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cheek. Earlier, during an interrogation, I had been warned to expect something like this. To divert suspi cion the KGB broke the windows of two of my neigh bors and then broke the windows of friends who had refused to testify against me. The KGB continued to call me in for questioning, insisting that I was violating Soviet laws when I gave foreign correspondents news about my husband’s condition. Two years later, when my husband was sent to the Serbsky Institute for a psychiatric assessment, the KGB tried to silence me by intimidating my son, who was now old enough to serve as a victim. His school grades were lowered, fights with him were staged on the street, and rumors were spread that he was a juvenile delin quent — all to make me fear for my child and force me to acquiesce. During the thirteen years that my ex- husband was imprisoned, I was forced to endure all this and much more. Yet, what happened to me is not in the least bit unusual, for the wife of a Ukrainian political prisoner it is typical. This is what the Ukrainian Helsinki Group wrote in regard to the situation of Vira Lisova: Being out of work for so many years, she led a beggar’s existence. Finally, she received temporary work. But still she had no peace: collaborators of the KGB regularly broke into her apartment, terrorizing her psychologically, threatening and frightening the children. After she wrote her letter in defense of her husband to the French Communist Party and other organizations, the organs of the KGB became rabid. By phone, she was ordered to come to the Ukrainian KGB for a conversation. She refused. That same day a messenger brought a notice summoning her to appear as a witness, not, however, before a case examiner, but directly to the Ukrainian KGB. She refused, on the basis that the summons, from a legal standpoint, was groundless. On March 9, 1977, while she was at work, an operative of the Ukrainian KGB who refused to give his name, called her into the office of the deputy director of the Institute for the Organization of Labor and Modernization of Industry. He ordered the administration officials to leave and began to try to break her down psychologically. Here are some gems of his expressions: “You are an inde cent woman! You take part in nationalist activities, just like your husband! You pass information abroad.” (This was a ref erence to a letter to G. Marchais). "You were at the sendoff for Amalrik. You kept contact with Rudenko. You reproduced copies of your husband’s ‘Open Letter’. You receive packages and help from nationalist sources. If you have the conscience of a Soviet person, give them up!” V. Lisova answered that if the packages were from hostile sources, the KGB could prohibit their delivery. The collabora tor of the Ukrainian KGB replied that they have no such power, but that she herself was obliged to do so. "You bitterly hate the KGB and the Soviet government. You live in an environment that is hostile to the Soviet system. We fight for you. We will be reporting to the procurator. We can imprison you, but we feel sorry for you." V. Lisova walked out of the office in a terrible frame of mind. After taking medication, she went to the procurator of the Republic who oversees the KGB, where she wrote a state ment about all this. The procurator promised to pass on her statement to the KGB for “review”. At home V. Lisova fell seriously ill. Emergency aid personnel diagnosed a pre-heart failure condition. Rest and treatment were prescribed. The following day — more calls from the KGB and prom ises to continue the “conversation” after her recovery. The per sonnel office of the Institute informed her that she was fired and that same day brought to her home her job registration book. Thus, V. Lisova — the mother of two children, a sick and unprotected woman — finds herself without work, without any means of subsistence, and under the Damoclean sword of the KGB. When V. Lisova promised to put in a complaint with V. Fedorchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian KGB, she received the cynical reply: “Be sure to write also to Andropov!”* One could write volumes about the life of the family of a political prisoner — material difficulties, long years of loneliness, problems in the upbringing of children. Lida Ruban, the wife of Petro Ruban, who recently was arrested for the third time, is unemployed. Suffering from tuberculosis, she has to support her two children. The eldest, a 10 year-old son, is paralyzed as a result of a car accident. How can thes family survive, having lost its only bread-winner? Several years ago, similar predicaments were made bearable by parcels from Ukrainians outside the Soviet Union. Now, this source of support has been cut off by Soviet authorities, paid parcels are prohibited. The Solzhenitsyn Foundation has been publicly condemned by the Soviet mass media as CIA funded and its distrib utors have been arrested. How is Lida Ruban going to manage in this desperate situation? There are other problems for these women, such as bringing up children and explaining to them why their father was arrested: he did not steal anything, murder anybody or even offend anyone. A certain vacuum is created around the family of a person who has been convicted for political reasons: even children know that the KGB keeps the prisoner’s home under surveillance and listens in to all conversa tions, specifically those on the telephone. People you thought were your tried and trusted friends look the other way when they see you coming, because they fear they may be thought disloyal to the State. Who can blame them for not wanting anything to do with the KGB-machine? Only a small circle of friends remains, friends whose decency and self-respect will not allow them to abandon a person. Yet the KGB tries to scare even them away. End of part I RAISSA MOROZ Taken from the book The Human Rights Movement in Ukraine: Docu ments of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group 1976-1980. 26 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, СІЧЕНЬ 1986 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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