000048742_0026

The SALLY HEMINGS
Extra
CA. Feb. 22
72
Never distributed

The State is making ready to grind up Angela Davis. This, after Kent State, Jackson State, Attica, George Jackson, Fred Hampton, and My Lai. People around the world decry not only the commission of these crimes but also the absence of justice in dealing with them. One of the most per-sistent critics is Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Indeed, on the subject of American atrocities, his tongue rolls on like the Volga.

It has been said that Yevtushenko will instantly compose a poem about any injustice anywhere in the world. Anywhere, that is, except in Mother Russia. Oh, sure, during the official "thaw," he (and Kruschev) were anti-Stalinist. But he has since repudiated his anti-Stalinist poetry. Like a poinsettia, Yevtushenko seems to be red only in season. And once again, the seasons have changed.

Now the official climate demands silence on the oppression of Czecho-slovakia, Hungary, and Soviet Jewry. Obedient citizens are also expected to applaud the official oppression of Soviet dissidents. Who are thesedissidents? We all know of Solzhenitsyn, but who has heard of Vladimir Bukovsky?

Bukovsky has spent nine of his 29 years in Soviet prisons and mental institutions, and he currently faces another sentence of 12 years. His "crimes" have included organizing an underground literary magazine, setting up an underground art exhibit, and demonstrating to protest Soviet political trials. His most recent offense was smuggling out of Russia various papers relating to his commitment, for political reasons, to Soviet mental institu-tions. He was kept in prison for eight months before his most recent trial. The entire trial lasted only one day. Of 12 defense witnesses he requested,none were allowed to testify. Bukovsky was permitted to have legal counsel only one month ago.

The State prosecutor proclaimed Bukovsky was a "vicious anti-Soviet element" and the inventor of a "slanderous tale" about inhuman treatment in Soviet mental hospitals. And what does Yevtushenko say about this? You guessed it! When the Kremlin bell rings, Yevtushenko salivates. The bard claims that Bukovsky and others like him are "slanderers."

Who is speaking here? Is this the same man who protests so eloquently against American oppression? Why does the poet have this blind side? Is this the price he has paid for his car and his airline tickets to the West?

Yevtushenko, we ask you:

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PERSECUTION OF ANGELA DAVIS AND THAT OF VLADIMIR BUKOVSKY?

WHY ARE YOU HERE WHILE NOBEL PRIZE WINNER SOLZHENITSYN IS UNDER VIRTUAL HOUSE ARREST?

WHY HAVE YOU WRITTEN ONLY OF WESTERN ATROCITIES AND NOT OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND HUNGARY?

WHEN WILL YOU SPEAK OUT???