Nine Soviet Jews Go on Trial Tuesday; Soviets Trying to Keep Trial Secret

Nine Soviet Jewish men arrested last June and July for anti-Soviet activities will go on trial in Leningrad on Tuesday, reliable Jewish sources reported to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The sources said the Soviet government was trying to hush up the impending trial, which it plans to hold in secret. The defendants will be Viktor David Boguslavsky, 31; Grigory Ilya (Hillel) Butman, 38; David Iserovich Chernoglaz, 31; Solomon (Shlomo) Dreizner, 39; Anatoly Moiseyevich Goldfeld, 25; Lassal Kaminsky, 41; Lev Leibovich Korenblit, 49; Vladimir Osherovich Mogilever, 31; and Lev Naumovich Yagman, 31. The sources also reported that as of now, three other Riga Jews are scheduled to go on trial with Ruth Aloksandrovich on May 24: Boris Maftsier, 24; Mikhail Shepshelovich, 28; and Arkady Shpilberg, 33. Maftsier and Shpilberg were arrested last August; Miss Aleksandrovich, 24, and Shepshelovich were arrested last October.

These four are the last of the Riga Jewish prisoners, nine of them were sentenced in Leningrad last December and one was released. The Jewish sources said that of 40 Jewish prisoners in the USSR in recent years, 16 have been sentenced and 24 await trial in Riga and Kisbinev. Nine Jews went on trial in Leningrad on Jan. 6, but the proceedings were terminated without explanation after 10 minutes. Of the defendants reported by sources then, seven were the same as those now reported to be going on trial in Leningrad May 11–Boguslavsky, Butman, Dreizner, Kaminsky, Lev Korenblit. Mogilever and Yagman. The other two Jam 6 defendants are not on the new list–Mikhail Korenblit, brother of Lev Korenblit, and Viktor Shtilbans, 28.