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

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300090010-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: December 12, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

WAASIrNG oN P;~OST
Approved For Release 2000/06x13 : &*P~iDQT49R000300090010-2
DEC 12 1967-
D
A..Ifi 0
"-eRectuals"Trial 'Put Off
Moscowls Silent on Reason
By Anatole Shub
Washington Post Foreign aervlce
MOSCOW, Dec. 11-The
trial,of four rebellious young
intellectuals, which was ex-
pected to, open here today, has
been postponed in an atmos-
phere of considerable mystery.,
Moscow City Court offigials
said 'they had no knowledge of
the case;' and the Soviet press,
,,the
'silent '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
/I
been postponed "for at least. a
week."
The four defendants, impris-
oned since last January, are
Yuri Galanskov, 27; Ajexander
Ginsburg, 30; Alexei obrovol-
They; are charged with "anti-
Soviet propaganda," reported-
ly for 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.)
All Confused
Even those closest to the dg-:
fendants appeared confused as
to why the trial had not begun,
today. Some thought there
had previous proposed dates)
it' had been accepted.
Others speculated that the
delay might have been due to
petitions urging an open trial
with full publicity. Two such
letters, one with 44 and the
other with more than 100 sig-
natories, have been sent to the
court. The signatories are said
to include the granddaughter
of former Soviet Foreign 11fin-
ister Maxim Litvinov and a
number of Moscow University
professors.
Still others thought the delay
due to, the fact that the presi-
dent of the court was ill and
his chief deputy was out of
Moscow.-The authorities may
therefore;be waiting only until
one or the other is ready to
serve.
Early.Trial Expected
In hny' case, a long delay is
considered, unlikely. The pre-
trial investigation was com-
pleted two months ago, and
foreign radio stations have
been talking 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 Sinyavs~y-_
Daniel 'white book" and to
have sent a copy to Soviet
President P o d g o r n y. Miss
Lashova was apparently only a
typist. But there is little cer-
tainty as to. ' whether the
charges are to be 'separated,
had been a misunderstanding;
between defense attorneys and,'
court. officials, with the de
fense having assumed wrongly-
that because the Mond ' ay-
,date had not been rejected (as:
or all the defendants linked to
Phoenix, the "white book" or
both.
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 the 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.
Approved For Release 2000/06/13 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000300090010-2