▪ THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, May 16, 1975 25 A New Look at Russian Terror By ALLEN A. WARSEN To the vast "Gulag" litera- ture was added "An Ameri- can in the Gulag" by Alex- ander Dolgun with Patrick Watson (published by Alfred A. Knopf). It is a chronicle of man's inhu- manity to man. It brings to mind the torture and slaughter of the Russian Yiddish poets, novelists, art- ists, and many other out- standing Jewish personali- ties. It reminds us of the suffering of the Jewish ac- tivists whose only wish is to get out of the "Archi- pelago." The book tells of the phys- ical and mental suffering of an American employee of the U.S. Embassy in Mos- cow who had been kid- napped by agents of the MGB (Ministry of State Se- curity) and hailed to the in- famous prison Lubyanka popularly known as "Gos Uzbas," the Government Terror. He was accused of espio- nage, political terrorism, and anti-Soviet propaganda. From the Lubyanka he was transferred to the Lo- fortova prison and from there via the Butyrka prison to Sukhanovka, the "legendary horror prison of Russia" from where, it is rumored, nobody re- turns alive. The prisons were Dolgun's home for 18 months. It is important to record the reasons people in Russia were imprisoned: • Engineer Dmitri Rago-_ zin upon his return from abroad was accused of "conspiring with the inter- national bourgeoisie and high treason." • Feldman, a correspond- ent for the "Red Star" in London was sent to a prison camp for making a joke about Russia. • Biologist Wladimir Ef- froimson served two 10 year sentences for disagreeing with Lysenko's theory that "environment and behavior can change hereditary char- acteristics." • Ophthamologist Albert Feldman, an Orthodox Jew, for praising religion and criticizing atheism served 15 years in a labor camp in .Central Asia. • Teacher of English in Moscow, Norma Schickman, a girl from Brooklyn, served 25 years in a slave labor - camp on a charge of espio- nage. Dolgun's interrogators were vile, subhuman crea- tures — all high ranking officers of the MGB. How- ever, the most ferocious in- terrogator was Gen. Ryu- min next in rank to Victor Abakumov, the minister of state security, the right- hand man of Lavrenti Beria. Eventually all three were executed. The following is an exam- ple of an interrogation:. "Ryumin yelled. He knocked me off the chair with a blow to the head. It hurt like hell. I roared as I fell on the floor . . the blows (with a.rub- ber club) went right on the sciatic nerve, blew up inside my head, all over my body, total explosions of pain. I passed out." What happened_to Dolgun as a result of the blows? "What I do remember — and I still feel the shock that came with seeing the sight that will still form itself horrifyingly in front of me if I let it — is that somehow I was naked. It must have been at the bath. "I looked at my shrunken body and I saw a devastat- ing thing: my knees were thicker than my other parts of my legs! I nearly fainted to see this. "The terrible thilig that swam into my mind was a photograph in "Life" magazine of some survi- vors of Belsen or Ausch- witz some one of the Nazi extermination camps. The staring crea- tures were not really -peo- ple. They stood or lay or clung to fences, sur- rounded by the bodies of those who had died the morning of liberation or perhaps the day before, and some of those bodies xv FOUND IN ;<(' ., DETROIT had been torn open for their livers and other soft parts." No wonder people would. confess to crimes they never committed and involve other people they never saw or heard of.' From the Moscow pris- ons, Dolgun "by decision of the Special Committee of X THE LOST ART x the Ministry of State Secu- X OF TAILORING rity (the MGB)," was sent- At Steve Petix, the enced to serve 25 years in a X Where? home of the immaculate "corrective labor camp" at fit in custom, tailored-to- Dzhezkzgan in Central Asia. measure or quality brand X' clothing. After Stalin's death, Dol- X Open 94' gun and thousands of the, 5:30 Sati_ other of the 17 million polit- 9-9Thurg.".9 Fri- teveTt 4,, Ant* Ple/nna , ical prisoners were freed. CHIldit cede aPnepted Alexander Dolgun's "An American in the Gulag" is a X31455 SOUtHFIELD ROAD / 645-5560 >1( ,, Between 13 & 14 Mile r 1\ story freedom loving people X 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXI will appreciate. 1 SELMA'S YARN SHOP HAS NEEDLEPOINT SPECIALTIES • Knitting • Crocheting Free Instructions Mon.-Sat. 10-5 15075 W. Lincoln 1 blk. E. of Grnfld. Lincoln Towers Apt. ground floor 968-1015 ALEXANDER DOLGUN stw - t o OP EN IN At plaza deli - There's nothing quite like it - We've got a wide assortment of all your favorite Kosher salami and hot dogs, hbt corned beef, pastrami, etc... Homemade potato salad, cole slaw, bean salad and chopped liver. We specialize in TRAYS for all Occasions. Delicious Fresh Baked Goods Daily... cheesecake, pies, coffee cakes, pastry, assorted breads and much more to please your palate! featuring. . . Good old fashioned "Saturday Nite and Sunday Morning Fixin's" Fresh Fish delivered daily. . . Smoked Fish • Sable • Lox • Kippered Salmon & Whitefish • Israel, Europe A ccord Examined TEL AVIV (ZINS) — Rat- have represented a protec- ification of the European tive tariff, as it were, for Common Market's agree- domestic production. Aboli- ment with Israel has a spe- tion of the import duties cial significance. will compel -the Israelis to From a political angle the face up to open competition agreement comes at a time with European producers. of intensified economic Arab boycott of Israel. From the economic 'side the Libya Tried to Buy agreement now affords Is- Bomb from China rael an opportunity to ex- pand its exports to Europe — NEW YORK — Libyan since it will have the same leaders tried td buy a nu- privileges as those enjoyed clear bomb from Peking for by other countries that have use in war against Israel but ties to the Common Market. failed in late 1969 or early The agreement obligates 1970, according to extracts Israel to free the import of published this week in Lon- European goods from cus- don from a book by one of toms duties, which till now Egypt's leading journalists. Mohammed Heikal, for- Israelis Accused mer editor of the Cairo newspaper Al Ahram, said of Arab Clashes the Chinese turned down TUNIS (ZINS) — Leba- the request-but offered re- non's Prime Minister search assistance so Libya _Rashid el Salah accused Is- eventually could build its raeli agents of "provoking own nuclear weapons. the bloody clashed" that had Heikal said Libyan leader taken place in his country Moammer Khadafy between the Palestinian ter- Col. raised the question of rorists and the Christian atomic weapons with Nas- Phalangists. ser soon after Khadafy took The armed clashes, which power in September, 1969. continued for four days, Several months after Nas- claimed 200 casualties on ser told him neither the Is- both sides. The Lebanese Premier raelis nor the Arabs pos- declared that "in recent sessed atomic weapons, weeks some 250 Israeli Khadafy sent his prime agents entered Lebanon on minister to Cairo with de- forged papers and a number tails of the plan to buy the of them have been ar- bomb from China, Heikal said. rested.". X XXXXXXXX)