View source for Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair

{{short description|1970 aircraft hijacking attempt}}
{{Refimprove|date=May 2009}}
[[File:Antonov_(PZL-Mielec)_An-2R,_Aeroflot_AN1083142.jpg|thumb|Aeroflot's An-2, the same plane Dymshits–Kuznetsov group tried to hijack]]
The '''Dymshits–Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair''', also known as '''The First Leningrad Trial''' or '''Operation Wedding''' ({{langx|ru|Ленинградское самолётное дело}}, or Дело группы Дымшица-Кузнецова) ('''Leningrad Process'''), was an attempt to take an empty civilian aircraft on 15 June 1970 by a group of 16 Soviet [[refusenik]]s in order to escape to the [[Western world|West]]. Even though the attempt was unsuccessful, it was a notable event in the course of the [[Cold War]] because it drew international attention to [[human rights]] violations in the Soviet Union and resulted in the temporary loosening of emigration restrictions.

== Background ==
In the wake of the [[Six-Day War|1967 Arab–Israeli War]], the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. A large number of Soviet Jews applied for [[exit visa]]s to leave the Soviet Union. The process of applying for an exit visa often cost applicants their jobs, which in turn made them vulnerable to charges of [[parasitism (social offense)|social parasitism]], a criminal offense.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckerman |first=Gal |title=When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2010 |chapter=3. A Circumcision at the Dacha, 1966-1969}}</ref> While some were allowed to leave, many were refused permission to emigrate, either immediately or after their cases had languished for years in ''OVIR'' (ОВиР, "Отдел Виз и Регистрации", "Otdel Viz i Registratsii", English: Office of Visas and Registration), the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Soviet Union)|MVD]] (Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs) department responsible for exit visas. In many instances, the reason given for denial was that these persons had been given access, at some point in their careers, to information vital to Soviet national security and could not be allowed to leave.<ref name=BTP2>[http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/66.html The Right to Emigrate, cont.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181009114832/http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/66.html |date=9 October 2018 }} Beyond the Pale. The History of Jews in Russia. Exhibit by  [http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/about.html Friends and Partners] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111043525/http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/66.html |date=11 November 2017 }}</ref>

== Incident ==
In 1970, a group of sixteen [[Refusenik]]s (14 of them Jewish) {{clarification needed|date=April 2023}} were organized by [[dissident]] [[Eduard Kuznetsov (dissident)|Edward Kuznetsov]], who had previously served a seven-year term in prison for publishing ''Phoenix-61'', a [[samizdat]] poetry collection.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beckerman |first=Gal |title=When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2010 |chapter=5. "Escape, Daughter of Zion Dwelling in Babylon," 1969-1970}}</ref> The group plotted to buy all the seats on a small 12-seater [[Antonov An-2]] (colloquially known as "кукурузник," ''kukuruznik'') making a local flight from [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] to [[Priozersk]], under the guise of a trip to a wedding. They then planned to throw out the pilots before takeoff from an intermediate stop and fly to Sweden.<ref>Beckerman, Gal (2010).  ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=7vQud4yM3R0C&hl=en When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry]''.  Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 179, 191, 194–195. </ref> Their final goal was Israel. One of the participants, Mark Dymshits, was a former military pilot, who had experience flying the An-2s.<ref>Beckerman (2010), p. 177-178.</ref> The group called the plan "Operation Wedding".<ref>Beckerman (2010), p. 186.</ref>

The plan was set in motion in June 1970. On the morning of 15 June, the group arrived together in [[Rzhevka Airport|Smolny Airport]] near Leningrad, only to be arrested by the [[KGB]].<ref>Beckerman (2010), p. 196-199.</ref>

