Vol'noe Slovo: Samizdat - Selected Works. Vols. 1–44

Frankfurt: Posev, 1972. Item #1387

A near-complete run (issues 1–44, lacking No. 23) of Vol'noe Slovo, a crucial émigré periodical dedicated to publishing Soviet samizdat materials. Issued by the anti-Soviet press Posev, the series compiled and disseminated underground writings, covering human rights violations, political repression, religious persecution, and dissident movements in the USSR. These reports were smuggled from the Soviet Union at great personal risk and then published in the West to inform international audiences and clandestinely reintroduced into the USSR.

Published six times a year in a small format, these booklets documented Soviet dissident activity, including the Helsinki Watch groups, the Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights, prison conditions, and the abuse of psychiatry for political repression. The issues contain first-hand accounts from political prisoners, secret trials, appeals to international bodies, and underground intellectual discourse.

Small-sized (16.5 x 10.5 cm) paperback volumes in original typographic wrappers. A rare and highly significant set, documenting one of the most extensive underground efforts to expose Soviet repression. Scarce in such completeness. Savin No. 01028.

Contents of the Issues:

1972
Issue 1: Chronicle of Current Events, Issue 21: Memorandum of the Democratic Movement of the Soviet Union to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Issue 1: S. Razumny, The Balance of Power in the CPSU and Other Articles; V. Nikitin, The Czechoslovak Tragedy; V. Komarov, September 1969.
Issue 2: Chronicle of Current Events, Issue 22: V. Chalidze, "A Foreigner Came to Me", Spiritual Awakening by Lev Krasnopevcev.
Issue 3: Chronicle of Current Events, Issue 23: The Trial of Vladimir Bukovsky.
Issue 4: Chronicle of Current Events, Issues 24–25.
Issue 5: Chronicle of Current Events, Issue 26.
Issue 6: Chronicle of Current Events, Issue 27: Russia and the Church Today, Church and Power, Bulletins No. 6 and 7.

1973
Issue 7: Free Thought, Issue 1: Three Leaflets of the Civil Committee.
Issue 8: R. I. Pimenov, One Political Trial.
Issues 9–10: Veche, Issue 5: Felix Karelin on Fr. Sergey Zheludkov’s Letter to A. Solzhenitsyn.

1974
Issue 11: Documents on the Case of Leonid Plyushch.
Issue 12: M. Ya. Makarenko, From My Life. A Response to Provocateurs. Supplement to the Cassation Appeal to the Supreme Court of the RSFSR.
Issue 13: A Witness in His Own Case and Other Documents.
Issues 14–15: My Final Word: Defendants' Speeches in Political Trials (1966–1974).

1975
Issue 16: Re Patria, Issue 1: A Collection of Materials on Soviet Germans.
Issues 17–18: Selections from Veche, Issues 7–10.
Issue 19: Torture of Prisoners in Georgian Prisons.
Issue 20: Selections from Zemlya, Issues 1 and 2.

1976
Issue 21: Behind Barbed Wire: Only One Year – 1975.
Issue 22: All-Russian Social-Christian Union for the Liberation of the People (VSKhSON) – Court Materials and Program.
Issue 23: Chronicle of the Gulag Archipelago.
Issue 24: Resistance to Religious Persecution.

1977
Issues 25–26: The Helsinki Group in the USSR – Documents.
Issue 27: How to Behave During a Search and Other 1976 Documents.
Issue 28: Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights in the USSR.

1978
Issue 29: June News (Notes of an Unaccredited Correspondent) by Mark Popovsky.
Issue 30: Free Trade Union of Workers – Charter and Other Documents.
Issues 31–32: Working Commission for Investigating the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes.

1979
Issue 33: Priest Dmitry Dudko, "The Enemy Within" (Collected Articles) and "In the Light of Transfiguration" (Weekly Orthodox Newspaper).
Issue 34: Free Interprofessional Workers’ Association (SMOT) – Information Bulletins.
Issues 35–36: Priest Gleb Yakunin, On the Current State of the Russian Orthodox Church and Its Prospects.

1980
Issue 37: Yuri Belov, Reflections Not Only on Sychevka.
Issue 38: Women and Russia – Committee for the Defense of Tatyana Velikanova.
Issue 39: Christian Seminar.

1981
Issues 41–42: Initiative Group for the Defense of Disabled Persons' Rights in the USSR – Documents (1981 – The Year of the Disabled).
Issue 44: Nadezhda (Christian Readings) – Selections from Issues 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Price: $3,000.00