Publication process and legality Chronicle of Current Events

issue 22, dated 10 november 1971.

the chronicle compiled in moscow anonymous editors, drawing on network of informants throughout soviet union. known dry, concise style, documented extrajudicial harassment , persecution, arrests , trials of opposed regime denial of rights; carried further reports subsequent treatment in prisons, labor camps, , mental asylums.

the periodical adopted standard samizdat techniques, whereby typewritten texts retyped recipients , passed along in chain-letter fashion. initial circulation run of 10 12 copies (also known nulevaya zakladka, roughly, 0 generation manuscript ) spread throughout country in hundreds of typewritten copies.

the authors encouraged readers utilize same distribution channels in order send feedback , local information: tell person whom received chronicle, , tell person whom received chronicle, , on. advice came warning: not try trace whole chain of communication yourself, or else taken police informer.

the date of each issue reflected latest information included, not moment when first circulated or published in moscow. size of successive issues grew, , disruption soviet authorities of wider circulation increased, gap grew between these 2 dates few months many. issue 63, instance, contained 230 typescript pages , while bore date 31 december 1981, did not appear in moscow until march 1983.

legality , constitution

according 1936 soviet constitution in force, chronicle not illegal publication, or editors maintained:

chronicle in no sense illegal publication, , difficult conditions in produced created peculiar notions law , freedom of information which, in course of long years, have become established in soviet organizations. reason chronicle cannot, other journal, give postal address on last page.

the authorities thought otherwise, reflected in list of people harassed, detained , imprisoned part in periodical s production , circulation (see section editors). given camp sentences — sergei kovalev, alexander lavut, tatyana velikanova , yury shikhanovich; sent psychiatric hospitals — natalya gorbanevskaya. others persuaded leave country — anatoly yakobson, tatyana khodorovich.

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