not published in full. However, the press of the Estonian S.S.R. used excerpts from it, arbitrarily removing them from the original context and presenting them tendentiously. Question: Your term of deprivation of freedom was shorter than the sentence imposed by the court in 1983. For what reasons and on what conditions was the length of your sentence shortened? Answer: My social activism, for which the Supreme Court of the E.S.S.R. imposed a severe sentence - - 6 years in a corrective labor colony with strict regime followed by three years' internal exile - - was carried out in the period that has recently been labeled the "years of stagnation." Even before the XXVII Congress of the C.P.S.U., the domestic and foreign policy of the U.S.S.R. showed the promise of some changes in the direction of democracy. Along with most of my fellow prisoners in the Barashevo harsh-regime women's camp of the Mordovian Autonomous S.S.R., we approached the XXVII Congress with a petition calling for the liquidation of our prison camp, which at that time contained ten prisoners. We also proposed that all the articles pertaining to anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda, and all those pertaining to the spreading of deliberate fabrications defaming Soviet national and social order - - Articles 68 and 194 in the E.S.S.R. Criminal Code, respectively - - should be eliminated from the Criminal Codes of all the Union republics. We received no reply to these proposals from the Congress, but in August 1986 a representative of the U.S.S.R. Committee for State Security came to speak with us and claimed that the U.S.S.R. was now strong and powerful enough to grant us, at that time only six female political prisoners, our freedom. He suggested we petition the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of our Union Republics, asking for an early release. After a few days of discussions, we reached a compromise on the petitions. In my petition I expressed the opinion that my sentence would have been less severe if it would have been imposed in the current political climate, and that I wanted to assist actively in the democratization of the state. On October 8, 1986, I was brought to Tallinn prison. My petition did not satisfy the E.S.S.R. Committee for State Security, but after two months of discussions, I reached a compromise acceptable to them. I added a promise not to come into collision with the laws of the E.S.S.R in my future social activities. The E.S.S.R. Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ruled to grant me clemency on January 29, 1987. I was conditionally freed of my prison term and the 3 years of internal exile were repealed. My codefendants Heiki Ahonen and Arvo Pesti have also been freed. I'd strongly prefer not to see any more one-sided tendentious articles like the ones by Jaak Kalju: "A stranger in one's own home" (March 21 & 22, 1984) and "In a pile of paradoxes" (Sept. 12 & 13, 1984), in which he attempts to portray me and my friends as pawns of a foreign special service. Our appeals were publicized in the mass media abroad simply because they were not publicized in our homeland. Let me remind you that our appeals were addressed to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of either the E.S.S.R. or the U.S.S.R., but went unanswered. Question: How were your years in detention? How were you treated? Answer: I was in jail for 47 months, of which 15 months were spent in Patarei prison in Tallinn, the other 32 months in Barashevo village in Mordovia, which houses the only camp for female political www.singingrevolution.com 1 prisoners. Tallinn prison was like any of them: continuous detention in a stuffy cell with no natural light; a jumble of thieves, murderers, state property embezzlers, prostitutes, drug abusers, political prisoners. In my opinion the prison needs no other characterization but the indicator which states that each prisoner is allotted 31 kopecks worth of food per day. The Barashevo women's camp was completely different. Severely isolated, it housed a maximum of 11 persons - - Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Russians, a Latvian and me, an Estonian. I was far from my homeland, with no chance to speak my native Estonian. Fortunately we were allowed to order periodicals and newspapers printed in Estonia (but unfortunately not Edasi). We sewed work gloves. The Corrective Labor Code states that the purpose of punishment is not to cause physical suffering or to debase personal dignity. But there is a great disparity between this point of the Code and reality. One of the most difficult ordeals is the black hole. This means punishment by cold and hunger. They feed you every other day. The law states that the temperature in the black hole may not be less than 16 degrees (C), but this is never really so. It was worst in the spring and fall, because then you can't even warm your hands on the central heating pipe. We were put in the black hole for the most trivial reasons. For example, I earned 14 days in the black hole for commemorating Human Rights Day on December 10, 1984, with a one-day hunger strike. The hardest trials of prison life were the transport rides in the "stolopin" railroad cars. We must not forget that the scientist and political prisoner from Tartu, Jüri Kukk, died during one of these difficult journeys in the fifth month of a hunger strike. Whereas the Stalinist camps were characterized by hunger and cold, the pressure today is spiritual and moral: letters between Mordovia and Estonia often took more than two months; I survived two arbitrarily imposed mail bans, which were very hard on me. My fellow prisoners constantly had problems with the mailing of letters and the receipt of printed matter. A three-word letter "Hello, darling, kisses" was confiscated from poet Irina Ratushinskaya for being of suspicious content. Although the law gives every prisoner the right to speak his mother tongue in meetings with relatives, this right was never really granted - - indeed, if these meetings were permitted at all. I was allowed only one twenty four-hour and one two-hour meeting with my husband during my entire term at Barashevo. Question: Where do you work now? How do you spend your free time? Answer: I've decided to spend my first summer in freedom in the country, to improve my health. I signed an agreement with Kanepi collective farm to cultivate beets. I'm reading as much Estonian- language and Russian-language press as I can, and since it's all very interesting right now, I have little time for anything else. Question: Haven't you felt it necessary to leave the U.S.S.R.? Answer: I don't plan to leave Estonia of my own accord. I've already been away from my country so long. Five years deportation… in the Novosibirsk oblast after the mass deportations of 1949, and now in addition, the Mordovia years. Question: How do you feel about the reforms going on in our society today? What do you feel is your role in this process? www.singingrevolution.com 2 Answer: I've waited for them a long time and welcome them wholeheartedly. Now we're starting to talk and write openly about those issues which got us accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. Perhaps we were ahead of our time?… I'd like to hope that the drive for openness and the democratization of society will continue and not stop halfway. There are plenty of unsolved problems in the Soviet Union (for instance, Afghanistan, or the question of the Crimean Tartars' homeland), and locally as well -- the mining of phosphorite, the position of the Estonian language in Estonia, the protection of the environment, and the preservation of antiquities, not to speak of severe economic problems. As a former political prisoner, my primary concern is to help free those Estonians still imprisoned, the most well-known being Enn Tarto and Mart Niklus. I'd also like to help improve conditions for all female political prisoners. The Corrective Labor Code ignores the special needs of women. And real life in prison camps is far from what is prescribed in the Code. As the political climate continues to democratize, I'll try to find a suitable application for my abilities in social life. Question: How do you feel about the truthfulness and objectivity of the materials dealing with Soviet Estonia from the "Voice of America"? Answer: That's a complicated question for me. My husband was issued an official warning by the Committee for State Security in 1983 for listening to the "Voice of America." It has not yet been revoked. I think that the "Voice of America," within the limits of its opportunities and abilities, has done a praiseworthy job for many years, filling in the blanks left by the official mass media of the E.S.S.R. I hope that the unusual situation, whereby one has to hear about things happening in one's own country from halfway around the globe, will end once and for all. Question: Are you involved with the commemoration day organized by the so-called Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact group on Sunday in Tallinn? If so, then why is this event taking place? Answer: I am a founding member of the Estonian Group for the Disclosure of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.