4 INTELLECTUALS' TRIAL PUT OFF; MOSCOW IS SILENT ON REASON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200270006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 1999
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 12, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

WASr~L~i~ON PCV.+~: .
Sanitized - Approved ~'or~t~~~e~,~=~tDP75-001498000200270006-8
DEC 1 21567?
~.~~~~~.l~~tua~~' ~'~~ia~. ~-~~t
ff:
C:PYRC~HT
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
By Anatole 5hub
Waahlnaton PoaO Forelan Servl
MOSCOW, Dec. 11-'
had previous proposed dates)
it shad been accepted.
trial, of four. rebellious young
intellectuals, which was ex-
.pe~ted to, open here today, has
-been ~postponed'in an atmos-
phere of considerable mystery,,
? ~ Moscow City Court a{fiGials
~said?they had no knowledir~e of
~. 'the cake;' and tJhe Soviet press,lto include the granddaughter
~
'
n
''
?
remains
s~le
t
on it. Friends
of the defendants, who gath-
ered at< the court this morn'
ing, checked further with au-
thorities and defense attor-
neys and got two versions:
? The case might be called ?"a~
a moment's notice"; it -'had.
been postponed."for at least:a
week." ,
The four defendants, impris~
~/ Yuri Galanskov, 27; Alexander
Ginsburg, 30; AIexei obrovol?
sky, 29, and Vera Lashova, 27.
They, are charged with "anti-
Soviet propaganda;' reported-
lyfor having distributed an un-
derground literary magazine,
Phoenix-66, and for having
compiled and sent abroad a rec-
ord of last year's trial of writ-
ers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli
Daniel.~(For having their criti?'
cal writings published abroad
under pen names, Sinyavsky
and Daniel were condemned
to seven and five years impris?
onment respectively.) ,
I
,
,
fondants appeared confused as`:~,~;.'.i., ? :.ia'kt',::~'a.;".~:.~s:,!,+~::~..c~~~'
to why the trial had not begun 4' _:;~
today. Some thought there
had been a misunderstanding
between defense attorneys and, ; `~
court- officials, with the de-;; , ''
;fense having assumed wrongly
ithart because title Monday;
,date had not been rejected (as
or all the defendants linked to
Phoenix, the "`white book" or
According to one informant
with access to security offi-
cials, the defendants are to be
linked with the NTS (National
Union of Labor) a rightwing
Russian emigre organization
operating mainly in West Ger-
many. The NTS has frequently
been charged with support
from the U.S. Central Intelli?
gence Agency. Links with for-
eIgn agencies, however indi?
rect, would appreciably reduce,
sympathy for tilo defendants
and would make more diffi-!
cult psychologically the cur-
rent efforts of more renowned
liberal Soviet writers to obtain
publication of their works here
or abroad. ; ~ '
Sanitized - Approved For. Release :CIA-RDP75-00149800020027.0006-8
delay might have been due to
petitions urging an open trial
with full publicity. Tao such
letters, one with 44 and the
other with more than 100 sig?
natories, have been sent to the
court. The signatories are said
'of former Soviet Foreign Ditn?
ister Maxim Litvinov ancj a
.number of b2oscow University
professors.
Still others thought the delay
duo to the fact that the presi-
dent of the court was ill and
~lis chief deputy was out of
Moscow. ? The authorities may
therefore;be waiting only until
one or the other is ready to
serve.
Ear1S+.Tria1 Exaccted
considered, unlikely. The pre-
trial investigation was com-
pleted two months ago, and
foreign 1'adio stations have
been tallting .about the case
for more than a week.
Still unclear is the precise
nature of the charges against
each defendant. Galanskov
was the editor of Phoenix-66
and.Dobrovolsky was a contri-
butor. Ginsburg was known to
have compiled the Sinyavsky-
Daniel `white book" and to
~-ave sent a copy to Soviet
President P o d g o r n y. Miss
Lashova was apparently only a
typist. But there is? 1#ttle cer-
tainty as to, ' whq~,her? the
charges are
ta be 'separated