== Aftermath ==
[[File:Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_Protest_Rally.jpg|thumb|A protest rally is held against the death penalty at Kikar Malchei Israel in Tel Aviv]]
The accused were charged with [[high treason]], punishable by death under Article 64 of the [[penal code]] of the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] (RSFSR). In a trial that took place from 15 to 24 December 1970, Mark Dymshits (age: 43) and [[Eduard Kuznetsov (dissident)|Eduard Kuznetsov]] (age: 31) received [[capital punishment|death sentences]].<ref name="Mozorov-1999">Mozorov, Boris (Ed.) (1999). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=6yduxAcR7PgC&pg=PA90 Documents on Soviet Jewish Emigration]. London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass. p. 90, note 3.</ref> The prison sentences received by nine other participants were as follows: [[Sylva Zalmanson]] (age: 25; then Kuznetsov's wife, and the only woman on trial), 10 years; [[Yosef Mendelevitch]] (age: 23) and Yuri Fedorov, 15 years; [[Oleksii Murzhenko]] (age: 28), 14 years; Arie (Leib) Hanoch (age: 25), 13 years; Anatoli Altmann (age: 28), 12 years; Boris Penson (age: 23), 10 years; Israel Zalmanson (age: 21), 8 years; and Mendel Bodnya (age: 32), 4 years.<ref name="Mozorov-1999"/><ref>"Proceedings of the Leningrad Hijacking Trial." In: Eduard Kuznetsov (1975). ''Prison Diaries''. Translated from the Russian by Howard Spier. New York: Stein and Day. pp. 217–254. The account is described as having been "recorded by a relative of one of the accused who was present in the courtroom" (p. 217); ages or years of birth, as well as other biographical details, are included for most of the defendants.</ref> Wolf Zalmanson (age: 31), brother of Sylva and Israel Zalmanson, who was a lieutenant in the Soviet army, was tried separately by a military tribunal and, on 2 January 1971, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.<ref>"[http://www.jta.org/1971/01/08/archive/zalmanson-sentenced-to-10-years-termination-of-trial-of-nine-seen-as-ploy Zalmanson Sentenced to 10 Years; Termination of Trial of Nine Seen As Ploy]" (8 January 1971). ''Jewish Telegraphic Agency''. Retrieved 22 November 2015.</ref>

After international protests, the Judicial Commission for Criminal Cases of the RSFSR Supreme Court in Moscow considered an appeal of the cases. The capital sentences of Dymshits and Kuznetsov were commuted to 15 years in prison, while the prison terms for several other defendants were reduced by two to five years.<ref name="Mozorov-1999"/>

Strong international condemnations caused the Soviet authorities to significantly increase the emigration quota. In the years 1960 through 1970, only 4,000 people had (legally) emigrated from the USSR; after the trial, in the period from 1971 to 1980, 347,100 people received a visa to leave the USSR, of whom 245,951 were Jews.

[[file:Jewish_emigration_from_USSR_Leningrad_trial_operation_wedding.png|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Jewish emigration from USSR, before and after the First Leningrad Trial]]

In August 1974, Sylva Zalmanson was released as part of an Israeli secret Soviet prisoner exchange with the spy [[Yuri Linov]]<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4870004,00.html|title=The KGB's Middle East Files: Agents in positions of power|first=Ronen|last=Bergman|newspaper=Ynetnews |date=28 October 2016|via=www.ynetnews.com}}</ref> that took place in Berlin, after which she immigrated to Israel, arriving in September. In the following years she advocated for the release of her husband, Edward Kuznetsov, and other dissidents.<ref>"Woman Keeping Vigil at U.N. Collapses After Plea Fails" (9 October 1975). ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>Ghert-Zand, Renee (29 December 2012). "[http://www.timesofisrael.com/my-mom-and-dad-the-would-be-zionist-hijackers/ My mom and dad, the would-be Zionist plane hijackers]." ''The Times of Israel''. Retrieved 23 November 2015.</ref>

Kuznetsov was finally released on 27 April 1979, and joined his wife in Israel.<ref>Kuznetsov, Eduard S. (27 April 1980). "Flight from the Gulag." ''The New York Times''.</ref> Mark Dymshits was released at the same time, along with three other prominent Soviet dissidents, [[Aleksandr Ginzburg]], [[Valentyn Moroz|Valentin Moroz]], and [[Georgy Vins]]. The release of the five dissidents came after long negotiations as part of a prisoner exchange for two Soviet foreign [[intelligence (information gathering)|intelligence]] officers, Rudolf Chernyaev and Valdik Enger. The Soviet operatives, who were employed at the time at the [[United Nations]] Secretariat, had been sentenced in a U.S. federal court to 50 years in prison, in October 1978, following their arrest in [[New Jersey]] the previous May, while collecting an agent's report from a secret cache (a co-conspirator, Vladimir Zinyakin, an attaché of the Soviet mission to the UN, had [[diplomatic immunity]], and was not charged).

After immigrating to Israel, Kuznetsov headed the news department of "[[Radio Liberty]]" (1983–1990), and was the chief editor of the largest Israeli Russian-language newspaper, ''Вести'' (1990–1999), the most popular Russian-language newspaper outside of Russia.

