Ruth Aleksandrovich Says Sylva Zalmanson’s Condition Worse

Ruth Aleksandrovich, who was released from the Potma forced labor camp in soviet Mordovia last week, expressed serious concern over the condition of her fellow inmate, Silva Zalmanson Kuznetzov, who she said was ill and growing weaker from lack of food, Miss Aleksandrovich spoke of conditions in the prison camp and of her own plans in a telephone interview from Riga published today by the Amsterdam newspaper, Telegraaf. She said that Mrs. Zalmanson, who was convicted in the Leningrad hijack trial of Dec. 1970, was not getting the food parcels sent her, She said the strict regime at the camp bars prisoners from receiving food from the outside to supplement the meager prison diet even though they are forced to work long hours under difficult conditions.

Miss Aleksandrovich said that she herself was still weak as the result of an illness she contracted in prison and the lack of proper food. Miss Aleksandrovich was freed after completing a one year sentence for alleged anti-Soviet activities. She was given an exit visa to join her mother and younger brother in Israel. But she told the Telegraaf that she refuses to leave Russia without her finance, Isaiah Averbuch, who, she said, has not been granted a visa, contrary to earlier reports that he had. Earlier reports said that Miss Aleksandrovich planned to go to Israel later this month.