Anti-communist dissident Igor Ogurtsov died

Igor Ogurtsov, a former anti-communist dissident, founder of the right-wing anti-Soviet organization All-Russian Christian Union for the Liberation of the People (VSKHSON), died in St. Petersburg at the age of 87. His death was reported by nationalist telegram channels. Ogurtsov spent 15 years in Soviet prisons and colonies and 5 years in exile.

Ogurtsov, a graduate of the Leningrad University, created the underground organization VSKHSON with like-minded people in 1964. Its goal was the overthrow of Soviet power and the establishment of a system based on Christian principles. Members of the organization considered themselves ideological heirs of the white movement.

Ogurtsov was arrested by the KGB in February 1967, in December of the same year he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He spent 10 years in Vladimirskaya and Chistopolskaya prisons, another 5 years in the camp in Perm-35 and 5 years in exile. After liberation, he emigrated to Germany, but in 1992 he returned to Russia. He participated in the activities of organizations of Russian nationalists, and also founded a charity fund. He was not rehabilitated.

The authors of the reports about Ogurtsov’s death note that before his death he was “slandered in textbook history.” This refers to a textbook for high school students edited by Vladimir Medinsky, which states that the activities of such groups as VSHSON were “actively supported by foreign emigre organizations that were created in Western countries with the direct participation of the CIA and the US government.” Nationalists claim that this is not so.

One of the episodes of Radio Svoboda’s “Alphabet of Dissent” was dedicated to Ihor Ogurtsov. It, in particular, tells about such an episode of his prison biography: in Chistopol I was put in the same cell as Sergei Kovalev. Ogurtsov recalls: “We sat down well with him. I think that he also said that it is possible to sit down with Ogurtsov, even if there are differences in points of view.” They had diametrically opposed views, however, when in the next cell Yuriy Shukhevich, who had been hanging around the camps since he was 17 years old only because his father was a Ukrainian nationalist, was beaten by the guards and became blind as a result of this beating, Kovalev and Ogurtsov announced a hunger strike until he received medical attention. Two days after the announcement of the hunger strike, Yury Shukhevich was transferred to Moscow for treatment.