Vazif Sirazhutdinovich Meylanov (, 15 May 1940 – 11 January 2015) was a Soviet mathematician, social philosopher, writer, Soviet dissident, and political prisoner (1980–1989). He became renowned for his critical works on the theory of socialism, as well as for his singular endurance and uncompromising attitude towards authorities during his prison terms.
After his imprisonment and exile, Meylanov focused on the issue of personal freedom, examined social and political environments, dispelled stereotypes about Russian democracy, and analyzed the political consciousness of Russian society. Additionally, he was an opponent of nationalism and Islamism, advocating for the idea that human rights should be the foundation of human relationships and that a strong state apparatus should enforce these rights.
Biography
Early years Vazif Meylanov was born in Makhachkala on May 15, 1940. He is an ethnic Lezgin.
He studied at School No.1 in Makhachkala until 1954, then continued his education at School No.2 in Chardzhou (part of modern-day Turkmenistan) until his graduation in 1957.
From 1957 to 1958, Meylanov lived in Pyatigorsk while preparing for enrollment at Moscow State University. He studied at the Physics Faculty of Moscow State University between 1958 and 1961.
Meylanov served in the Soviet Army from 1961 to 1964. He then resumed his studies at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University from 1964 to 1969, attending seminars led by Anatoli Vitushkin. From 1969 to 1972, he was a post-graduate student there, and from 1972 to 1978, he taught advanced mathematics at Dagestan Polytechnic Institute.
In 1972, Vazif Meylanov wrote To flash as a tigress (Мелькнет тигрицей).
Vazif Meylanov is the author of two significant works on the mathematical theory of real-variable function: “Sequences of closed sets of bounded variation converging in the deviation metric” (1974) and “Two close sets of bounded variation”. The works were published in the journal “Mathematical Notes” and translated into English. The second work was also published in the United States.
Start of social and political activity In 1977, Vazif Meylanov publicly wrote and published “Notes on the margins of Soviet newspapers", a philosophical and political work devoted to the criticism of communism theory. In this work, Meylanov argued for freedom of speech and press and called for the abolition of Articles 70 (Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) and 190-1 (defamation of the Soviet system) of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
In 1978, Vazif Meylanov was not re-elected by the Academic Council of the Institute for a new five-year term as a lecturer due to "being in opposition to the staff and damaging the communist education of youth".
From 1978 to 1980, Vazif Meylanov worked as a concrete worker of the 5th rank in the mobile mechanized column No.10 and the special mobile mechanized column No.18.
On January 25, 1980, the day after Izvestia published an article announcing the exile of Andrei Sakharov to Gorky, Meylanov staged a protest in front of the Dagestan Regional Committee of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union). His banner read
"I protest against the persecution of Sakharov. Ideas should be fought with ideas, rather than the police. The people need individuals like Sakharov – they provide true, informal oversight over the actions of the state. All the troubles of this country are due to the lack of freedom of speech. Fight for freedom of speech for ideological opponents of communism – it will be your fight for freedom of speech too! "Extract from the BBC broadcast on January 28, 1980 (shown as amended): "Moscow dissidents report that in Makhachkala, Dagestan, a man who tried to protest publicly against the exile of Academician Andrei Sakharov was arrested."
Meylanov was immediately arrested and taken to an undisclosed location. According to reports, his apartment was ransacked.
On December 2, 1980, Vazif Meylanov was found guilty by the Supreme Court of the Dagestan ASSR on three charges: Writing and distributing his work "Notes on the margins of Soviet newspapers"; Going to the square with a banner; The distribution of the books Cursed Days by Ivan Bunin, Necropolis by Vladislav Khodasevich, and Life of Sologdin by Dimitri Panin
Не was sentenced to 7 years in a strict regime labor camp and two years of exile.
In the remand prison, Meylanov wrote "Notes on the transcript of court sessions".
Imprisonment and exile Vazif Meylanov was sent to the correctional labor colony No.35, also known as Perm-35, located in the western taiga zone of the Ural Mountains. This colony (389/35) was established for dangerous special criminals in 1972.
In the early 1980s, 270 political prisoners were serving time in the colony for dissidence, including notable figures such as Vazif Meylanov, Anatoly Sharansky, Vladimir Poresh, Anatoly Marchenko, Vladimir Bukovsky, Joseph Begun, Sergei Grigoryants, Gleb Yakunin, Yuriy Orlov, Sergei Kovalev, Valery Senderov, and many others. Meylanov arrived in the colony on March 26, 1981. There, he refused to participate in correctional forced labor, writing a statement to Major Osin, Chief of the colony, on August 28, 1981:
"I refuse to work in the colony in protest against forced labor in prison camp, which contradicts the status of political prisoners. I claim the following changes to the Internal Rules of correctional labor colony and to the correctional labor code (for political prisoners): 1. To establish the principle of voluntary participation in the labor force. 2. To put an end to deductions from wages of political prisoners for maintenance of the prison administration and guard. Commentary. The percentage of deductions should be the same as at liberty. If society is afraid of me, then ... let them pay for their fears! That’s the way the world wags - for your fears you have to pay yourself. Transmit this information to the workers and the peasants. 3. To put an end to the shameful practice of hunger tortures in punitive confinement. Commentary. Nutritional standards in punitive confinement should be the same as that in the colony (2A)."
