25. Judgment

January 25, 2014 · Adam Bondaruk, Baptists, Victor Belykh, AUCECB, Persecution, Interview, KGB, Books, Unregistered Pentecostals, Nikolay Kotyakov, On Emigration, United Church of Evangelical Christians, Vestibule, Petr Saenko, Pentecostals, Religious Mafia, Slavik Radchuk, Contemporary Persecution, Security Services

On March 18th, the trial began. Almost all the members of the Nakhodka and Vladivostok Pentecostal communities gathered in the building of the regional court in Vladivostok. Television cameras were trained on me. The KGB was waiting for the moment I would show weakness, so they could film it, but that moment never came. The trial lasted sixteen days. Seven volumes, each of three hundred pages, had been prepared by the investigator to accuse me. Fifty witnesses were summoned to court and questioned, and only two gave testimony against me. During the investigation, two more gave statements against me, which I read when reviewing the case file, but these were not read aloud in court. The remaining witnesses confirmed my documents concerning the persecution of believers in the USSR. They all confirmed the accuracy of the information I had transmitted abroad and asserted that there was no slander in it. The testimonies I remember most vividly for their boldness in my defense were those given by Anatoly Zherebilov, Viktor Babich, Vladimir Stepanov, Lyubov Chupina, and Anna Chupina. Viktor Babich answered the prosecutor’s questions in such a way that I feared he would be arrested right there in the courtroom for anti-Soviet propaganda. I will not name those who gave testimony against me—they will recognize themselves in this book. I generally did not wish to describe the negative aspects, because in life, a person is sometimes given a rare opportunity to stand upright, and those who fail to seize such an opportunity later regret it. By mentioning the names of those who could not stand firm, I do not wish to inflict further wounds upon them, as I am certain that they have long since condemned themselves. Judge Mikhailyukov operated by the same methods as Investigator Istomin. When leaving for lunch at a restaurant, he would order me to be locked in a cell in the basement of the courthouse. My lawyer would bring me sandwiches. He knew that I only managed to eat prison gruel in the morning. After three days, a guard noticed that the lawyer was passing me food and reported it to the judge. The judge then ordered that I be taken back to the prison and locked, hungry, in a “glass cage” cell there. My lawyer defended me brilliantly. The trial was turning into a defeat for Soviet justice. Everyone was certain that I would be released and allowed to go home; only my lawyer doubted it: “If the matter has already reached the court, they will give you at least half a year. The KGB will never admit it was wrong.” I was led back to the holding cell, but about four hours later, I was brought again into the courtroom. “Please rise, court is in session!” announced the secretary. The courtroom froze in anticipation. The judge began reading the verdict. “In the name of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, on April 3, 1981, the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Primorsky Regional Court, composed of: presiding judge Mikhailyukov, people’s assessors Korol and Korobeev, with secretary Belotserkovets, with the participation of the state prosecutor—Prosecutor Lebedev, and defense attorney Dogot, has considered in court session case 2-13, on the charges against Perchatkin Boris Georgievich… The courtroom was motionless. The judge, without looking at the audience, read out the verdict. I looked at Zina. She was pale. She was still hoping that I would be released, but I knew the KGB would not allow it. I knew that when my lawyer said they would give me at least half a year, he meant half a year in a camp, but I did not even hope for such a “child’s” sentence. The KGB had charged me under two articles. I did not expect that my lawyer would succeed in reclassifying the case from Article 70 to Article 190. This was a major victory, since the maximum term of imprisonment under Article 190 was 3 years, and not 7. For a time, I even believed in a six-month sentence. The defendant Perchatkin,“ the judge read, “being one of the leaders of the sectarians—Pentecostals in the city of Nakhodka, Primorsky Krai, and since 1980 the secretary of the so-called Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians-Pentecostals in the USSR, since 1976 began to actively participate in activities aimed at organizing a mass departure of Pentecostals from the Soviet Union to capitalist countries. He systematically traveled from Nakhodka to other regions of the country, meeting with his like-minded associates, renegades from among the so-called dissidents, as well as with foreign diplomats, correspondents, and other representatives of capitalist countries, to whom he orally and in writing transmitted tendentious and slanderous information about the situation of Pentecostals in the USSR. Personally, and together with his like-minded associates, he prepared, signed, and distributed appeals, statements, and letters addressed to international organizations and foreign figures, which contained slanderous fabrications defaming the Soviet state and social system. Specifically, Perchatkin is guilty of committing the following crimes: In 1976, the defendant Perchatkin, in his own name and on behalf of his family members, prepared and distributed an appeal to the World Council of