1968 was declared the International Year for Human Rights by the United Nations. At the time, no one particularly imagined that the purely anniversary occasion—the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—would coincide with numerous symbolic actions that initiated a grassroots international human rights movement.
This year can indeed be considered a turning point, when the Declaration finally ceased to be perceived as a rhetorical product of intergovernmental diplomacy and became a manifesto for hundreds of informal activist groups and lone rebels demanding that state bureaucracies strictly adhere to the legal norms prescribed in Constitutions and ratified international documents.
In April 1968, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov’s essay “Reflections on Progress, Peaceful Coexistence, and Intellectual Freedom” was published. In the same month, the legendary “Khronika tekushchikh sobytiy” (“Chronicle of Current Events”) began to be published, with “The Year for Human Rights in the USSR” printed on its title page. At the beginning of the year, the high-profile “trial of the four” began against the dissidents Aleksandr Ginzburg, Yury Galanskov, Aleksei Dobrovolsky, and Vera Lashkova, who had publicly spoken out against political censorship and the persecution of dissent. Numerous open letters were published in defense of the arrested, and the frightened authorities threw all their efforts into preventing the consolidation of independent public opinion. On August 21, another trial of Anatoly Marchenko began…
And on August 25, 1968, something truly unprecedented occurred: eight people went out to Red Square in Moscow to protest the suppression of the Prague Spring and the invasion of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia.
Today, the names of the protesters are well known—linguist Konstantin Babitsky, student Tatyana Bayeva, philologist Larisa Bogoraz, poet and translator Natalya Gorbanevskaya, poet Vadim Delaunay, worker Vladimir Dremlyuga, physicist Pavel Litvinov, and art historian Viktor Fainberg. Back in ‘68, the authorities tried to hide both the fact of the public opposition and the trial of its participants.
On August 28, the case was sent to the prosecutor’s office. On October 9, 1968, the trial of the detained demonstrators began. All were charged under political articles (“group actions violating public order” and “dissemination of deliberately false fabrications slandering the Soviet social and state system”).
On October 11, the verdict was announced: Vladimir Dremlyuga—3 years in prison, Vadim Delaunay—2 years and 10 months, Pavel Litvinov, Larisa Bogoraz, and Konstantin Babitsky—exile for 5, 4, and 3 years, respectively; Viktor Fainberg and Natalya Gorbanevskaya were, through the special efforts of forensic psychiatrists, declared “not of sound mind.” The prisoners at the time had enough humor to recall their friend Yuliy Kim’s parody: “Eh, raz, eshchyo raz, eshchyo mnogo-mnogo raz, eshchyo Pashku, i Natashku, i Larisu Bogoraz.” (“One more time, and many, many more times, one for Pasha, and Natasha, and Larisa Bogoraz.”)
Despite the authorities’ efforts to minimize the resonance around the protest on Red Square, the information nevertheless spread throughout the country and aroused great interest abroad. In her documentary book “Midday,” Natalya Gorbanevskaya explained who went to the square, why, and for what reason: “Not heroes and not madmen. Just people who wanted to act sincerely. Or let’s simplify it: to ‘clear their conscience.’ In this sense, I often say that the demonstration was an almost selfish act.” The poet Vadim Delaunay added at the trial: “For five minutes of freedom on Red Square, I am ready to pay with years in the camps.”
Years later, Natalya Gorbanevskaya resisted the canonization of her friends as heroes: “It seems to me that from the constant repetition of ‘heroes, heroes,’ a practical conclusion follows: ‘Only heroes can…’ or ‘Let the heroes do it…’. Not feeling like a ‘hero’ (just as, by the way, I do not feel like one), a person gives up. My task was to show that we were ordinary people, that our demonstration was far from the only act of protest against the invasion of Czechoslovakia, that any person, inspired by a few simple concepts—such as freedom, conscience, responsibility—can decide to act in accordance with the value they attach to these concepts.”
This is true. The number of heroes who dared to publicly protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia was much larger.
During the trial, the human rights defenders earned immense respect for the lawyers Sofiya Vasylivna Kalistratova and Dina Isaakivna Kaminskaya.
As a sign of respect and gratitude, Yuliy Kim dedicated the “Lawyer’s Waltz” to them. The song was first performed at the home of Margo Kalistratova (Sofiya Vasylivna’s daughter), where all the lawyers who participated in the trial, as well as friends of the convicts, gathered shortly after the trial ended.
Everyone present was deeply moved. Aleksandr Daniel recalled that after listening, Sofiya Vasylivna said: “Yes, that’s exactly my starting point, what Kim sings about,” and Kaminskaya added: “And I, every time, believe that I will explain to them that the accusation isn’t worth a penny…”
On April 30, 2008, at a concert in honor of the 40th anniversary of the “Chronicle of Current Events,” Yuliy Kim performed this song again.
Конечно, усилия тщетны,
И им не вдолбить ничего:
Предметы для них беспредметны,
А белое просто черно.
Судье заодно с прокурором
Плевать на детальный разбор,
Им лишь бы прикрыть разговором
Готовый уже приговор.
Скорей всего, надобно просто
Просить представительный суд
Дать меньше по 190-й,
Чем то, что, конечно, дадут.
Откуда ж берётся охота,
Азарт, неподдельная страсть:
Машинам – доказывать что-то,
Властям – корректировать власть?
Серьёзные, взрослые судьи…
Седины… морщины… семья.
Какие же это орудья? –
Такие же люди, как я.
И правда моя очевидна,
И белые нитки видать,
И людям должно же быть стыдно
Таких же людей не понять!
Ой, правое русское слово,
Луч света в кромешной ночи!
И всё будет вечно хреново…
И всё же ты вечно звучи!
Original publication here.