Oleksiy Vitaliyovych Safronov

OLEKSIY VITALIYOVYCH SAFRONOV (b. January 13, 1952, in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast)
Serviceman. Convicted for an attempt to cross the border between the GDR and FRG.
Born into a military family. In 1969, he graduated from high school in Yevpatoria. In May 1970, he was drafted into the army. He served in the GDR. In the autumn of 1970, the special department of his unit found forbidden literature in his possession: Mikhail Bulgakov’s “Heart of a Dog,” Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov’s “The Technology of Power,” and Milovan Djilas’s “The New Class.”
Fearing arrest, Safronov and a friend decided to flee to the West. In the town of Grimma near Leipzig, they seized a car and headed towards the FRG border on the autobahn. On November 25, 1970, near the Bavarian town of Hof, they were discovered by East German border guards. The daredevils decided to engage them in battle. As a result of the shootout, Stasi agent Klaus Böhme was seriously wounded. Safronov’s friend, Sergei Anatolievich Kolmakov (b. 1951, from Novomoskovsk, Tula Oblast), unwilling to be taken prisoner, shot himself.
By a military tribunal in Potsdam, under Articles 64 and 70 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, Safronov was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment in a strict-regime camp. He was held in zones ZhKh-385/17 in Mordovia, in VS-389/36 (Perm Oblast), for 3 years in Vladimir Prison, in the BUR of the 37th zone, and in the 35th zone of the Perm Oblast. He was released on November 24, 1982.
He worked in Yevpatoria as an inlay artist at a furniture factory. In 1983, he married. He graduated by correspondence from the Kharkiv National Automobile and Highway University. He worked as a foreman. He now lives in Yevpatoria. He is a pensioner.
Author: Oleg Sofianyk, 2011.