The “Guardian” reported here today that the Russian-Jewish poet, Josef Brodsky, who was sentenced last March to five years’ hard labor by a Leningrad court on the charge of being “a parasite, ” has been released.
The harsh sentence evoked strong protests on the part of Soviet intellectuals and writers who claimed that Brodsky had, in reality, been punished for “anti-Soviet” attitudes. Copies of the appeal voiced by the writers on behalf of the young poet were circulated throughout the Soviet Union.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
