The Gratitude
Fund Bulletin
April 15, 2000
New
York, N.Y. 10025
PRESIDENT Yuri Fedorov |
TREASURER Victoria Szerko |
Vladimir Bukovsky |
Alexandr Ginsburg |
Eduard Kuznetsov |
Yuri Yarim-Agaev |
The Gratitude
Fund Bulletin
April 15, 2000
New
York, N.Y. 10025
|
PRESIDENT Yuri Fedorov |
TREASURER Victoria Szerko |
|
Vladimir Bukovsky |
Alexandr Ginsburg |
Eduard Kuznetsov |
Yuri Yarim-Agaev |
The Gratitude Fund (GF) is a non-profit organization which was created to provide assistance to the forgotten heroes and veterans of the active struggle for freedom and human rights in the former USSR such as ex-political prisoners and the families of those dissidents who perished in Soviet prisons. All funds raised by GF are distributed to the recipients in accordance with the available information relative to their needs. The Fund is responsible to inform US government officials of the existing program and seek their cooperation in creating special assistance programs.
The Gratitude Fund provides financial assistance not only in Russia but also in America and Europe. It allocates money for their medical needs and emergency assistance. Such known dissidents as Yuri Orlov and Nathan Sharansky have expressed their endorsement of the Fund’s activities in open letters. The mission of the Fund is also supported by several Jewish organizations, including the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry. "I strongly support this idea," said the international director of the human rights bureau of the UCSJ, Leonid Stonov. "It is very important and just. I hope that American grass-roots organizations will support this fund."
The Board of directors would like to express its sincere gratitude to all people who assisted in the Gratitude Fund opening ceremony providing the space, food for reception, collecting money, etc.
Special thanks to Yuri Abdurakhmanov who provided his art studio for this event; to the director of the International Food at Brighton Beach, for providing food for over 100 people; to Gennadi Dozortsev for providing beverages; to Marina Kovaleva for substantial help with organization of the event; to Boris Kerdimun, Sam Kliger and Alexander Antonovich for all their help in organizing this meeting. This ceremony was attended by over 100 people and resulted in collecting a sufficient sum of money to begin assistance to the most needy. Below are few photographs from this event.
Yuri Fedorov - GF President |
Silva Zalmanson, former political prisoner,"samoletchik" process |
Boris Kerdimun, NYANA |
Lynn Singer,executive director of The Long IslandCommittee for Soviet Jewry |
Silva Zalmanson and Ilia Levkov, director of the Publishing House "Liberty" |
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Alexey Murzhenko
was a former dissident who spent 22 years in prison for his political activities.
He was a participant of the famous "Leningrad Trial" of 1970 which opened
the doors for Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union. Alexey Murzhenko
became seriously ill and desperately needed financial assistance because
at the moment he had no job and no health insurance. Collected money helped
him not only materially, but also psychologically. Alexey Murzhenko died
on December 31, 1999.
Yuli Kim
is a famous
dissident, poet and bard. He was in serious need of assistance due to very
serous illness. Significant sum of money collected by Fund allowed him
to receive qualified medical help and pay for apartment. Currently, after
a year of illness, his health has improved.
Y. Kim wrote to the Fund: "To all who helped me:
Dear friends! Thanks to your generous help, my economic situation
is completely turned around. All I have to do now is transform your support
into new songs. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Now that my difficulties
are over, I feel in good enough shape to keep on living and working. I
will still sing! Yours Yuli Kim, November 1999
For the obvious reason of protecting privacy and dignity of people receiving The Gratitude Fund's assistance, their real names are not revealed. Below we describe the situations of people who currently receive Fund's assistance.
1. A widow of dissident who died in prison (1927-1984).
She is in great need of assistance because she does not have any other
means to support herself except for the Fund's money which is being sent
to her monthly. She lives in Moscow. In 1957 her husband was arrested for
protesting occupation of Hungary by the Soviet Army. He was sentenced to
7 years in the labor camp with additional 5 years of living under restrictions
(i.e., exile like). He was released from prison in 1964 and in 1977 he
was arrested again for so-called "anti-Soviet activities" and sentenced
to 10 years in prison and labor camp with additional 5 years of exile.
He was serving his term in Perm's political camp and died there in 1984.
2.Mother and daughter of the deceased dissident. The mother
is very old and the daughter is very young and both need financial assistance.
They live in Israel. Dissident's Biography: she was arrested
for participation in demonstrations against celebrating 90th birthday anniversary
of Stalin and spent 1 year in prison. During the rest of her life she was
deprived from continuing education and was constantly under KGB surveillance.
In spite of this, she continued to actively participate in various human
rights activities such as "Chronicles of Current Events", the samizdat
magazine forbidden by KGB. In 1980, during the trip through Baltic republics,
where she was collecting the information for the "Chronicles", she was
killed in the auto accident. There are serious reasons to believe that
KGB has arranged this "accident".
3. Human right activist, poet, who was born in 1937 and now
lives in Israel. He was arrested for participation in meetings of artists
and poets on Mayakovsky square; sentenced to 5 years in labor camp.
4. 72 year old former dissident, active participant of "Chronicles
of Current Events". She lives in Moscow. She was arrested under false pretenses
of "arson" of her apartment during which she was seriously injured. KGB
used this incident against her and she was imprisoned for 2 years and required
to pay a huge fine. She was released in 1978 (under general amnesty). Then
she was arrested again for anti-Soviet activities and sent to Siberian
exile for 5 years.
