Group business of the "Educational Society" (1967-1972)
A human rights society with an organizational structure, with a charter "Principles for the organization and activities of the Enlightenment Society". The activists had to agree to 8 conditions: 1) association of "self-publishers"; 2) conspiracy; 3) division of labor; 4) strict discipline; 5) development of society; 6) collection of membership fees; 7) support for those who contribute to the objective information of the people; 8) the temporality of the society's existence.
The "Society" was engaged in "samizdat" information activities: they received, propagated (since 1970, up to 150 copies of documents with "wax" invented by A. Bolonkin could multiply up to 150 copies of documents "in one day") and distributed "samizdat" literature and documentary information about the real situation in the USSR and the lives of its citizens. During the 5 years of the existence of the "Educational Society", its activists and sympathizers managed to multiply and send out to approximately 12-15 different cities of the USSR (Leningrad, Izhevsk, Chusovoy, Lipetsk, Maikop, Kiev, Ivanovo, Kostroma, Narva, Krasnodar, Kiev, etc.) samizdat materials "suitcases and backpacks" (according to the KGB, incomplete in volume - about 264 items).
In 1972 8 members of the "Society" were arrested by the KGB: Yuri Yukhnovets - 08/23/1972; Alexander Bolonkin - 09/21/1972; Valery Balakirev - 09/22/1972; Georgy Davydov - 09/22/1972; S. Zarya and V. Rybalko - 09/25/1972 (?); Vladimir Shaklein - 09/28/1972; Vyacheslav Petrov - 05.02.1973
None of the arrested, as well as the witnesses interviewed during the investigation, gave information about the existence of the "Educational Society". As a result, under Article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, part 1 (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda), out of 8 arrested in September 1972, in 1973 4 people were sentenced to various terms, one was pardoned, one was recognized as "insane, but capable of testifying", two people were released without trial.
The reference was compiled based on the memoirs of Shaklein V.A., published on the website of the Union of Human Rights Organizations of the Sverdlovsk Region:
