Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair

1970 aircraft hijacking attempt

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The Dymshits–Kuznetsov aircraft hijacking affair, also known as The First Leningrad Trial or Operation Wedding (Russian: 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 refuseniks in order to escape to the 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 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. A large number of Soviet Jews applied for exit visas 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 social parasitism, a criminal offense. 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 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.

Incident

In 1970, a group of sixteen Refuseniks (14 of them Jewish) were organized by dissident Edward Kuznetsov, who had previously served a seven-year term in prison for publishing Phoenix-61, a samizdat poetry collection. 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 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. Their final goal was Israel. One of the participants, Mark Dymshits, was a former military pilot, who had experience flying the An-2s. The group called the plan "Operation Wedding".

The plan was set in motion in June 1970. On the morning of 15 June, the group arrived together in Smolny Airport near Leningrad, only to be arrested by the KGB.

Aftermath

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 (age: 30) received death sentences. 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. 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.

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.

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.

In August 1974, Sylva Zalmanson was released as part of an Israeli secret Soviet prisoner exchange with the spy Yuri Linov 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.

Kuznetsov was finally released on 27 April 1979, and joined his wife in Israel. Mark Dymshits was released at the same time, along with three other prominent Soviet dissidents, Aleksandr Ginzburg, 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 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 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) 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. 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.

Notes

ИСТОРИЯ ИНАКОМЫСЛИЯ В СССР (The History of Dissident Movement in the USSR) Archived 22 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine by Ludmila Alekseyeva. Vilnius, 1992 (Russian)
"The Leningrad trial of the 'hijackers'," A Chronicle of Current Events (17.6), 31 December 1970, and compare
"The Aeroplane affair", A Chronicle of Current Events (20.1), 2 July 1971.

References

Beckerman, Gal (2010). "3. A Circumcision at the Dacha, 1966-1969". When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The Right to Emigrate, cont. Archived 9 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine Beyond the Pale. The History of Jews in Russia. Exhibit by Friends and Partners Archived 11 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Beckerman, Gal (2010). "5. "Escape, Daughter of Zion Dwelling in Babylon," 1969-1970". When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Beckerman, Gal (2010). 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.
Beckerman (2010), p. 177-178.
Beckerman (2010), p. 186.
Beckerman (2010), p. 196-199.
^ Mozorov, Boris (Ed.) (1999). Documents on Soviet Jewish Emigration. London; Portland, OR: Frank Cass. p. 90, note 3.
"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.
"Zalmanson Sentenced to 10 Years; Termination of Trial of Nine Seen As Ploy" (8 January 1971). Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
Bergman, Ronen (28 October 2016). "The KGB's Middle East Files: Agents in positions of power". Ynetnews – via www.ynetnews.com.
"Woman Keeping Vigil at U.N. Collapses After Plea Fails" (9 October 1975). The New York Times.
Ghert-Zand, Renee (29 December 2012). "My mom and dad, the would-be Zionist plane hijackers." The Times of Israel. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
Kuznetsov, Eduard S. (27 April 1980). "Flight from the Gulag." The New York Times.
"Soviet dissidents". americanpushkinsociety.
"Operation Wedding, documentary - Official website".

External links

"OPERATION WEDDING" A documentary film by Anat Zalmanson-Kuznetsov
The role of Sen. Tilman Bishop in "The Committee to Free the Leningrad Three"
When Russian Jews tried to steal a plane to reach Israel, Shlomit Sharvit Barzilay YNET, December 19th, 2020
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
Declaration and ‘Last Will’ of the Leningrad Hijackers Izabella Tabarovsky, Tablet December 24th, 2020

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970 (1970)
Jan 5 Spantax Convair crashJan 28 Batagay An-24 crashJan 29 Aeroflot Flight 145Feb 2 Cornfield Bomber crash landingFeb 4 Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 707Feb 4 TAROM Flight 35Feb 6 Aeroflot Flight U-45Feb 15 Dominicana DC-9 disasterFeb 21 Swissair Flight 330Mar 14 Paraense Transportes Aéreos Flight 903Mar 17 Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320Mar 31 Japan Airlines Flight 351Apr 1 Aeroflot Flight 1661Apr 1 Berrechid crashApr 21 Philippine Airlines Flight 215May 2 ALM Flight 980May 15 Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affairJul 3 Dan-Air Flight 1903Jul 5 Air Canada Flight 621Jul 18 Soviet Air Force Antonov An-22Jul 22 Olympic Airways Flight 255 hijackingJul 27 Flying Tiger Line Flight 45Aug 9 LANSA Flight 502Aug 12 China Airlines Flight 206Sep 2 Aeroflot Flight 3630Sep 6 Dawson's Field hijackingsSep 8 Trans International Airlines Flight 863Sep 26 Flugfélag Íslands Flight 704Oct 2 Wichita State Univ football teamOct 15 Aeroflot Flight 244Nov 14 Southern Airways Flight 932Nov 27 Capitol International Airways Flight C2C3/26
1969 ◄ ► 1971

Aviation accidents and incidents in 1970 (1970)

