Eduard Kuznetsov

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Eduard Kuznetsov (Russian language: Эдуард Кузнецов; born in Moscow, 1939) is a Soviet dissident, human rights activist, and writer.

In 1961, Kuznetsov was arrested for the first time and served seven years in Soviet prisons for making overtly political speeches in poetry readings at Mayakovsky Square in the centre of Moscow and for publishing samizdat.

Campaign in support of Eduard Kuznetsov and other political prisoners
Campaign in support of Eduard Kuznetsov and other political prisoners

After his release, he was one of the organizers of the Dymshits-Kuznetsov hijacking affair in May 1970 and was arrested for "high treason", punishable by the death sentence. His capital punishment sentence was appealed and after international protests his sentence was replaced with fifteen years of incarceration. This affair opened the doors of emigration to thousands of Soviet Jews.

In 1979 he and four other dissidents were exchanged for two Soviet spies arrested in the US. Kuznetsov then emigrated to Israel. From 1983 to 1990 he was chief of the news department of "Radio Liberty". In 1990 he became chief editor of Israeli newspaper "Вести" ("The News"), the most popular Russian language newspaper outside of Russia. He held this position until 1999.

Kuznetsov is a member of the Pen Club and was widely published in European, US and Israeli media. He is the author of three novels: "Prison Diary", "Mordovian Marathon" (both written secretly in prison and smuggled abroad) and "Russian Romance", all of which have been translated into many languages. In 1974, "Prison Diary" won the Gulliver Award in France, being declared the best book written by a foreign author.

In 2005 Kuznetsov participated in "They Chose Freedom", a four-part television documentary on the history of the Soviet dissident movement. He currently lives in Jerusalem, Israel and is a board member of Soviet dissident aid foundation The Gratitude Fund.

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