On April 30, 1968, the first issue of the Chronicle of Current Events, one of the most famous illegal publications in the USSR, was published. The Chronicle published materials about violations of civil rights and freedoms in the Soviet Union, arrests of dissidents, protests, and political trials.
Summing up their work for the first year, the editors noted:
“From the five issues of the Chronicle, one can at least partly see how the suppression of human rights and the human rights movement took place in the Soviet Union. No one in this movement can consider the Year of Human Rights to be over. The general task of democratization and the private task of information carried out by the Chronicle remain. The Chronicle will also be published in 1969. The Chronicle is in no way an illegal publication, but the conditions of its work are constrained by the peculiar concepts of legality and freedom of information that have been developed over many years in some Soviet bodies. Therefore, the Chronicle cannot, like any other magazine, indicate its mailing address on the last page. Nevertheless, anyone who is interested in keeping the Soviet public informed about the events taking place in the country can easily transfer the information known to him to the Chronicle. Tell it to the person from whom you took the Chronicle, and he will tell it to the person from whom he took the Chronicle, etc. Just don’t try to go through the entire chain on your own so that you won’t be mistaken for an informer.”
(Chronicle of Current Events, December 31, 1968)
Materials from the Chronicle were published in leading Western newspapers; the first mention of the samizdat bulletin appeared in the American press in the fall of 1968:
“An issue of an underground newspaper published in the Soviet Union and about which no information has yet been leaked has been delivered to the United States. This newspaper is not published regularly, using typescript rather than printing. Its title is “Chronicle of Current Events.” Number 3 of this newspaper, or rather bulletin, consists of five sheets filled with typewritten lines…”
(“New Russian Word” (New York), October 21, 1968)
The New York Times described the publication as follows:
“…“Chronicle” is strictly a news bulletin, succinctly informing its readers of news about protests and arrests, as well as the latest samizdat publications: what texts, on what topics, when and where and (if possible) by authors. Concise but not caustic, the news is rich in detail and has different geographical origins. Chronicle correspondents are everywhere…”
(The New York Times, March 15, 1970)
The Chronicle was mentioned several times on the pages of official Soviet newspapers:
“…For several years, British and American professional anti-Soviet propagandists made a lot of noise about the supposedly existing “civil rights movement” in the Soviet Union – they tried to pass it off as something similar to the civil rights movement in the United States or the national liberation movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America…It was argued that the “dissident minority” was waging a courageous struggle against “terrible oppression” and even publishing an underground magazine entitled “Chronicle of Current Events”. The capitalist press regularly quoted this “Chronicle…” as a kind of chronicle of the “horrors” of life under socialism. The English edition of the Chronicle was published by Amnesty International – an organization with its headquarters in Western Europe and internationally seeking the release of people imprisoned in violation of the law on freedom of conscience. However, this organization rarely stands up for communist political prisoners, because it is assumed that they have no conscience…”
(“Literary newspaper”, September 5, 1973)
“Chronicle of Current Events” was published (with interruptions) until 1983; a total of 65 issues were prepared. Many involved in the production and circulation of the publication were arrested, including Natalya Gorbanevskaya, Pyotr Yakir and Tatyana Velikanova.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
