Silva Zalmanson Kuznetsov was not only offered a reduction of her Soviet prison sentence if she recanted her charge of inadequate medical care but was asked “to be a spy” for the authorities, according to the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. The SSSJ today updated a report in Amsterdam yesterday by the prisoner’s brother, E. Zalmanson, that she had been offered a 4 1/2-year reduction of her 10-year term if she withdrew her charge.
The SSSJ identified the Soviet official involved as Zipulishkin and said he made both the commutation and “spy” offers Dec. 23. Mrs. Kuznetsov refused both, the student group reported, asserting: “Even if they put me in for 20 years I won’t do this.” The SSSJ added that similar offers were made to her by the Mordovian chief prosecutor in Zipulishkin’s presence. Mrs. Zalmanson’s condition, heretofore reported as grave, is now said to be “slightly improved”; she did not participate in the hunger strike last Friday.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
