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Orlovsky Ernst Semenovich

Genus. in 1929 in Leningrad. In 1952 he graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics of Leningrad University, in 1955 – postgraduate studies at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute. Herzen, in 1971 – Central Institute of Patent Science. In 1965–1992 worked at the Research Institute of Metrology named after. Mendeleev. Since 1958 he has published in scientific journals. Author of more than thirty scientific papers and more than four hundred abstracts on logic, mathematics and patent science. Since 1974 – member of the American Mathematical Society.
Since the mid-1950s. one of the first in the USSR to begin to defend a position that much later formed the basis of “dissident behavior” - by legal means to defend constitutional rights and freedoms violated by the authorities. He was actively involved in legal education.
In the spring of 1956, Orlovsky, together with his friend Revolt Pimenov, prepared a commentary on the text of N.S.’s report. Khrushchev at a closed meeting of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, then distributed in Samizdat. In 1956–1957 At weekly meetings of the Pimenov circle, he read reports on the history of the Cheka–OGPU–NKVD, abstracts of materials from the Polish and Yugoslav press (primarily materials about Hungarian events). At Pimenov's request, he was brought in as a witness in both of his trials (September 1957 and February 1958). In 1958, he collected funds to help those convicted in this case. “Since then, for almost 30 years, I have felt the KGB’s “care” for me: searches, interrogations, “conversations”, recommendations to my superiors in the service to reduce my salary (almost by half!), prohibit me from giving consultations and other work in the public sector. organizations, not allowed on business trips <...> and even in Leningrad libraries" (from the article "How did I become a dissident?", 1996).
In 1959, Orlovsky, in a letter addressed to Khrushchev, protested against his statement about the absence of political prisoners in the USSR. In May 1960 and August 1961, he spoke at factory rallies criticizing the foreign policy actions of the Soviet government (in particular, Khrushchev’s ultimatum on the Berlin issue), for which he was expelled from the trade union and fired from his job.
In November 1973, he took an active part in the founding of the Soviet section of Amnesty International and became its member.
In January–March 1977 KGB officers had five conversations with Orlovsky. Instead of the “statement” required by the KGB officers, Orlovsky wrote the essay “My Position.”
Since 1952, Orlovsky sent hundreds of letters to the editors of various newspapers and magazines and to government and public figures outlining his opinion on many phenomena and events in the country's socio-political life. The most important letters were distributed in Samizdat. His critical analysis of the draft new Constitution of the USSR was published in 1977 in the samizdat bulletin “Around the Draft Constitution of the USSR.” The article “Why I didn’t sign the Second Stockholm Appeal” was published in periodicals of the Russian diaspora; its detailed presentation in English was published in the London newspaper “The Times” (12/21/1976).
In 1979–1982, under the pseudonym Kukushkin, he collaborated in the samizdat abstract journal “Summa”.
During the years of perestroika, he worked on the study of legal conflicts generated by the transition period. Translated from Polish, commented on and distributed the Solidarity agreements with the authorities of August 1981 and the Round Table Agreements of the spring of 1989. Researched the legal aspects of the problem of the trial of criminal organizations, analyzing the protocols of the Nuremberg trials. He made commented translations of the Czechoslovak law on “lustration” and the Czech law on the criminal nature of the communist regime. For the Glasnost Foundation he carried out an analysis of the legal aspects of the Chechen war. In 1997–1998 The Institute of Human Rights published in Moscow in two volumes his commentary translation of the book of the first Polish Ombudsman E. Lentowska “How the work of the Commissioner for Civil Rights began.”
In 1990 - expert of the Constitutional Commission of the RSFSR. In 1990–1993 – expert of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation Committee on Human Rights. In 1993–1996 – Expert of the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Russian Federation.
Died on February 10, 2003 in St. Petersburg.