[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 60 (Tuesday, May 16, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S4613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, last Friday, May 12, marked the 30th 
anniversary of the oldest active Russian human rights organization, the 
Moscow Helsinki Group.
  The creation of the Moscow Helsinki Group was announced on May 12, 
1976, at a press conference called by Academician Andrei Sakharov, who 
later won the Nobel Peace Prize for his defense of human rights and his 
commitment to world peace. Formally named the ``Public Group to Assist 
in the Implementation of the Helsinki Final Act in the USSR,'' its 
members sought to monitor the Soviet Government's implementation of the 
historic Helsinki Accords.
  At the initiative of Professor Yuri Orlov, a physicist by profession 
and a veteran human rights activist, the group joined together 11 
committed individuals to collect and publicize information on Soviet 
violations of the human rights provisions enshrined in the Helsinki 
Accords. The group monitored fundamental rights and freedoms, including 
freedom of movement and freedom of religion, as well as the basic 
rights of minorities.
  The group documented evidence of systemic human rights abuses and 
provided reports of Helsinki violations to the Presidium of the Supreme 
Soviet and the embassies of Helsinki signatory countries in Moscow. 
Additionally, these reports were widely distributed to Western 
correspondents. All together, the Moscow Helsinki Group published 195 
numbered reports, along with numerous other documents, some of them in 
cooperative initiatives with other human rights organizations. These 
reports played a critical role in documenting the Soviet Union's 
failure to adhere to many of its Helsinki commitments.
  The example set by the Moscow Helsinki Group inspired human rights 
activists elsewhere in the USSR. Helsinki monitoring groups were 
founded in Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia, and Armenia, and affiliated 
groups were also established to combat psychiatric abuse for political 
purposes and to defend religious liberty in Lithuania. As time went on, 
more brave individuals joined the Moscow Helsinki Group in its pursuit 
of truth and accountability.
  However, regrettably, the Soviet Government had no intention of 
tolerating the ``assistance'' provided by the Moscow Helsinki Group in 
monitoring the Soviet Union's adherence to Helsinki commitments. The 
state-controlled Soviet press launched a campaign of slander against 
the group. By early 1977, the group's founders, Dr. Yuri Orlov and 
Alexander Ginzburg, a longtime activist who had earlier produced the 
celebrated ``White Book'' on the trial of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and 
Yuli Daniel, had been arrested on political charges. Cyberneticist 
Anatoly ``Natan'' Sharansky and retired geologist Malva Landa were 
arrested shortly thereafter. Orlov was sentenced to 7 years in a labor 
camp and 5 years in internal exile. Ginzburg received 8 years labor 
camp and 3 years internal exile. Sharansky was sentenced to a total of 
13 years in labor camp and prison, and Landa received 2 years internal 
exile.
  Other members followed this path into the ``Gulag'' or were forced to 
emigrate. By 1981, KGB pressure had left only three members of the 
Moscow Helsinki Group at liberty in the Soviet Union, and they were 
forced to announce the ``suspension'' of their work. In 1984, one of 
those three, Dr. Elena Bonner, joined her husband, Dr. Sakharov, in 
forced internal exile in the closed city of Gorky.
  Tragically, in December 1986, just as the Soviet political system was 
showing the signs of the exhaustion that would eventually lead to its 
collapse, Moscow Helsinki Group member Anatoly Marchenko died during a 
hunger strike at Chistopol Prison. Just over 2 months later, hundreds 
of known political and religious prisoners were freed from the Soviet 
prison system.
  With the advent of Glasnost, the Moscow Helsinki Group was formally 
reestablished in July 1989 by a handful of Helsinki veterans, and 
several new members joined their cause. Today, the Moscow Helsinki 
Group continues to work to defend human rights in post-Soviet Russia. 
And while there have been dramatic changes in Russia since the collapse 
of the Soviet Union, the lure of authoritarianism still has a strong 
appeal for some in today's Russia.
  Mr. President, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, I 
congratulate the members and former members of the Moscow Helsinki 
Group, many of whom, sadly, are no longer with us, for their courage 
and fortitude in the struggle against tyranny. I wish the group 
continued success as they work to advance democracy, defend human 
rights, and promote a vigorous civil society.

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