PIOTR SIUDA: WITNESS
By Alexander Shubin

Visitors to the Institute of Humanitarian and Political
Research in Moscow were often surprised to find that on the
wall alongside a portrait of human rights advocate Andrei
Sakharov, there hung tha photo of another, lesser known man.
This man was Piotr Siuda.

The fates of the two men were strikingly similiar, despite
all the apparent differences between the two. Both were
witnesses to the events of the century, thorns in the side
of official history who knew its secrets well and who
wouldn't remain silent.
Piotr Petrovich Siuda was always proud of his father, an old
Bolshevik who was killed in a Rostov jail in the 1930s. In
1990 he reproached us, his anarcho-syndicalist comrades, for
our venomous critique of bolshevism. "There were some honest
people amongst the Bolsheviks." Of course there were. The
leaders of the Bolsheviks deceived their own people.
For most of his life Siuda considered himself a non-party
bolshevik and fought with the Communist Party. The beginning
of his fight with the party began with the Novocherkassk
tragedy which, for many years, it was a crime to even
mention.
The tragedy we are speaking about occurred on June 1-3, 1962
in the south Russian city of Novocherkassk. On June 1, 1962,
prices were raised throughout the Soviet Union. There was a
strong reaction in many cities in response to these
measures. There was an especially strong protest at the
Novocherkassk electrolocomotive plant; a strike grew out of
this protest. The bravest and most resolute of the workers
spoke to their co-workers who had gathered on the square.
One of these speakers was Piotr Siuda. It was a triumphant
day for Piotr and the realization that the working class
could rise from up off their knees remained with him for the
rest of his life.
On the evening of June 1, Piotr Siuda and other active
participants in the strike were arrested by the KGB and
removed from the city; the authorities were trying to round
up the leaders of the strike.
On June 2 the army opened fire on the strikers and the
inhabitants of Novocherkassk who had gathered at the central
square and were holding a rally. Dozens of people, including
children, were killed. Then the authorities carried out a
wave of arrests. They shot seven of the "instigators" of the
strike and imprisoned many of its participants for many
years. The eyewitnesses of the tragedy were warned that if
they wanted to be released from prison they would have to
shut up.
Piotr Siuda's mother saved him from the firing squad. She
sent a letter to one Mikoyan, a member of the Politboro and
reminded him of the tragic fate of Piotr's father. Mikoyan
knew him from the revolution. Siuda was spared and instead
sentenced to 12 years in a labour camp.
In the camp and later on after he was freed, Siuda gathered
information on the tragedy, checking facts and analysing the
events. (The Novocherkassk prisoners were released before
their sentences were up, having already been held for a
number of years.) Siuda came to the conclusion that the
social structure of the USSR closely resembled fascism and
that the only way to overcome this was through a workers'
revolution. He wouldn't speak his mind openly. (He first
began to think this way sometime in the '60s.) But he also
couldn't keep silent. When the Soviet army was sent into
Afganistan, Siuda wrote a letter of protest which he sent to
all the main people in the government. The letter was sent
back to the local party with an order to take care of Siuda.
But what could they do? Banish him? Where to? Novocherkassk
was even farther away from Moscow than Gorky where they sent
Sakharov for a similar crime. Throw him in jail? That was
senseless; it didn't break him the last time. They decided
to use simpler tactics; they waited for him one night and
beat him, repeatedly kicking him in the head. This time he
was saved by his wife, Emma, who found him in time, dragged
him home and nursed him back to health. (She by the way had
helped him gather information on the events at
Novocherkassk.)
Piotr had collected an enormous amount of facts and
testimony concerning the tragedy at Novocherkassk. This was
done secretly as it was still the period before glasnost.
When he showed up in the spring of 1988 in Moscow, his
information caused a real explosion amongst the members of
the "informal" movement, comprised of young people who
opposed the Communist Party. Siuda wanted to make the secret
known to others. It was unbearable for him that he had to
keep these facts secret for so long. Many of the people who
heard the story from us acted in disbelief. "It can't be,"
they would say. Even people who had been to Novocherkassk in
1962 hadn't heard of the tragedy. The government protected
its secrets well. But all the facts that Siuda had gathered
were consistent and were even collaborated by court
documents of the trials.
