Gulag Avenger

A Stalin-era prisoner sues

Armand Maloumian, then 20 years old, was visiting Moscow in 1948 when he was suddenly arrested by agents of the MGB (now the KGB). A French citizen of Armenian descent whose father was a physical education instructor temporarily teaching in the Soviet Union, Maloumian was accused of spying for the French secret service. He was first condemned to death, but was later convicted of treason, despite his foreign nationality, and sentenced to 25 years at hard labor. In early 1956, when Soviet authorities were cutting down the Gulag population as part of the destalinization drive, Maloumian was informed by the warden of Taishet, a prison in eastern Siberia, that his arrest had been a mistake and that he was to be declared "rehabilitated" and freed. Though he returned to France, where he became an airline ticket salesman, Maloumian never forgave the Soviets for his seven-year imprisonment and constantly sought reparations. Now, 23 years later, his efforts are beginning to pay off: Moscow has agreed to hear his case and has appointed a Soviet lawyer to examine it.

The Frenchman's suit will not be the first of its kind heard in Soviet courts; particularly in the late 1950s and early 1960s, hundreds of citizens of the U.S.S.R. and many foreigners who had been unjustly imprisoned had filed successful damage claims against the government. Genrikh Rubezhov, 50, the Moscow lawyer assigned to Maloumian's case, has tried more than a score of similar suits and has won them all.

But Soviet law does not make such appeals very rewarding for people of scant means. The rules provide only for the return of seized property and bank accounts as well as for a payment of two months wages, based on the victim's salary before imprisonment. Though he stands to gain little from his suit, Maloumian already feels amply paid by the irritation that he believes his case has caused Soviet officialdom. "The Soviet Union cannot possibly compensate for the years they took away from me," he says. "If I keep on fighting, it is to help my comrades who are still in prison. The only way for me to help them is to hang on to a fine point of law, until the system gives."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.