Writer, dissident, Soviet political prisoner Marchenko Anatoly Tikhonovich: biography, features of activity and interesting facts

Marchenko Anatoly Tihonovich is one of many political prisoners of the Soviet period, who died while serving his term. This man did a lot to save the country from political persecution. For that he paid first freedom, and then life Anatoly Tikhonovich Marchenko. Biography, awards and interesting facts about the writer - all this will be discussed in detail in the article.

First conclusion and escape

Anatoly was born in Siberia in 1938. His father was a railway worker. The future writer graduated from 8 classes, after which he worked in the oil fields, mines and geological exploration expeditions. In early 1958, after a mass brawl in the working dormitory, he was arrested. Marchenko Anatoly himself did not take part in the fight, but he was sentenced to two years in prison. A year later Anatoly Tikhonovich escaped from prison. And soon after his escape to the colony came the news of his release, as well as the removal of his conviction. The decision was made by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In the period from 1959 to 1960, Anatoly Marchenko wandered without documents around the country, content with casual earnings.

An attempt to leave the USSR, a new arrest

Marchenko tried to flee the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1960, but he was detained on the border. The court sentenced him to six years in prison for treason. It happened on March 3, 1961. Marchenko served time in the political camps of Mordovia, as well as in the Vladimir prison. In conclusion, he fell ill, lost his hearing.

Acquaintance with J. Daniel and others

Anatoly Tikhonovich was released in November 1966. He went free already seasoned in the struggle for his rights, a convinced opponent of the current regime and the ideology that serves him. Anatoly Marchenko settled in the Vladimir region (city of Alexandrov), worked as a loader. While in the camp, he met with Julius Daniel. This writer brought him with representatives of the dissident intelligentsia of Moscow.

New friends, among whom was Larisa Bogoraz, his future wife, helped Anatoly Tikhonovich implement what he had in mind-to create a book dedicated to Soviet political prisons and camps of the 1960s. "My testimony" was completed in the autumn of 1967. They became very popular in samizdat, and after a while they were published abroad. This work has been translated into a number of European languages.

"My testimony" and their price

A detailed memoir evidence of political camps destroyed illusions that were common both in the USSR and in the West. After all, many at that time considered that gross arbitrariness, open violence and political repression towards dissenters remained in the past after Stalin's death. Marchenko was ready to be arrested for this book. However, the leadership of the KGB did not dare to produce it, the author planned to deport him abroad. They even prepared a decree to deprive Marchenko of Soviet citizenship. But this plan was not realized for some reason.

Publicistic activity, new terms

Anatoly Tikhonovich in 1968 for the first time tried himself as a publicist. The main theme of several of his texts in the genre of "open letters" was inhuman treatment of political prisoners. In the same year, on July 22, he wrote an open letter addressed to several foreign and Soviet newspapers. It spoke of the threat of suppression of the Prague Spring by military methods. A few days later Marchenko was arrested in Moscow. The charge brought against him was the violation of the passport regime. The fact is that the former political prisoner was not allowed to live in the capital in those years. On August 21, 1968, Marchenko was sentenced to a year in prison. He served this term in the Perm region (Nyrobsky criminal camp).

On the eve of his release, a new case was launched against Anatoly Tikhonovich. He was accused of disseminating defamatory slanderous fabrications among prisoners. In August 1969, Marchenko was sentenced to two years in the camps.

After liberation, in 1971, Anatoly Tikhonovich settled in the Kaluga region (Tarusa) along with L. Bogoraz, who by that time had become his wife. Marchenko was under administrative supervision.

The first hunger strike Marchenko

In 1973, the authorities again wanted to send Anatoly abroad. He was forced to write an application for emigration, threatening the period in case of refusal. This threat was fulfilled in February 1975. Marchenko Anatoly was sentenced to four years of exile for violation of the rules of administrative supervision. Immediately upon issuing this decision Anatoly Tikhonovich went on a hunger strike and held it for two months. Then he served a link in the Irkutsk region (the village of Chun).

Themes of journalism, MHG

Marchenko, even in exile, continued his journalistic and literary activities. He described the history of the new case brought against him, as well as the brutal procedure for the removal in his book titled "From Tarusa to the Chun", which was published in New York in 1976.

