Marchenko Anatoly Tikhonovich is one of the many political prisoners of the Soviet period who died while serving his sentence. This man did a lot to rid the country of political persecution. For which Anatoly Tikhonovich Marchenko paid first with his freedom, and then with his life. Biography, awards and interesting facts about the writer - all this will be discussed in detail in the article.
First imprisonment and escape
Anatoly was born in Siberia in 1938. His father was a railroad worker. The future writer graduated from 8 classes, after which he worked in oil fields, mines and in geological exploration expeditions. In early 1958, after a mass brawl that took place in a workers' hostel, he was arrested. Marchenko Anatoly himself did not take part in the fight, but he was sentenced to two years in prison. A year later, Anatoly Tikhonovich escaped from prison. And shortly after his escape to the colony, news came of hisrelease, as well as the removal of a criminal record. The decision was made by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In the period from 1959 to 1960, Anatoly Marchenko wandered around the country without documents, content with odd jobs.
Attempt to leave the USSR, new arrest
Marchenko tried to flee the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1960, but was detained at the border. The court sentenced him to 6 years in prison for treason. It happened on March 3, 1961. Marchenko served time in the political camps of Mordovia, as well as in the Vladimir prison. In detention, he fell ill and lost his hearing.
Meet Y. Daniel and others
Anatoly Tikhonovich was released in November 1966. He was released already hardened in the struggle for his own rights, a staunch opponent of the current regime and the ideology that serves it. Anatoly Marchenko settled in the Vladimir region (Aleksandrov), worked as a loader. While in the camp, he met Julius Daniel. This writer brought him together with representatives of the dissident intelligentsia of the city of Moscow.
New friends, including Larisa Bogoraz, his future wife, helped Anatoly Tikhonovich realize what he had in mind - to create a book dedicated to Soviet political prisons and camps in the 1960s. My Testimony was completed in the fall of 1967. They became very popular in samizdat, and after a while were published abroad. This work has been translated into a number of European languages.
"My testimony" and theirprice
Detailed memoirs about the political camps destroyed the illusions that were common both in the USSR and in the West. After all, many at that time believed that gross arbitrariness, open violence and political repression against dissidents remained in the past after Stalin's death. Marchenko was ready to be arrested for this book. However, the leadership of the KGB did not dare to produce it, they planned to deport the author abroad. They even prepared a decree depriving Marchenko of Soviet citizenship. But this plan was not implemented for some reason.
Publicistic activities, new deadlines
Anatoly Tikhonovich in 1968 first tried himself as a publicist. The main theme of several of his texts in the genre of "open letters" was the inhuman treatment of political prisoners. In the same year, on July 22, he wrote an open letter addressed to several foreign and Soviet newspapers. It spoke about the threat of suppressing the Prague Spring by military means. A few days later, Marchenko was arrested in Moscow. The charge against him was violation of the passport regime. The fact is that former political prisoners in those years were not allowed to live in the capital. On August 21, 1968, Marchenko was sentenced to a year in prison. He served this term in the Perm region (Nyrob criminal camp).
On the eve of his release, a new case was opened against Anatoly Tikhonovich. He was accused of spreading defamatorythe Soviet system of "slanderous fabrications" among the prisoners. In August 1969, Marchenko was sentenced to two years in the camps.
After his release, in 1971, Anatoly Tikhonovich settled in the Kaluga region (Tarusa) together with L. Bogoraz, who by that time had become his wife. Marchenko was under administrative supervision.
Marchenko's first hunger strike
In 1973, the authorities again wanted to send Anatoly abroad. He was forced to write an application for emigration, threatening with a term in case of refusal. This threat was carried out in February 1975. Marchenko Anatoly was sentenced to four years in exile for violating the rules of administrative supervision. Immediately after this decision was made, Anatoly Tikhonovich went on a hunger strike and held it for two months. Then he served a link in the Irkutsk region (the village of Chuna).
Themes of journalism, MHG
Marchenko, even while in exile, continued his journalistic and literary activities. He described the story of the new case brought against him, as well as the brutal transfer procedure, in his book titled "From Tarusa to Chuna", which was published in New York in 1976.
