The United Nations has received a Russian-language petition by 56 Russian citizens protesting political trials which cites, among others, cases involving Jews. The document was transmitted to the UN, which has turned it over to its Economic and Social Council, from London offices of Amnesty International.
The petition calling for an investigation of “the repression of basic civil rights in the Soviet Union” mentions the trial of Soviet-Jewish writer Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky for publishing artistic works critical of the USSR. It also mentions the imprisonment of Jewish engineer Boris Kochubiyevsky, sentenced to three years in a prison camp for allegedly slandering the USSR and its social system.
The document, sources here said, has been registered and will be turned over to the Human Rights Commission, where other such material is traditionally sent. It will also be sent to Moscow, without the signatories’ names, for comment. The New York Times reported today from Moscow that two copies of the appeal were refused in Moscow by Soviet personnel who staff two UN offices there. The petitioners were told that their appeal could not be accepted because the officers were not empowered to accept such documents from individuals, the newspaper reported.
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.