"The Committee to Free the Leningrad Three," headed by [[Colorado Senate|Colorado State Senator]] [[Tilman Bishop]], was instrumental in organizing [[grassroots]] and diplomatic campaigns to release the remaining prisoners.

In February 1981, Mendelevitch was released and joined his family in Israel. He urged continuance of the campaign to free two members of the group, Fedorov and Murzhenko: "The fact that both are non-Jewish is the worst example of Soviet discrimination and must not pass without protest."

On 15 June 1984, Murzhenko (1942-1999)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americanpushkinsociety.com/about-us/liac/soviet-dissidents/|title=Soviet dissidents|website=americanpushkinsociety}}</ref> was released, only to be rearrested for "parole violation" and sentenced to another two years; he was released June 4, 1987 and immigrated to the USA Feb. 29, 1988.{{cn|date=September 2021}} In June 1985, after serving 15 years, Yuri Fedorov was released under the [[101st kilometre]] settlement restriction. He was denied an exit visa until 1988, when he left for the United States. In 1998, he founded [[The Gratitude Fund]] in order to commemorate the Soviet dissidents "who waged a war against Soviet power and sacrificed their personal freedom and their lives for democracy."

In 2016, ''[[Operation Wedding]]'', a documentary about the hijacking directed by Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov (the daughter of Kuznetsov and Sylva Zalmanson, two participants in the plot) was released.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.operation-wedding-documentary.com/ |title = Operation Wedding, documentary - Official website}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portalbar|Soviet Union|Aviation|1970s}}
* [[Eastern Bloc emigration and defection]]
* [[Jackson–Vanik amendment]]
{{clear}}

== Notes ==
* {{note|alexeyeva}} [http://www.memo.ru/history/diss/books/ALEXEEWA/alexeeva_toc.htm''ИСТОРИЯ ИНАКОМЫСЛИЯ В СССР'' (The History of Dissident Movement in the USSR)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222231247/http://www.memo.ru/history/diss/books/ALEXEEWA/alexeeva_toc.htm |date=22 February 2017 }} by [[Ludmila Alekseyeva]]. Vilnius, 1992 (Russian)
* [https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2014/08/05/17-6-the-leningrad-trial-of-the-hijackers/ "The Leningrad trial of the 'hijackers'," ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (17.6), 31 December 1970], and compare
* [https://chronicle-of-current-events.com/2015/12/10/20-1-political-trials-may-june-1971/ "The Aeroplane affair", ''A Chronicle of Current Events'' (20.1), 2 July 1971].

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.operation-wedding-documentary.com/   "OPERATION WEDDING" A documentary film by Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov]
* [http://www.jerrykopel.com/c/leningrad-three.htm The role of Sen. Tilman Bishop in "The Committee to Free the Leningrad Three"]
* [https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/BkeN1zFnv When Russian Jews tried to steal a plane to reach Israel], Shlomit Sharvit Barzilay YNET, December 19th, 2020
* [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/tabarovsky-leningrad-hijacking-history-soviet-jews Hijacking History ,Fifty years ago today in Leningrad, a small group of Soviet Jews was tried for attempting a daring escape to Israel. Eerily, their story is relevant again—this time, for American Jews.]  Izabella Tabarovsky, Tablet December 24th, 2020
* [https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/history/articles/last-will-hijackers-leningrad-refuseniks Declaration and ‘Last Will’ of the Leningrad Hijackers]  Izabella Tabarovsky, Tablet December 24th, 2020

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970}}
{{Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union in the 1970s}}
{{Refusenik movement and 1990s post-Soviet aliyah}}
{{Jews in the Soviet Union}}
{{Soviet Union–United States relations|state=collapsed}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}

{{coord missing|Russia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dymshits-Kuznetsov hijacking affair}}
[[Category:Refuseniks|*]]
[[Category:Aircraft hijackings in Europe]]
[[Category:20th-century aviation accidents and incidents in Russia]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970]]
[[Category:Anti-communist terrorism]]
[[Category:1970 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:1970 in Russia]]
[[Category:Aeroflot accidents and incidents]]
[[Category:Jewish anti-communism]]
[[Category:Jewish terrorism]]
[[Category:Soviet Union–United States relations]]
[[Category:Israel–Soviet Union relations]]
[[Category:1970 in international relations]]
[[Category:June 1970 in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Hijackings in 1970]]