In the Valley of the Shadow of the KGB
FELDMAN, LEONID
BOOKS In the Valley of the Shadow of the KGB Fear No Evil by Natan Sharansky, translated by Stefani Hoffman Random House, 198a 437pp, $1935. Reviewed by Leonid Feldman This review was written...
...The book concludes with Sharansky's dramatic "walk to freedom" on the Berlin bridge, his dizzying reunion with Avital, their triumphant homecoming to Israel, and his adjustment to a new life in an "ocean of love...
...For this one story, Sharansky should go into history...
...Well, tell us about yourself...
...A Zionist...
...The judge: "What can you say about Sharansky...
...Second, Natan's psalm book, a present from his wife, played a major part in this drama for 1 'it was the sole material evidence of my mystical tie with Avital...
...We recognized this ringing declaration not merely as a shining example to the rest of us but as a milestone in the history of human resistance to oppression...
...She will wait until the last moment...
...Why didn't Sharansky accept the KGB offer, at least for the sake of his mother and Avital...
...Natan debated Galileo and disagreed with his "capitulation...
...Today, Natan Sharansky is finally at home, in Jerusalem, with Avital and their beautiful daughter Rachel...
...Finally, the prosecutor said, "Well, now, explain to the defendant that he is following a false path, that the truth lies with us...
...Let's be honest about this...
...This man had just barely escaped death...
...Osin put on his major's hat and stood...
...But the storm itself doesn't humiliate you...
...There were 51 volumes of "evidence" in Sharansky's file collected by 17 investigators...
...After Platonov shared his life story with the court, there was another long pause...
...This is not my problem," Sharansky responded to the Communist chief, "I have other things to do, so leave me alone...
...No," Sharansky replied, "I'm perfectly sober...
...The judge paused...
...What's going on over there...
...If I accepted the KGB's proposal, in addition to betraying myself, I would be adding to the evil in the world...
...Poor Irina turned beet-red...
...The witness: "He was a good neighbor—smart, intellectual, quiet...
...Sakharov and Bonner asked me to tell you that in their opinion it is possible to accept this proposal...
...Reviewed by Leonid Feldman This review was written by ex-refusenik Leonid Feldman, whose own story is told in the accompanying box...
...Almost 12 years later, on February 11, 1986, after nine years in the Gulag, 400 days of shivering in punishment cells, and 200 days on hunger strikes, Natan apologized to Avital in Hebrew: "Slichili sh'icharli k'tzat...
...it is also a vehicle for Sharansky's ideas on God, morality, meaning in life, freedom and human dignity...
...Fear No Evil is more humorous than sad...
...From the time of his arrest, Sharansky had always had the opportunity to recant and receive a short and symbolic sentence, even be allowed to join his wife in Israel...
...She is spiritual and he is not...
...Nothing...
...he demanded...
...An official from the regional committee of the Communist Party called to complain about some problems at the demonstration...
...That was all she said...
...The major sighed with relief and removed his hat...
...What can you tell us about the case of Sharansky...
...I could only humiliate myself—by doing something I might later be ashamed of...
...Several weeks after his miraculous release from bondage, Sharansky conducted his first Passover Seder...
...And Sharansky's brother and 74-year-old mother had travelled thousands of kilometers in order to inform him of this incredible victory against the most powerful country in the world...
...He also gave Osin a basic lesson in halacha:' 'During the prayer you must stand with your head covered and, at the end, say 'Amen...
...Another absurd story is the description of Revolution Day in 1974 when Sharansky, dissident and outcast in Soviet society, was made acting director for one day of the Institute for Oil and Gas where he was working at the time...
...Sharansky's response renewed the courage of all of us who heard it: "I committed no crimes...
...Following the brutality Sharansky experienced during one 110-day hunger strike, when he weighed a mere 77 pounds (down from 143 pounds on the day of the arrest), he was confronted with a moral dilemma...
...Do you know anything at all about my case...
...When I met his wife Avital many years ago in Jerusalem, I was very impressed by her, but I said, "Tell me the truth...
...Someone had to look after the institute during the holiday celebrating the anniversary of the Revolution...
...When Sharansky got out, a lot of people—Jewish leaders, even journalists—began to say, "Well, now the real problems.will start...
...At another point during the trial a witness named Platonov, a victim of a bureaucratic error, ended up in the wrong courtroom (he was supposed to testify at the trial of Alexander Ginsburg taking place in Kaluga, abo.ut 150 kilometers from Moscow...
...In July 1983, for the first time in six years, the Soviet government was ready to make "a major concession...
...Sharansky's favorite line from the Haggadah is: "In every generation, a person must feel as though he, personally, went out of Egypt...
...This title fits the book for many reasons—first, in its David and Goliath imagery and because it is the saga of a man, close to death, who banished fear and defeated evil...
...He is learning to live in what Sharansky calls an "ocean of love" which is like being on a "different planet...
...Some parts of the book read like scenes from the theater of the absurd...
...What's going on...
...At that moment I said to myself, she will, even if it takes a lifetime...
...Then what the hell are you...
...What better way than to confine him to the director's office...
...The author's trial is one example...
...asked the judge...
...Finally, the title taken from the Bible is appropriate because Fear No Evil is a religious book...
...Then, inspired by the sight of the head of a Gulag camp standing meekly at attention, Sharansky added: "And may the day come when all our enemies, who today are planning our destruction, will stand before us and hear our prayers and say 'Amen.' " "Amen," Osin echoed back...
...No," he said, "I don't know you or your case...
...Are you a Party member...
...You're really planning to wait for him...
...S> To order this book and the video reviewed below, see p. 60...
...In 1973, at the age of 25, Sharansky was the spokesman for Soviet refuseniks and dissidents...
...Nothing . . . I'm not familiar with this case," replied the witness timidly...
