Platonov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich

Platonov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich

Born in 1941. Graduated from the Eastern Faculty of Leningrad State University, remained as a lecturer (assistant) in the African Studies Department. From November 1964 - member of the secret organization VSKhSON. After the failure of the organization, he was arrested in February 1967. Charged under Art. 70, Part 1, and 72 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, he was accused of distributing photocopies of texts by N. A. Berdyaev and translations from English of works by M. Djilas. Sentenced by the Collegium of the Leningrad City Court on March 14-April 5, 1968 to 7 years in a strict regime penal colony. He served his sentence in a political camp in Mordovia. In 1969-71 Together with his fellow prisoner L. I. Borodin and other prisoners (including Yu. Galanskov, A. Ginzburg, and Yu. Daniel), he participated in hunger strikes and other protests against the brutality of the camp administration. An additional year of administrative exile was added to his camp sentence. After returning to Leningrad in 1984, he worked as a senior librarian in the Department of Literature in Asian and African Languages at the State Public Library/Russian National Library, continuing his scholarly work in his field.