[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8042-8043]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP

  Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, as chairman of the Helsinki Commission, 
I am pleased to recognize the accomplishments of the Moscow Helsinki 
Group, which will mark the 30th anniversary of its founding later this 
week in the Russian capital. I particularly want to acknowledge the 
tremendous courage of the men and women who--at great personal risk--
established the group to hold the Soviet Government accountable for 
implementing the human rights commitment Moscow has signed onto in the 
historic Helsinki Final Act. Today, the Moscow Helsinki Group is the 
oldest of human rights organizations active in the Russian Federation. 
Having played a pivotal role in the struggle for human rights during 
the Soviet period, the group continues to work tirelessly for the cause 
of human rights, democracy, and rule of law throughout Russia.
  When, on behalf of the United States, President Ford signed the 
Helsinki Accords in August 1975, he was criticized in some circles for 
supposedly having accepted Soviet control and domination of Eastern 
Europe in return for what some viewed as worthless promises on human 
rights. Ultimately, the skeptics were proven wrong. The Helsinki 
Accords did not legitimize the Soviet conquest of Eastern Europe at the 
end of World War II. Moreover, by reprinting the entire text of Accords 
in Pravda, the Soviet Government had publicly pledged to live up to 
certain human rights standards that were generally accepted in the West 
but only dreamed of in the Soviet Union and other captive nations. That 
fact would have huge consequences.
  In late April 1976, Dr. Yuri Orlov, a Soviet physicist who had 
already been repressed for earlier advocacy for human rights, invited a 
small group of human rights activists to join in a public group 
committed to monitoring the implementation of the Helsinki Accords in 
the USSR. Others responded to this invitation, and on May 12 creation 
of the Public Group to Assist the Implementation of the Helsinki 
Accords in the USSR was announced at a Moscow press conference 
organized by future Noble Peace Prize winner Academician Andrei 
Sakharov. Among the founding members of the Moscow Helsinki Group, as 
it became known, were the current chairperson, Ludmilla Alexeyeva, Dr. 
Elena Bonner, who would endure prolonged persecution with Dr. Sakharov, 
her husband, and others like cyberneticist Anatoly ``Natan'' Sharansky. 
They were joined by seven brave and principled individuals who were 
ready to sacrifice their comfort, the professional lives, their 
freedom, and even their lives on behalf of the cause of human rights in 
their homeland. More would join in subsequent days.
  The Moscow Helsinki Group carried out its mission by collecting 
information and publishing reports on implementation of the accords in 
various areas of human rights. The 26 documentation provided by the 
group proved particularly valuable when the signatories convened in 
Belgrade in 1977 to assess implementation of Helsinki provisions, 
including human rights.
  Naturally, the Soviet Politburo and the Communist Party had no 
intention of tolerating citizens who actually expected their government 
to live up to the pledges it had signed in Helsinki. Some members of 
the Moscow Group were forced to emigrate, many were sentenced to long 
terms in labor camp, the Soviet ``GULag,'' while others were sent into 
internal exile far from families and loved ones. In September 1982, 
under the repressive rule of former KGB chief Yuri Andropov, the Moscow 
Helsinki Group was forced to suspend its activity. Only three members 
remained at liberty, and they were constantly harassed by the KGB. 
Tragically, founding member Anatoly Marchenko died during a hunger 
strike at Chistopol Prison in December 1986, only a few months before 
the Gorbachev government began to empty the labor camps of political 
and religious prisoners.
  Between 1982 and 1987, it seemed that the Soviet Government had 
succeeded in driving the human rights movement abroad, to the labor 
camps of the GULag, or underground. The reality was that the Helsinki 
movement had brought to light the deplorable human rights situation in 
the Soviet Union and put the Kremlin on the defensive before a world 
increasingly sensitive to the fate of individuals denied their 
fundamental rights. The efforts by Helsinki activists in the USSR, 
together with a stiffened resolve of Western governments, helped bring 
the Cold War to an end and bring down the barriers, both real and 
symbolic, that unnaturally divided Europe.
  Reestablished in July 1989 by several veteran human rights activists, 
the

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Moscow Helsinki Group faces new challenges in Putin's Russia. I have 
met with Ludmilla Alexeyeva, a founding member who had been exiled to 
the United States during the Soviet era, who serves as the chairperson 
today. While Russia has thrown off so much of its Soviet past, the 
temptation of authoritarianism remains strong. Russia's implementation 
of Helsinki commitments, particularly those concerning free and fair 
elections and democratic governance, remain of deep concern to me and 
my colleagues on the Helsinki Commission.
  Ultimately, Mr. President, a strong and prosperous Russia will not be 
sustained by oil or natural gas revenues but on respect for the dignity 
of its citizens and the observation of human rights, civil society, and 
the rule of law. These goals remain at the heart of the Moscow Helsinki 
Group's ongoing work. I salute the dedicated service of the members of 
the Moscow Helsinki Group, past and present, and wish them success in 
their noble endeavors to promote a free and democratic Russia.

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