Another cross-cutting issue of the journalism created by Marchenko is the dangers that the "Munich" policy of appeasing the USSR to Western democracies bears. This is described in detail in Anatoly Tikhonovich's article "Tertium datur - the third given", created in 1976 together with L. Bogoraz. The authors criticize the direction within which international relations developed in the first half of the 1970s. They oppose not so much the idea of detente as such, but rather against the acceptance by the West of a Soviet understanding of this idea.

In May 1976, Marchenko was included in the MHG (Moscow Helsinki Group), but did not actively participate in its work, partly because he was in exile, partly because of disagreement to rely on the Final Act adopted at the Helsinki meeting.

Start a new book

Anatoly Marchenko was released in 1978 (the time of removal and preliminary detention under Soviet law is counted on time as one day in three). Marchenko settled in the Vladimir region (city of Karabanovo), worked in a boiler stoker. In the historical collection of samizdat "Memory" (the third issue of 1978) a collection of materials appeared, timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the release of "My Testimony." In addition, it was placed the second chapter of the new book Marchenko "Live as All." This work describes the history of the creation of "My Testimony."

"Live like everyone else" and political and journalistic articles

In early 1981, Marchenko Anatoly continued to work on the book "Live As All". He managed to prepare for publication its part, covering the period from 1966 to 1969. At the same time, Anatoly Tikhonovich created a number of articles of a political and journalistic orientation. One of them is devoted to the threat of military intervention by the USSR in the affairs of Poland after the Solidarity revolution.

The last arrest of Marchenko

The sixth time Marchenko Anatoly was arrested on March 17, 1981. This arrest was his last. This time, the authorities did not want to fabricate a "non-political" accusation. Anatoly Tikhonovich was accused of agitation and propaganda against the USSR. Immediately after the arrest, Marchenko stated that he considered the KGB and the CPSU to be criminal organizations and would not participate in the investigation. In early September 1981, the Vladimir Oblast Court sentenced him to 10 years in the camps, and to a subsequent exile for a period of 5 years.

Andrei Sakharov, in his article titled "To Save Anatoly Marchenko", called this verdict a "frank reprisal" for books about the Gulag (Marchenko told about it among the first) and "undisguised revenge" for the honesty, steadfastness and independence of character and mind.

last years of life

The writer Marchenko Anatoly Tikhonovich was serving his term in political camps in Perm. The administration constantly subjected him to harassment. Marchenko was deprived of correspondence and visits, for the slightest fault he was put in a punishment cell. It was very difficult in the last years of life to such a writer as Anatoly Marchenko. The author's books, naturally, were banned. In December 1984, the officers of the guard brutally beat Anatoly Tikhonovich. In October 1985, for "systematic violations of the regime," Marchenko was transferred to the more stringent conditions of the Chistopol prison. Here he was almost completely isolated. In such conditions, hunger strikes remained the only possibility of resistance. The last of them, the longest (with a duration of 117 days), Marchenko began on August 4, 1986. The demand of Anatoly Tikhonovich was to stop the bullying of political prisoners in the Soviet Union, their release. Marchenko stopped the hunger strike on November 28, 1986. A few days after that, he suddenly felt sick. Was sent to the local hospital on December 8 Anatoly Marchenko. His biography ends on the same day, in the evening. It was then that the writer died. According to the official version, death occurred as a result of cardiopulmonary insufficiency.

Victory A.T. Marchenko

Marchenko won, but he did not manage to find out about it. Soon after his death, the political camps were liquidated. This became not only an inevitable business, but also an urgent one, as Daniel noted. December 11, 1986 Anatoly Tikhonovich was buried in the cemetery in Chistopol. After 5 days (after A. Sakharov, exiled academician, M. Gorbachev called), a new period of the history of our country began. Unfortunately, during life Anatoliy Marchenko did not wait for the award. In 1988 he was posthumously awarded the prize. A. Sakharov.

His works began to be published in the homeland since 1989. Anatoly Marchenko, whose books are read to this day, struggled with his injustice all his life. You should pay tribute to this great man.