people's jurors: 2nd Rank Captain Paskin and Engineer-Mayor Sherstabitov,
secretary: Captain Samusev.
with participation of Vice-Attorney Military General of the LNC, Justice Colonel Arvan, and attorneys Lobyzenko and Krolenko, in a closed court session at the tribunal, having considered the case of charges against the students of the Navy Medical Academy:
Medical Captain Afanasyev, Igor Vsevolodovich, born 1924 in Leningrad, of Russian origin,2 not of the party,3 before military service a student, married, in military service since 1942, previously not charged in court, and
Medical Leutenant Aleksandrovsky, Vadim Gennadievich, born in 1924 in Stalingrad, of Russian origin, member of the party since 1940, before military service a student, in military service since 1941, married, previously not charged in court,
-- both of them, of the felony detailed in Article 58-10 Part 1 4 of the Russian Soviet Federation of Socialist Republics <RSFSR> Penal Code <PC>,
-- has determined the following:
Since 1946, Afanasyev and Aleksandrovsky had carried out among the students of the Navy Medical Academy anti-soviet propaganda directed against the measures carried out by the Soviet government, namely: in the Fall of 1946, after the publication of the Regulation of the Central Committee of the All-Union Bolshevik Communist Party <VKPB> concerning the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad",5 they, during seminar sections, had expressed an anti-Soviet attitude toward that Regulation in presence of several persons.
In 1947, in a dialectical materialism class, they posed questions of subversive nature, casting doubt on particular positions of that science,6 and spread jokes of anti-Soviet content among the same students of the Academy.
In the same year of 1947 Afanasyev praised the life of the working class in America and slandered on the situation with workers and engineers in the Soviet Union, while Aleksandrovsky also made slanderous remarks on the material conditions of the workers of the Soviet Union and praised the living conditions of the workers of Finland. Moreover, in 1948 Afanasyev spread the contents of anti-Soviet broadcasts of the foreign radio stations "BBC" and "Voice of America", slandered democracy and the election system, while Aleksandrovsky, in an anti-Soviet spirit, claimed lack of true democracy in the Soviet Union.
The guilt of Afanasyev and Aleksandrovsky is confirmed by witnesses: Morozov, Lebeda, Betaki, in depositions at the preliminary investigation and in court, and by witnesses: Yakhlakov, Garan, Pinkin and Karamutdinov, in depositions at the preliminary investigation.
The charged had, during the preliminary investigation, pleaded guilty to all charges presented, while in court they had pleaded guilty in part.
Based on the above, the Military Tribunal holds Afanasyev and Aleksandrovsky guilty of carrying out anti-Soviet propaganda, i.e. of the felony detailed in Article 58-10 Part 1 of the RSFSR PC and according to Articles 319 and 320 of RSFSR Criminal Procedure Code, the Military Tribunal has
SENTENCED:
Afanasyev, Igor Vsevolodovich, and Aleksandrovsky, Vadim Gennadievich, for the felonies committed, according to Article 58-10 Part 1 of the RSFSR PC, to deprivation of freedom in the corrective labor camps7 for the duration of ten (10) years each, with injunction of political rights for four (4) years each and denial of the right to carry medals: Afanasyev: "For the Defense of Leningrad," "For the Victory over Germany during the Great Patriotic War of 1941--1945" and "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy" and Aleksandrovsky: "For the Victory over Germany during the Great Patriotic War of 1941--1945" and "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy."
Accounting for the preliminary incarceration before court, the duration of punishment is to be reckoned for Afanasyev from 27 August 1949, while for Aleksandrovsky from 29 August 1949.
The sentence can be appealed through the Military Tribunal of the corps 10727, through the Military Tribunal of the LNC, during 72 hours after the copies of the sentence had been handed out to the convicted.8
Original with due signatures,
true to fact:
chairman: Justice Mayor Kovalev <signature>
<seal: Military Tribunal of the LNC>
Translator's notes
The text is a translation of the original court sentence handed out to Mr. I. V. Afanasyev in 1949 before he was deported to forced labor camps. The original of this document now belongs to V. I. Afanasyev (his son) who graciously allowed me to post the text on the Web for non-commercial use.
The occasional italicized words are necessary for a smoother flow of English but would have been missing if one made a strictly literal translation from Russian. Italicized acronyms in angular brackets are added for clarity. Other non-italicized words in angular brackets are taken from the document.
Serge Winitzki
1 "Justice Mayor," "Medical Captain," "Engineer Mayor" etc. are Soviet military ranks assigned to various professionals in the army.
2 It was obligatory in the USSR to specify one's ethnic origin on most documents (it still is now in most ex-USSR countries).
3 Note the definite "party": it was unnecessary to specify which party since there is only one political party allowed (the "VKPB").
4 The Article 58-10 cited "anti-Soviet propaganda" and was applied very broadly, accounting for a large fraction of the arrests in 1930s-1950s.
5 The infamous "Regulation concerning the Zvezda and Leningrad magazines" of 1946 expressed, in a rather strong language, the Party's negative attitude toward several contemporary authors, film directors and composers.
6 Note the standard reference to the Communist philosophy as a "science."
7 Standard formulae: "deprivation of freedom" stood for jail or camps and "corrective labor" was the official interpretation of the Soviet penal system: i.e. forced labor was supposed to "correct" criminals' attitudes and make them "honest Soviet citizens."
8 A copy of the sentence verdict was indeed handed out to the convicted, although there was no practical possibility of appeal. At the same time, prison and labor camp inmates were not allowed to keep any documents or paperwork and were frequently searched; any document found would have been confiscated. Mr. I. V. Afanasyev had to be extremely careful and ingenious to have saved this document throughout his years in the labor camps.
