The Committee on Human Rights in the USSR (russian: Комите́т прав челове́ка в СССР) was founded in 1970 by dissident
Valery Chalidze
Author and publisher Valery Nikolaevich Chalidze (russian: Вале́рий Никола́евич Чали́дзе; ka, ვალერი ჭალიძე: 25 November 1938 – 3 January 2018) was a Soviet dissident and human rights activis ...
together with
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for nu ...
and
Andrei Tverdokhlebov
Andrei Nikolayevich Tverdokhlebov (russian: Андре́й Никола́евич Твердохле́бов, 30 September 1940, Moscow – 3 December 2011, Pennsylvania, United States) was a Soviet physicist, dissident and human rights activist ...
.
Members
Valery Chalidze was a writer and dissident who published the
samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...
journal ''Social Problems''. Andrei Sakharov was an eminent
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
nuclear physicist
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter.
Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...
who had publicly opposed the Soviet plans for atmospheric
nuclear tests
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...
. In 1968, Sakharov had published "Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom," a plea for
nuclear disarmament
Nuclear may refer to:
Physics
Relating to the Atomic nucleus, nucleus of the atom:
*Nuclear engineering
*Nuclear physics
*Nuclear power
*Nuclear reactor
*Nuclear weapon
*Nuclear medicine
*Radiation therapy
*Nuclear warfare
Mathematics
*Nuclear ...
emphasizing the role of human rights. As a result, his professorship was revoked by Soviet authorities. He became a spokesman for the
human rights in the Soviet Union
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, an ...
. The third founding member was physicist
Andrey Tverdokhlebov
Andrei Nikolayevich Tverdokhlebov (russian: Андре́й Никола́евич Твердохле́бов, 30 September 1940, Moscow – 3 December 2011, Pennsylvania, United States) was a Soviet physicist, dissident and human rights activist ...
.
Later the Committee was joined by
Igor Shafarevich
Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich (russian: И́горь Ростисла́вович Шафаре́вич; 3 June 1923 – 19 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. ...
, a mathematician and corresponding member of the
Academy of Sciences
An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unite ...
. Mathematician
Aleksandr Yesenin-Volpin and physicist Boris Zukerman became legal experts for the group. Writer
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
and dissident bard
Aleksandr Galich became honorary members.
The Committee was also joined by Grigory Podyapolsky.
Other prominent members of the Committee included
Yelena Bonner
Yelena Georgiyevna Bonner (russian: link=no, Елена Георгиевна Боннэр; 15 February 1923 – 18 June 2011)[ ...](_blank)
and
Pavel Litvinov
Pavel Mikhailovich Litvinov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Литви́нов; born 6 July 1940) is a Russian-born U.S. physicist, writer, teacher, human rights activist and former Soviet-era dissident.
Biography
The grandson of ...
.
Goals
Unlike its predecessor, the
, the Committee functioned within a framework defined by its founding statutes. It was defined it as "a creative association acting in accordance with the laws of the land." The goals of the committee were listed in their founding statement:
* Consultative assistance to the organs of government in the establishment and application of guarantees of human rights;
* Research into the theoretical aspects of the human rights question and into the specific nature of this question in a socialist society;
* Legal education of the public, including the publication of international and Soviet documents on human rights.
The Committee opposed
secret trial
A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment.
...
s,
capital punishment
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, and
punitive psychiatry
Political abuse of psychiatry, also commonly referred to as punitive psychiatry, is the misuse of psychiatry, including diagnosis, detention, and treatment, for the purposes of obstructing the human rights of individuals and/or groups in a society ...
.
It specifically ruled out any cooperation with organizations that sought the overthrow of the Soviet state.
[
]
Activities
The Committee was the first independent association in the Soviet Union to receive membership in an international organization. In June 1971, it became an affiliate of the International League of Human Rights
The International League for Human Rights (ILHR) is a human rights organization with headquarters in New York City.
Claiming to be the oldest human rights organization in the United States, the ILHR defines its mission as "defending human right ...
, a nongovernmental organization with consultative status under
the United Nations, and International Institute of Human Rights
The International Institute of Human Rights (French: ''Institut international des droits de l'homme,'' IIDH) is an association under French local law based in Strasbourg, France. It includes approximately 300 members (individual and collective) wor ...
. It also became a member of the International Institute of Law
The Institute of International Law ( French: Institut de Droit International) is an organization devoted to the study and development of international law, whose membership comprises the world's leading public international lawyers. The organizat ...
.
The Committee was kept under constant surveillance by the KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
. Head of the KGB Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...
wrote in a report to the Central Committee of 1 March 1973: "The anti-social activities of the so-called Human Rights Committee decreased in 1972 as a result of measures taken by the KGB. These measures included compromising Chalidze's reputation, stripping him of Soviet citizenship uring his visit to the United States and inciting disagreement and dissension among the Committee's members and sympathisers, which led to Tverdokhlebov's resignation."[
According to Sakharov's memoirs, during 1973 and 1974, he, Grigory Podyapolsky and ]Igor Shafarevich
Igor Rostislavovich Shafarevich (russian: И́горь Ростисла́вович Шафаре́вич; 3 June 1923 – 19 February 2017) was a Soviet and Russian mathematician who contributed to algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. ...
continued to regularly meet at his apartment and continue the Committee's work on documenting human rights abuses. While several reports were produced, by then they began to feel the Committee had outlived its usefulness.
See also
*
*Moscow Helsinki Group
The Moscow Helsinki Group (also known as the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group, russian: link=no, Московская Хельсинкская группа) is today one of Russia's leading human rights organisations. It was originally set up in 1976 ...
References
Bibliography
*
{{Authority control
Organizations established in 1970
1970 establishments in the Soviet Union
Human rights organizations based in the Soviet Union
Human rights organizations based in Russia
Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union