On Trial: The Soviet State versus "Abram Tertz" and "Nikolai Arzhak"

The prosecution, defense, conviction and sentencing of Sinyavsky (Abram Tertz) and Daniel (Nikolai Arzhak), Soviet authors whose work has been published pseudonymously in the West, aroused a storm of protest in the free world unparalleled since the time of Stalin. The transcript of the essential courtroom testimony is presented here, with Introduction and commentary by the noted scholar Max Hayward, of St. Antony's College, Oxford. This was the first time in the history of the Soviet Union that writers had been put on trial for what they had written. Many others were imprisoned, banished or executed, but never after a trial in which the principal evidence against them was their literary work. The trial opened on February 10, 1966, and continued for four days. At the end, the two brave writers were sentenced to seven and five years' hard labor, respectively. The transcript of the trail reached the West by undisclosed channels. Also included is the article from the Literary Gazette that presented the prosecution's case accusing Sinyavsky and Daniel of undermining the Soviet state. Here in essence is the testimony of the individual who feels his freedom to think and to express his thought is more important than his life.