Dissident dies in labour camp

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 34

Dissident dies in labour camp

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The dissident writer, Anatoly Marchenko, author of a book that Western critics consider one of the most evocative descriptions of life in Soviet labour camps, has died in prison, a family friend said. The friend said Marchenko’s wife, Larisa Bogorad bad sent her a telegram from Chistopol, about 800 km east of MoscdW, telling her of Mar-

chenko’s death. Marchenko, aged 49, was sentenced in September, 1981, to 10 years in a labour camp and five years’ internal exile after he was found guilty of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” He had already served a total of 15 years in labour camps and exile that left him almost completely deaf. Marchenko came to notice as a writer with a book called “My Testi-

mony,” which was published in the West in 1967 and gave a graphic account of conditions in Soviet camps. In 1968, he spoke publicly in favour of the reformist policies of Alexander Dubcek in Czechoslovakia, and later criticised the Soviet-led invasion of the country. Marchenko renounced his Soviet citizenship in December, 1974, but was deniedLpermission to emigrate w the United States.