Vazif Meylanov was imprisoned in punitive confinement, with nutritional standard 9b (every second day), from April 10, 1981, to June 1982, for refusing to work. During that period of time, he was twice goaded into dystrophy, then placed in the prison hospital. Afterwards, he was imprisoned in punitive confinement again.
As Vazif Meylanov didn't give his consent to work, his restriction was changed and he was transferred to prison in Chistopol, where he spent three years from 1982 to 1985 in a punishment cell with a strict prison regime.
On September 10, 1982, whilst in Chistopol prison, Vazif Meylanov wrote a statement which explained to the Communist state his attitude towards attempts to rectify him by means of forced labor: “Do you want to rectify me by means of forced labor? Sorry, but I don’t want to mend my ways. (…)There are two levels of violence, one – is not to allow someone to do something, it is the lowest level of violence; the other – to make somebody do something, it is the highest level of violence, which abuses one’s soul. But I seek to reduce the level of violence in the world, that is why I encourage you to pass from the highest level of violence to the lowest. "Vazif Meylanov, “"Another Sky. False stereotypes of Russian democracy ", materials from the identification record of the prisoner, Volume № 2, pages 170–172 from the record.
In 1983, Vazif Meylanov wrote two books: "Disarmament and criminal codes" and "I talk to the Communists." Both of them were transferred outside the prison and were published in the Archives of Samizdat (dissident underground press in the USSR).
The following is an extract from the characteristics of the convicted person for the period from 26.07.1982 to 06.05.1985:“During term of punishment convicted Meylanov made extremely bad showing. From the first days of imprisonment he was involved in socially useful work, in particular knitting bags, but for the entire period of his sentence Meylanov has not started to work, for which he was repeatedly punished as a disciplinary measure. He doesn’t keep regular hours and custodial control, for which he was punished 13 times as a disciplinary measure, including 6 times in solitary confinement. He responds extremely negatively to political educational events.
He is unfriendly towards policy of the CPSU and the Soviet government and tends to write scandalous reports. He actively participates in the manifestations of negatively-spirited part of the convicts. Convicted Meylanov refuses consciously to mend his ways”.In 1985, Vazif Meylanov was returned to the same colony and to the same punishment cell, given food every second day (from 10.07.1985 to 03.09.1986). From there, he returned again to Chistopol prison in solitary confinement regime till the end of the term. Jailers failed to force Meylanov to work and he did not work a single day.
In 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev launched a campaign for the release of political prisoners in the wake of reforms. However, inside prisons and camps, the campaign did not look so magnificent. Since 1985 machine of coercion in prisons gathered pace, as the detention regime changed for the worse, the rules became stricter, while punishment became harsher. Some political prisoners were released, but they had to write a statement with the promise to comply with the Soviet laws henceforth.
On January 19, 1987, Soviet prosecutors Ovcharov and Semenov arrived in Chistopol prison. At the moment I am in strict confinement, it's the first month of this regime, and that is why I get nutrition in isolation cell. Representatives of the Soviet Prosecutor's Office tell me that they fulfill the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR: they have authority to release those political prisoners who will give written assurances to comply with existing laws in the country. People exhausted for years of imprisonment were deprived of victory ...
I am writing an application to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet: "Whenever it was day and hour of my release, I will violate the Soviet laws – in particular Articles № 70 and № 190-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. I demand their exclusion from the Code. "Jailors decided to put pressure on me by means of my relatives, on February 26, 1987 I was transferred from the Chistopol prison to Makhachkala detention center. I had two appointments with my parents and my brother. They were asked to persuade me to write the required statement. My old parents (77-year-old father and 74-years-old mother) and brother asked me to write. My mother told me that before the end of my exile she and my father could die. I said to my relatives, that "seventy years the criminal regime used humans for the consolidation of inhumanity," and that "nothing in the world will encourage me to surrender to the increasingly inhumane regime."Vazif Meylanov, "Another Sky. False stereotypes of Russian democracy", article “Anti-Communist Nuremberg: Vazif Meylanov to Congress of Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, August 20, 1989"
Vazif Meylanov refused to sign a statement promising to respect Soviet laws and served his full sentence in prison and exile. On September 11, 1987, he was transferred from the isolation cell of Chistopol prison to place of his exile - Yakutia, village Namtsy of the Verkhnevilyuisk region.