Soviet peace activist jailed

MOSCOW - Oleg Radzinsky, a member of a small unsanctioned Soviet peace group, was sentenced to a year in prison and five years' internal exile on October 13 on charges of slandering the Soviet state, reported The New York Times.

Mr. Radzinsky, 25, has already spent nearly a year in detention, so he was expected to be sent directly to exile somewhere in the Soviet hinterland.

The article under which he was sentenced, Article 190 of the Russian Criminal Code, carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and five years' internal exile. There was no immediate explanation for the relative leniency.

Mr. Radzinsky was the first member of the so-called Group of Trust to be tried, although his friends said the charges against him were based on writings found at his home rather than on his activities in the peace group.

He is said to have first fallen afoul of the authorities for holding seminars on banned Soviet writers.

The peace group was founded last year to promote understanding between the Soviet Union and the United States. A founder of the group, Sergei Batovrin, an artist, was allowed to leave for the West earlier this year.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 23, 1983, No. 43, Vol. LI

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