5. Former political prisoner, born in 1930. In spite of his
advanced age, he continues to work as electrician in order to support his
family (4 children of school age). He lives in Moscow. First time he was
arrested and sentenced to 1 year in prison under false pretenses - forging
of documents (a typical KGB claim). In 1981 he was arrested again for anti-Soviet
activities and committed to 4 years in the labor camp and to 5 years of
exile. He was released in 1987.
6. Former political prisoner, he was in born 1949 and
lives in Moscow. He now works as a delivery
person, very poor. In 1985 was arrested for anti-soviet propaganda and
sentenced to 6 years of labor camp. He was released in 1987.
7. Former political prisoner. She has two school age children,
older daughter is incurably ill. She lives in Moscow. In 1984 she was arrested
for anti-Soviet activities and sentenced to 1 year in prison and 4 years
in exile in Siberia. She was released in 1988.
8. Former political prisoner, he was born in 1927 and
lives in Moscow. He is very ill and survives on very meager pension. In
1985 he was arrested for publishing his books in the western press as well
as for signing petitions in defense of human rights; sentenced to 5 years
in Siberian exile. Released in 1987 under general amnesty.
9. Former political prisoner, he was born in 1935 and
lives in Moscow. He has only a meager pension. He was arrested for the
first time for the distribution of anti-Khruschev's proclamations and sentenced
to 6 years in the labor camp. In 1980 he was arrested for the second time
and sentenced to 3 years in labor camp for publishing samizdat magazine
"Search". He was released in 1983.
10. Former political prisoner, he born in 1941 and lives in
New York. He was an organizer of the first youth human right organizations
which published and distributed proclamations denouncing the antidemocratic
nature of soviet government. In 1962 he and his friends were arrested by
the KGB and sentenced to 7 years in prison for anti-soviet activities.
In 1963 he escaped from the labor camp with a group of other political
prisoners, but shortly after he was arrested and sentenced (as recidivist)
to the additional 3 years of the labor camp of maximum security type. He
was released in 1972
11. Former political prisoner, he was born in 1959 and
lives in Moscow. He is in great need of assistance. He was arrested for
the anti-Soviet activities and sentenced by military tribunal to 7 years
in prison. He was released in 1965.
3. In Support of The Gratitude Fund
Letter from Yuri Orlov
Appeal in support of The Gratitude Fund for veterans of
the struggle for democracy and human rights in the former Soviet Union.
This is a noble and important initiative - the effort
to organize a fund for supporting veterans of the democratic movement in
the former Soviet Union— former longtime prisoners of labor camps and prisons--and
also for supporting the families of champions of democracy who perished
in those camps and prisons. Before the collapse of the Soviet regime support
for such people existed with the Solzhenitsyn Fund, but nothing on that
scale exists now. And many of these former prisoners, who are now old and
often very ill, have really been forgotten by the people who enjoy freedoms
achieved by the struggles sacrifices of these very men and women.
I do not believe that history will forget them,
however. Their contribution to the collapse of the totalitarian regime
arid, as a result, to the end of the Cold War, with its insane arms race,
was tremendous. Their names will be in textbooks. But they urgently need
support now.
Yuri Fedorov, the organizer of this fund, is the
very best person for such a task. I have known him very well for many years.
He spent 15 years himself. In the notorious Perm Labor Camp #36 under the
so-called special regime, the hardest regime, the one g even to political
prisoners. For a short time we were even in the Perm Labor Camp #37 together,
both under the strong regime. But we did not meet one another there because
we were both isolated from the other prisoners, and very soon he was sent
back to camp #36.
I appeal to people able to support The Gratitude
Fund to support it generously, before these old veterans--who deserve honor
arid gratitude from lovers of democracy and freedom everywhere--die.
Yuri Orlov
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you about The Gratitude Fund, an organization founded to help veterans of the human rights movement in the former Soviet Union.
The struggle for political and economic freedom, for the right to emigrate, was not won by the handful of us who are well known to you. It was the result of the struggle of hundreds of individuals who passed through political prisons and labor camps, paying with their careers, their liberty and sometimes with their lives.
Today, many of these individuals who paid such a high price to liberate Russia and the rest of the world from the most oppressive political system, find themselves in a very difficult situation in their "new" lives. Many of those people who lost significant years of their life, career and health in the Soviet labor camps are not always given an equal opportunity. Many are destitute, in ill health, and with no adequate medical care or other basic assistance from Russian society.
These people helped all of us! I feel compelled and obliged to help them now when many of them can no longer help themselves.
The Gratitude Fund was created to address this need. The fund will provide desperately needed assistance to those who fought actively for human rights, who endured long periods of imprisonment and to the families who died in struggle.
Thc Board of Directors of The Gratitude Fund consists of former dissidents, all of them well known for their struggle for human rights: Vladimir Bukovski, Alexander Ginsburg, Eduard Kuznetsov and Yuri Yarim-Agaev
The President of the Fund is Yuri Fedorov - a participant in the "Leningrad Trial", which played the decisive role in opening Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union. He spent 18 years in political labor camps for these efforts! After emigrating to the United States, he worked for a number of years for an American philanthropic institution. This combined experience makes him uniquely qualified for the position
As this is the first organized attempt to provide fundamental assistance to the veterans of the human rights struggle, I wholeheartedly support this vital undertaking and hope that you will also consider lending your support.
Sincerely yours,
Chairman, "Israel Ba-Aliya"