Boris Pustyntsev

Boris Pavlovich Pustynzew (Russian Борис Павлович Пустынцев; born June 2, 1935 in Vladivostok, † March 4, 2014 in Saint Petersburg ) was a Russian dissident and chairman of the St. Petersburg NGO " citizen control " and member of the " Council for Development of Civil Society and of human rights " under the patronage of the President of the Russian Federation.

Life

The end of 1956 Pustynzew studied English philology, as Soviet tanks crushed the freedom of will of the Hungarian people. A group of Russian students published and distributed in protest in Leningrad leaflets in support of the Hungarian uprising, calling on citizens to demand the immediate withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary and other Eastern European countries, which also happened after 35 years. In 1957, the KGB had arrested nine protesters. Pustynzew spent five years in prison and concentration camps. In the 1970s Pustynzew began his work in the movie industry as a dubbing director and writer of Russian texts of foreign films. 1982 gave him the KGB prohibition. The Estonian Studio Tallinnfilm did not abide by the ban and invited Pustynzew one. With the beginning of perestroika, he returned in 1989 at the Leningrad Film Studio ( Leningradskaya Kinostudija ) back.

Since the beginning of perestroika Pustyntsev actively participated in the protest against the increasing presence of the former KGB officers in the institutions of the administration of the new, supposedly democratic government in St. Petersburg. In 1992, after a further protest, he was so physically attacked outside his home by an unknown group of people that his vision was severely limited. He was forced to quit his work in the cinema industry.

From 1990 to 1994 Pustynzew was a founding member and co-chair of the local society "Memorial", an organization that represented the interests of the former victims of political repression.

In the past 20 years, Boris Pustynzew was an expert in many Russian and international projects for the protection of fundamental rights and political freedoms of Russian citizens as well as author of numerous articles on human rights in the Russian and foreign journals.

Pustynzew has been awarded the Officer 's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit.