M. Zotov, "Stepan Razin", to assess the situation

[Zemela60]

Mikhail Zotov. Oil on canvas. "Stepan Razin". Size 95*80.

[Grigory]

Zemela60, why have You done a bunch of duplicate topics???
I cut them all...

[Dogel]

Zemela60,
HISTORY
Documents MHG (1976-1982)
1981

192. The Arrest Of Mikhail Zotov

Document No. 165

THE ARREST OF MIKHAIL ZOTOV (1)

In late January, Togliatti arrested a working dairy, Amateur artist Mikhail Zotov (1923 R.). The Zotova no close relatives, and incomplete information about the circumstances of his arrest we received recently.

M. Zotov was born in 1923 into a family of Germans of the Volga region. In 1941 17-year-old Michael, along with his brother and mother were in exile, where he is in the difficult conditions of the so-called "labor army" began to work. With great difficulty he managed to get the call in the army, after which he got to the front, was wounded twice and became disabled of the great Patriotic war. After the war he worked for many years in the it placed". The local press wrote about it as one of the best millers. Subsequently, due to ill health, he went to work at the dairy, Togliatti, where he served as a graphic designer, where he worked until the day of arrest.

From early youth Zotov was fond of painting and by the time of the arrest has created more than 100 paintings. For several years he achieved the organization, Togliatti exhibition of his works, but, despite the fact that his requests were supported by hundreds of workers, he was denied under the pretext of the discrepancy between the subjects of his paintings to the tasks of Soviet art.

The indifference of the official authorities and their inability to properly promote and protect the rights of citizens led him into the ranks of the defenders.

He became personally acquainted with some famous Soviet human rights activists, was to sign a protest against the illegal repression and other human rights violations in the USSR, published critical articles in Samizdat, which results began to be subjected to regular harassment from the authorities (police raids, detention, placement in psychiatric hospitals) and was arrested in late January 1981

The Prosecutor, Togliatti orally distant relatives that Zotov charged with the dissemination of slanderous fabrications defaming the Soviet political and social system, without specifying when this article of the criminal code. In March of, Togliatti Zotov was transferred in Syzran remand centre (Kuibyshev region), where 25 March taken for forensic psychiatric examination through the detention facility, Chelyabinsk. Since his arrest, he had neither transmission nor any contact with distant relatives and friends.

In the second half of March in the apartment Zotov was re-search, which seized five of his paintings, including a self-portrait, in which the author depicts himself entangled with chains

Arrest Zotova demonstrates the desire of the authorities to suppress not only free speech, but every manifestation of creativity, including in the fine arts.



Members of the Moscow group "Helsinki":

Elena Bonner, Sophia Kallistratov, Ivan Kovalev

April 13, 1981


(1) the court see document No. 177. - Comp.

[Zemela60]

[QUOTE=Grigory;3393401]Zemela60 why You did a bunch of duplicate topics???
I have them all boudlal@

[Zemela60]

Grigory, Thanks!