Churches, the UN, and the heads of state that signed the Helsinki Accords, in which it was slanderously asserted that there were constant persecutions of believers in the USSR. In 1977, in the city of Nakhodka, the defendant Perchatkin prepared a statement addressed to the so-called Committee for the Defense of Believers’ Rights, in which he indicated that since 1975 he had come to the open defense of his fellow believers… In March 1977, the defendant Perchatkin, while in Moscow at the apartment of his like-minded associate A.A. Poleshchuk, who emigrated for permanent residence abroad in 1977, familiarized himself with the text of the appeal ‘To the Christians of the World’ prepared by the latter, agreed with its content, and signed it. On September 10, 1977, the defendant Perchatkin, together with his like-minded associates—residents of the city of Nakhodka V.F. Patrushev and the city of Vladivostok M.I. Pimenov—sent a letter to the participants of the Belgrade Meeting of European States that signed the Helsinki Accords. On September 23, 1977, Perchatkin took part in a so-called press conference held in Moscow for foreign correspondents, where, together with his like-minded associate Stepanov, he reported on the situation of believers. In the spring of 1978, in Moscow, the defendant Perchatkin consented to the preparation and distribution of a slanderous appeal concerning the arrest of Yuri Orlov, a member of the so-called Helsinki Watch Group, with his surname included as a signatory of the document. The appeal contains a call to the world community to come to the defense of Yuri Orlov, in defense of freedom of thought, speech, and information, in defense of human rights. In December 1978, in Moscow, the defendant Perchatkin signed an appeal entitled ‘30 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,’ which contains false fabrications that many important articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are violated in the USSR—freedom of belief and freedom to receive and disseminate information, freedom of religion, the right to freely choose a country of residence and a place of residence within the country, openness and fairness of courts, freedom of agitation, and also slanderously asserts that persecutions of believers of all churches, psychiatric repressions for political motives, forced labor in prisons, and discrimination in education and labor on religious grounds take place in our country. On December 20, 1978, Perchatkin took part in preparing and attempted, through the Nakhodka post office, to send a telegram to the President of the United States, which contained approval of the President’s activities in his efforts to protect human rights, as well as a provocative call to him and the American people to offer a prayer for those who do not have freedom of religion. At the end of 1979, Perchatkin prepared a statement ‘To the Congress and Government of the USA, the Governments of Canada, Australia, England, West Germany, France, and Italy,’ which contains knowingly false fabrications about Soviet reality, distorts the programmatic provisions of the CPSU on questions of religion in the USSR, and Soviet legislation on religious cults… The judge listed all the appeals, statements, and letters I had prepared and continued: The defendant stated that he does not consider the documents he prepared to be slanderous and distorting Soviet reality, nor those documents where he is listed as having signed them, since they allegedly reflect actual events and facts, and therefore he does not consider himself guilty. Having examined the case materials and investigated the evidence, the judicial collegium finds that the charges brought against Perchatkin were confirmed in the court session, and Boris Georgievich Perchatkin is guilty of the crimes committed. Based on the foregoing, the judicial collegium finds that Perchatkin’s actions were correctly qualified under Article 190, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. In assigning punishment to Perchatkin, the judicial collegium takes into account that the defendant continued his criminal activities for a prolonged period, despite a warning given to him by official bodies to cease such unlawful activities. At the same time, the collegium takes into account the specific circumstances of his committing the crimes and the data on Perchatkin’s personality: he has no prior convictions and supports six minor children. Based on the above and guided by Articles 301-303 and 312 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, the judicial collegium for criminal cases of the Primorsky Regional Court has sentenced: Boris Georgievich Perchatkin is found guilty of committing a crime under Article 190, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and sentenced to punishment—two years of deprivation of freedom, to be served in a general-regime correctional labor colony. No one, not even Zina, was allowed to approach me. I was led out of the courtroom. Friends threw bouquets of flowers to me. I walked, and red tulips fell at my feet. I caught one bouquet, smelled it, and stretched out my hand to pass it to Zina. Zina reached out her hand. I stretched far enough to touch her hand and passed the flowers. I filed a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court of the RSFSR. The Supreme Court left my appeal without satisfaction and upheld the verdict. After the verdict was upheld, I was kept for another half a year in the Vladivostok prison, where every day I awaited transfer to the camp.

Print, save, letter .pdf