Another cross-cutting theme of journalism created by Marchenko is the dangers that the "Munich" policy of appeasement of the USSR bears to Western democracies. This is discussed in detail in Anatoly Tikhonovich's article "Tertium datur - the third is given", created in 1976 together with L. Bogoraz. The authors criticize the trend inwithin which international relations developed in the first half of the 1970s. They are opposed not so much to the idea of détente as such, but to the West's acceptance of the Soviet understanding of this idea.
In May 1976, Marchenko was included in the MHG (Moscow Helsinki Group), but did not take an active part in its work, partly because he was in exile, partly because of his disagreement to rely on the Final Act adopted at the Helsinki meeting.
Starting a new book
Anatoly Marchenko was released in 1978 (the time of transfer and pre-trial detention, according to Soviet laws, counts as one day for three). Marchenko settled in the Vladimir region (city of Karabanovo), worked in a boiler room as a stoker. In the historical collection of samizdat "Memory" (third issue of 1978) there appeared a selection of materials dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the publication of "My Testimony". In addition, the 2nd chapter from Marchenko's new book "Live like everyone else" was placed in it. This work describes the history of the creation of "My Testimony".
"Live like everyone else" and political and journalistic articles
In early 1981, Anatoly Marchenko continued to work on the book "Live like everyone else." He managed to prepare for publication a part of it, covering the period from 1966 to 1969. At the same time, Anatoly Tikhonovich created a number of articles of a political and journalistic orientation. One of them is devoted to the threat of military intervention of the USSR in the affairs of Poland after the revolution."Solidarity".
Last arrest of Marchenko
Marchenko Anatoly was arrested for the sixth time on March 17, 1981. This arrest was his last. This time, the authorities were unwilling to fabricate a "non-political" accusation. Anatoly Tikhonovich was accused of agitation and propaganda against the USSR. Immediately after his arrest, Marchenko stated that he considered the KGB and the CPSU to be criminal organizations and would not participate in the investigation. In early September 1981, the Vladimir Regional Court sentenced him to 10 years in the camps, as well as to a subsequent exile for a period of 5 years.
Andrey Sakharov, in his article titled "Save Anatoly Marchenko", called this sentence "outright reprisal" for books about the Gulag (Marchenko was one of the first to talk about it) and "blatant revenge" for honesty, steadfastness and independence of character and crazy.
Last years of life
Writer Anatoly Tikhonovich Marchenko served his sentence in political camps in Perm. The administration constantly harassed him. Marchenko was deprived of correspondence and meetings, for the slightest offense he was put in a punishment cell. It was very difficult in the last years of his life for such a writer as Anatoly Marchenko. The author's books, of course, were banned. In December 1984, security officers brutally beat Anatoly Tikhonovich. In October 1985, for "systematic violations of the regime," Marchenko was transferred to the harsher conditions of the Chistopol prison. Here he was waiting for almost complete isolation. Under such conditions, hunger strikes were the only wayresistance. The last of them, the longest (lasting 117 days), Marchenko began on August 4, 1986. Anatoly Tikhonovich's demand was to stop the abuse of political prisoners in the Soviet Union and to release them. Marchenko ended his hunger strike on November 28, 1986. A few days later, he suddenly became ill. Was sent on December 8 to the local hospital Anatoly Marchenko. His biography ends on the same day, in the evening. It was then that the writer died. According to the official version, death occurred as a result of cardiopulmonary failure.
Victory of A. T. Marchenko
Marchenko won, but he did not manage to find out about it. Shortly after his death, the political camps were liquidated. It became not only an inevitable matter, but also an urgent one, as Daniel noted. December 11, 1986 Anatoly Tikhonovich was buried in the cemetery in Chistopol. Five days later (after M. Gorbachev called A. Sakharov, the exiled academician), a new period in the history of our country began. Unfortunately, during his lifetime, Anatoly Marchenko did not wait for the award. In 1988 he was posthumously awarded the Prize. A. Sakharova.
His works began to be published in his homeland since 1989. Anatoly Marchenko, whose books are read to this day, fought against injustice all his life. Give credit to this great man.