...The offer is very hard to resist...
...Asking the authorities to show humanity means acknowledging that they represent a legitimate force that administers justice...
...The title of this book is taken from Psalm 23, Natan's favorite: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me...
...A Komsomol member...
...In such cases he would call the KGB office and they would immediately pull the tail off the case and replace him with another...
...In the words of Sharansky's brother, Leonid, "They aren't asking you to admit guilt, or to recant, or to condemn anyone else...
...And what did you know about Sharansky's Zionist activities...
...In his first and only emphatic gesture, Platonov vigorously shook his head...
...What was the outcome of all this toil...
...No, I'm not...
...Andrei Sakharov, father of the dissident movement and world-renowned symbol of moral courage, gave his approval...
...Burning with embarrassment, she replied, "Well, yes, as a nurse I couldn't help noticing that he wasn't always neat...
...There are many other amusing stories in the book, especially the descriptions of the author's relationship with his KGB tails who used to follow him everywhere—into elevators, buses and even taxis (in which case Sharansky insisted that they split the fare...
...it would sabotage our support in the West...
...I had decided a long time ago it was best to treat my captors like the weather...
...Sharansky lit the candles and recited the Hebrew prayer...
...Sharansky's ideas are significant not just because he has suffered but because he is a spiritual giant and a profound religious thinker...
...I felt a sense of overwhelming joy...
...Sorry I am a little late...
...One of the highlights of the book is the Chanukah story...
...I thought back to my own hunger strike in Kishinev in 1976 (see box), when my KGB officer walked in and said "congratulations" with a big smile on his face offering me an emigration permit if I would stop my hunger strike...
...Are you drunk...
...He felt insulted when the secret agents were drunk because they were ' 'failing to treat their important state mission with the proper seriousness...
...After a brief pause, the official called again...
...All of a sudden my life could go on...
...The crimes were committed by the people who arrested me and are keeping me in prison...
...She looked at me very sternly and she said, "Do I have a choice...
...His health was wrecked permanently...
...Sharansky felt that his decisions and choices had the power to affect future generations...
...No, thank God...
...After going on a hunger strike to get it back, Sharansky persuaded Major Osin, the ruthless camp director, to allow him to light the candles in his office...
...The second half of the book portrays the hellish world of Soviet prisons and labor camps with its own unique set of rules and ethics, rewards and punishments, friends and KGB informers...
...The official hung up...
...The look of disappointment on the prosecutor's face made it clear that the secret police hadn't expended all their efforts to hear this sort of expose about the fact that the defendant "occasionally left a dirty pot on the stove...
...The first one describes Sharansky's life as a dissident, his arrest by the KGB on bogus charges of espionage and treason, 16 months of interrogation and nearly total isolation, the show trial and verdict—then 13 years of special "disciplinary" regime...
...Thank you...
...and it would help the KGB prepare new reprisals against dissidents and Jewish activists...
...He was ready to die for this book when the KGB took it away ("to guard him from harmful influences"), fought for it twice during his last day in captivity, and "it is the only piece of property I took out of the Soviet Union...
...It is not only a story of an "all-encompassing struggle between good and evil" and the phenomenal faith of a daring soul...
...It is a very powerful feeling...
...Your banners aren't here yet...
...This spiritual fortitude also enabled Sharansky to learn Hebrew from two other Jewish prisoners, Mendelevich and Butman: "By using a rag to pump the water out of the toilet bowl and sticking your head deep in the toilet and whispering, it was possible to communicate with prisoners in the adjacent cell...
...For perhaps at some future date my decision would be a harmful influence on some other prisoner...
...If you sign a statement requesting a release for reasons of health, the request continued on page 56 will be granted...
...Even prior to his arrest the KGB had spent years recruiting agents to infiltrate and expose an "international Zionist conspiracy...
...besides, the KGB wanted to keep an eye on Sharansky during the celebrations...
...I have no further questions...
...Very few people in the West thought Natan Sharansky would get out...
...Fear No Evil is a remarkable love story...
...Here are some examples from the trial of this "dangerous spy and traitor...
...Therefore the only appeal I can address to the Presidium is a demand for my immediate release and the punishment of those who are truly guilty...
...It is also a horror story about cruelty and torture in "the land of slavery" told with wit and a boyish sense of the comical...
...He had rejected these options outright because "it would weaken the resolve of my comrades...
...The prosecutor quickly interrupted: "But at the investigation you also spoke about his negative qualities...
...Sharansky, sensing the farcical nature of the situation, asked the witness, "Tell me, did you ever see me or hear anything about me...
...In the taxi to the Moscow airport, Sharansky told his young wife, "I'll be there within six months at the latest...
...Platonov looked at Sharansky mournfully and sadly, and said, "Yes, young man, I'm telling you the truth...
...Why didn't he follow the example of Galileo, who in the 17th century recanted to the Inquisition, "and was able to continue his scientific research with so much benefit to mankind," only at the end of his life restoring the truth about the Earth by uttering his famous words, "And yet it moves...
...After the secret police "force-fed" him through the rectum, Sharansky writes that he "did not feel in the least humiliated...
...Witness Irina Musikhin shared a communal apartment with Sharansky for several months...
...Avital is religious...
...See you soon in Jerusalem...
...The book is divided into two parts...
...World literature has few scenes this powerful...
...A storm can cause you problems, and sometimes those problems can be humiliating...
...On July 4, 1974, he married Avital, who was forced to leave the Soviet Union the next morning...
...When I heard this story I was shocked...
...The book clearly destroys this myth...
...For a year and a half a huge totalitarian regime had concocted its "case" against one Jew...
...The KGB confiscated Natan's menorah—' 'A camp is not a synagogue...
Vol. 13 • September 1988 • No. 6