Jan 5 Spantax Convair crashJan 28 Batagay An-24 crashJan 29 Aeroflot Flight 145Feb 2 Cornfield Bomber crash landingFeb 4 Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 707Feb 4 TAROM Flight 35Feb 6 Aeroflot Flight U-45Feb 15 Dominicana DC-9 disasterFeb 21 Swissair Flight 330Mar 14 Paraense Transportes Aéreos Flight 903Mar 17 Eastern Air Lines Shuttle Flight 1320Mar 31 Japan Airlines Flight 351Apr 1 Aeroflot Flight 1661Apr 1 Berrechid crashApr 21 Philippine Airlines Flight 215May 2 ALM Flight 980May 15 Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affairJul 3 Dan-Air Flight 1903Jul 5 Air Canada Flight 621Jul 18 Soviet Air Force Antonov An-22Jul 22 Olympic Airways Flight 255 hijackingJul 27 Flying Tiger Line Flight 45Aug 9 LANSA Flight 502Aug 12 China Airlines Flight 206Sep 2 Aeroflot Flight 3630Sep 6 Dawson's Field hijackingsSep 8 Trans International Airlines Flight 863Sep 26 Flugfélag Íslands Flight 704Oct 2 Wichita State Univ football teamOct 15 Aeroflot Flight 244Nov 14 Southern Airways Flight 932Nov 27 Capitol International Airways Flight C2C3/26

1969 ◄ ► 1971

v t e Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union in the 1970s
1970	Batagay Aeroflot An-24 crash (28 January 1970) Aeroflot Flight 145 (29 January 1970) Aeroflot Flight U-45 (February 1970) Aeroflot Flight 1661 (April 1970) Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair (June 1970) Aeroflot Flight 3630 (September 1970) Aeroflot Flight 244 (October 1970)
1971	Surgut Aeroflot An-12 crash (22 January 1971) Surgut Aeroflot An-12 crash (31 January 1971) Aeroflot Flight 1969 (March 1971) Aeroflot Flight 1912 (July 1971) Malév Flight 110 (September 1971) Aeroflot Flight 773 (October 1971) Aeroflot Flight N-63 (November 1971) Aeroflot Flight 2174 (December 1971)
1972	Aeroflot Flight B-608 (4 May 1972) Svetlogorsk An-24 crash (16 May 1972) Aeroflot Flight 1491 (18 May 1972) Aeroflot Flight 558 (August 1972) Aeroflot Flight 1036 (1 October 1972) Aeroflot Flight 217 (13 October 1972) Japan Air Lines Flight 446 (November 1972)
1973	Aeroflot Flight 6263 (January 1973) Aeroflot Flight 630 (24 February 1973) Aeroflot Flight X-167 (28 February 1973) Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Flight 307 (March 1973) Aeroflot Flight 2420 (April 1973) Aeroflot Flight 6551 (11 May 1973) Aeroflot Flight 109 (18 May 1973) Aeroflot Flight A-13 (August 1973) Aeroflot Flight 3932 (September 1973) Aeroflot Flight 964 (October 1973) Aeroflot Flight 19 (November 1973) Aeroflot Flight 2022 (December 1973)
1974	Aeroflot Flight H-75 (January 1974) Leningrad Aeroflot Il-18 crash (April 1974)
1975	Aeroflot Flight E-15 (July 1975) Aeroflot Flight 6274 (November 1975)
1976	Aeroflot Flight 2003 (January 1976) Aeroflot Flight 3739 (February 1976) Aeroflot Flight 909 (March 1976) Aeroflot Flight 1802 (May 1976) Anapa mid-air collision (September 1976) Aeroflot Flight 2415 (November 1976) Aeroflot Flight N-36 (December 1976)
1977	Aeroflot Flight 3843 (January 1977) Aeroflot Flight 5003 (February 1977) Tavda mid-air collision (May 1977) Aeroflot Tu-134 hijacking (10 July 1977) Aeroflot Flight B-2 (20 July 1977)
1978	Korean Air Lines Flight 902 (April 1978) Aeroflot Flight 6709 (19 May 1978) Yegoryevsk Tu-144 crash (23 May 1978) Iranian Chinook shootdown (June 1978) Aeroflot Flight 1080 (7 October 1978) Aeroflot Flight 6515 (23 October 1978)
1979	Aeroflot Flight 1691 (March 1979) Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision (11 August 1979) Aeroflot Flight 5484 (29 August 1979)
1960–1969 ◄ 1970–1979 ► 1980–1991

Refusenik movement and 1990s post-Soviet aliyah

(c. 1970 – 2000)

Background

Causes	The Holocaust Antisemitism in the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin Zionism Six-Day War Emigration from the Eastern Bloc Slánský trial Anti-cosmopolitan campaign
Jewish groups	Ashkenazim Mountain Jews Karaim Krymchaks Bukharan Jews Georgian Jews

Events

People

Soviet Union
Commonwealth of Independent States

Pro-government/antisemitic	Leonid Brezhnev Yuri Andropov Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Suslov David Dragunsky Yakov Fishman Adolf Shayevich Emomali Rahmon
Jewish	Ida Nudel Natan Sharansky Yuli Edelstein Eduard Kuznetsov Iosif Begun

United States

Israel

Other

Pro-Soviet	Władysław Gomułka
Pro-Jewish	Nicolae Ceaușescu

Organisations

Soviet Union	Communist Party of the Soviet Union Communist Party of the Russian Federation Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public Moscow Helsinki Group Pamyat
United States	Jewish Defense League American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Union of Councils for Soviet Jews National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry
Israel	Nativ Jewish Agency

Aftermath

v t e Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union
History	The Holocaust in the Soviet Union Jewish autonomy in Crimea Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) Birobidzhan Jewish history in the JAO
Organizations	Jewish Communist Party (EKP) Jewish Communist Youth Union (EKSM) Yevsektsiya Komzet OZET Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
Soviet antisemitism	1931 Menshevik Trial Night of the Murdered Poets Doctors' plot Rootless cosmopolitan Anti-cosmopolitan campaign Joseph Stalin and antisemitism
Zionism	Soviet anti-Zionism Anti-Zionist Committee 1970s Soviet Union aliyah Refusenik Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking
International activism	Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia Soviet Jewry movement National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Cleveland Council Nativ Freedom Sunday Jackson–Vanik amendment
Media and publications	Am Yisrael Chai Jews on Land The Black Book of Soviet Jewry

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