A letter of a mother: Yevgenia Ginzburg in defence of her son V.P. Aksenov

From 1950 to 1954, Vasily Aksenov studied at Kazan State Medical Institute. The University Archive preserved his credit transcripts. In 1937, both parents of Aksenov were arrested for their participation in the Trotskyist terrorist organization. Little Vasya was sent to an orphanage. His father's brother took him from there in 1938. In 1948, he moved in with his mother in Magadan. In 1950, Aksenov graduated from high school and came to Kazan to enroll in the medical school. The documents do not say that his parents were repressed. The information about his mother and privileges for admission caused surveillance and, later, expulsion from the Institute. The mother began to defend her son. She continuously sent letters, enquiries, telegrams, documents from Magadan and expressed entreaty. In the autumn of 1953, Yevgenia Ginzburg wrote to the Medical Institute Director, Professor R. Vyaselev. She defended her constitutional rights, freedom and honor; she required readmission of her son. After the expulsion from the university in September 1953, in January 1954, he was readmitted and then expelled again in July. Then, in September of the same year, he was readmitted and again expelled. Then he transferred to Leningrad Medical Institute. The archived documents are published for the first time. They reveal the family connections of the Ginzburgs and the Aksenovs and illustrate the law and political influence at that time.

Keywords

Authors

References