At that time Obschina, the Moscow anarcho-syndicalist
journal,  published the story of the Novocherkassk tragedy.
The print run of that special issue of Obschina was a then
unheard of (for samizdat)  200 copies. It looked like a fat
wad of cigarette paper (as that was how classic samizdat
looked like in those days) but it was sent all over the
country and read from cover to cover by many people until
the paper would fall apart. People started to rerint the
story in other underground publications and soon the
official press was printing it as well.
After this crime committed by the party and the state was
exposed, public opinion of the Communist Party took a turn
for the worst. The party could not recover from the effects
of the expose. Siuda had dealt it a fatal blow.
Piotr Siuda was always far from the establishment. He was a
real representative of the people and he never strived for
power. He could have easily become a deputy but he became an
anarcho-syndicalist instead. Anarcho-syndicalism suited
Piotr's character. He was uncomprimising and fearless. He
did not fight for power but for the advancement of ideas.
His primary ideal was the liberation of the workers. But he
did not believe in this liberation at the expense of others.
When one of the many marxist-leninist "workers" groups
proposed that he fight for the dictatorship of the
proletariat, they were met with harsh words of criticism.
Any dictatorship, he felt, was a new road to slavery. For
Siuda anarchism was more than a passing fashion - it was the
crowning jewel of ideological development.
Piotr Siuda came alive when public political activity
started up in 1988. He turned Novocherkassk into a national
center of agitation.  With the help of his wife Piotr
printed and sent out hundreds of letters and articles. He
ran sort of an information agency for the workers and the
syndicalist movements. Dozens of "pilgrims" went to visit
Piotr on Privokzalnaya St. where he lived and became part of
his information network.
1989 was the heroic year of perestroika. The hypocrisy of
the leaders was not yet evident and nobody could predict
what would be the outcome of it all. Representing KAS (The
Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists) at a rally
commemorating Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, 1989, Siuda said
that "The Novocherkassk tragedy could happen again just as
long as the armed vanguard, the CPSU-KGB continued to
exist."
Now the CPSU is out of power and the KGB has a new name, but
it is still the armed agent of the nomenclatura. The tragedy
can still be repeated.
The first months of 1990 were perhaps the most meaningful in
the life of Piotr Siuda. He spoke at demos, mailed out
information and started an investigation into the fates of
those who were wounded in 1962. New anarcho-syndicalist
groups popped up in the region. The workers of the Donbass
got up off their knees.
On May 5th, 1990, Siuda was busy organizing a free trade
union in Novocherkassk. In the evening he was found lying in
the street. He died before an ambulance could arrive. The
official cause of death is listed as hemorrage of the brain.
Siuda suffered from low blow pressure which is one reason
why this version is highly suspect. There were other strange
facts. His family was lied to; they gave them an incorrect
time of death. Everything was carried on behind closed doors
in a secret manner. The doctor of course "didn't notice" any
injuries which would attest to violence. They called me to
pick up Piotr's things at the police station. The evidence
showed that there were traces of "an unknown substance" on
his clothes.[Translator's note: an apparent reference to
blood.]  The briefcase filled with documents that he had
been carrying had disappeared.
There were witnesses who saw Piotr running from some people.
But the witnesses were threatened and told that they had
better not say anything. People can think of many reasons
why he might be killed. Siuda attacked the KGB and the local
CPSU in the press and tarnished their image as reformers. He
also was involved in the labour movement and the epicenter
of the miners' strikes was nearby. Suida was a threat to
many people. The people guilty of carrying out the
Novocherkassk tragedy were still alive and there was still
the matter of the disappeared wounded. The night before
Piotr died he announced that he had found out where the
victims of the tragedy had been buried.
Siuda's funeral was attended by friends and family, anarcho-
syndicalists from various cities and by local democrats.
There was a commerative rally held at the factory, by the
very place where the protest at Novocherkassk had began.
Nearly thirty years had passed since Piotr first evaded
death. This time was not spent in vain.

