Vladimir Borisovich Panteleev — a Nizhny Novgorod civic activist and human rights advocate, a political prisoner from 1970 to 1976, a journalist and essayist, and a collector of graphic art and bookplates. He is Chairman of the Board of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Victims of Communist Terror and the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Bookplate Collectors' Club, and a member of the board of the International Association of Political Prisoners of the Former USSR [1][2][3].
Biography
In the USSR, while the city was still called Gorky, Panteleev spent six years — from 1970 to 1976 — imprisoned as a political prisoner; in his later publications he continued to sign himself "political prisoner, 1970–76" [2][3]. After his rehabilitation he received a permanent certificate of political repression — documents of this kind were issued during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin to rehabilitated political prisoners and entitled them to modest benefits such as free public transit; after those benefits were abolished, the certificate became worthless, as Panteleev himself has noted [3].
Panteleev lives in a panel five-story "Khrushchyovka" (a low-cost Soviet-era apartment block) on Nartov Street in Sovetsky District, Nizhny Novgorod [2].
Public Activities
Panteleev heads the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Victims of Communist Terror, which traces its origins to 1992. As a legal entity — the regional public organization "Nizhny Novgorod Society of Victims of Communist Terror" — it was registered on 11 June 1999; from December 2002, Vladimir Borisovich Panteleev appears in the register as chairman of the board. On 19 February 2007, the organization was removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities as inactive, but Panteleev continued to act under that name thereafter [1][3].
He also serves on the board of the International Association of Political Prisoners of the Former USSR — an organization of former Soviet political prisoners [3].
| Organization | Founded | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Nizhny Novgorod Society of Victims of Communist Terror | 1992 (legal entity registered 11.06.1999, removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities 19.02.2007) [1] | chairman of the board [1] |
| Nizhny Novgorod Regional Exlibris Club | 1981 [3] | co-founder, chairman [3] |
| International Association of Political Prisoners of the Former USSR | — | board member [3] |
| All-Russian Society of Collectors | — | board member [3] |
Bookplate collector
Panteleev is a well-known collector of graphic art in the city. He is one of the founders of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Bookplate Collectors' Club, established in 1981, and serves as its chairman, as well as a board member of the All-Russian Collectors' Society [3].
For his civic activities he has received numerous medals, certificates of merit, and diplomas. His name has been included in several encyclopedias, among them S. A. Smirnov's concise encyclopedia "Nizhny Novgorod Press from A to Z," published in Nizhny Novgorod in 2010 [3][11].
The value of a personal impression
Panteleev extended his collector's fascination with seals and stamps to civic themes. On the city forum NN.RU he described his "personal heraldic seal" featuring a "enhanced" Russian eagle — with prison bars in place of Saint George the Victorious, a police cap on each head, handcuffs in one talon, and a rubber truncheon in the other — and recounted how a foreign correspondent paid his Moscow acquaintance 200 dollars for the right to publish an impression of such a seal [4].
I, for instance, and some of my friends have long had personal heraldic seals — and not with the ordinary eagle, but a special, enhanced one that you rarely come across among ordinary Russian citizens: instead of Saint George the Victorious there are prison bars, on the heads sits a police cap, in one talon handcuffs, in the other a rubber truncheon. One foreign correspondent paid my Moscow acquaintance 200 bucks just for an impression of that seal, along with the right to publish it in the media.
Journalism
As a journalist, Panteleev writes civic commentary, including in his blog "Nizhny Novgorod Political Prisoner" on Mail.ru [3]. A characteristic example is an essay about an incident in his own apartment building's entryway, published on the website "Soprotivleniye" ("Resistance") [2].
According to the author's account, on the morning of 15 September 2005 a criminal investigation officer rang his apartment doorbell and asked which newspapers the residents subscribed to. Shortly afterwards, all residents who happened to be home were assembled on the staircase landings: the entrance hall of the building on Nartov Street, long overdue for renovation, filled with FSB operatives, investigators, and rank-and-file militia (police) officers pulled from other precincts [2].
Panteleev and an elderly neighbor were designated as official witnesses and made to sign non-disclosure agreements. The operation's objective turned out to be the seizure of a copy of the newspaper Radical Politics — an opposition publication produced at the personal expense of members of the civic organization "Revolutionary Contact Union" (RCO) — which had been lying between the window frames on the fourth-floor staircase landing. The newspaper was ceremoniously packed into a special bag, the witnesses signed seizure reports, blank forms, and detailed diagrams of the location where it had been found [2].
The author compared what was happening to a "cheap farce" in the spirit of the 1930s: the newspaper, he noted, was freely distributed on the streets of Nizhny Novgorod and lay on tables alongside advertising publications in office centers, banks, and post offices. That same evening, militia officers went door to door in pairs, instructing residents that the discovered newspaper must not be read; instead, without reading it, one should wrap it in another newspaper, tie it with string, and report it to the militia. The essay ended with the observation that if half the district police station's entire staff was dispatched to seize a single copy, then in the event of a fight or a burglary one could not expect the militia to come at all [2].
Panteleev himself signed the text as a political prisoner of 1970–76, "who reads the most varied newspapers, even those which FSB officers are not permitted to read" [2].
I could not shake the feeling that I was taking part in some cheap farce, plainly out of the thirties.
One must, with eyes shut tight, wrap the find in another newspaper that is permitted to be read, tie it up with string, and call the militia without delay.
Panteleev on the Internet and in Mass Media
Panteleev is a long-standing participant in the city forum NN.RU, where he posted under his own name "Vladimir Panteleev" [6]. After a wave of attacks from other participants, he stopped using that handle and wrote under the pseudonym knopern [6][7].
There he also shared everyday stories: in late 2010 he wrote about spending 11 days treating his cat and spending 4,000 rubles on it [5].
In 2009, unknown individuals painted an insulting message aimed at Panteleev on the entrance to his building on Nartov Street [3].
In November 2011, his photograph unexpectedly appeared in news stories that had nothing to do with him. On November 2, officers from Center "E" (the anti-extremism unit) of the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs detained 45-year-old Nizhny Novgorod local historian Anatoly Moskvin, a cemetery researcher previously known for an interview with journalist Tatyana Kokina-Slavina: in his apartment on Lenin Avenue, mummified remains that had been dug up from cemeteries were discovered [8][9][10]. On November 3, the portal LifeNews ran a photo of Panteleev taken from his profile on NN.RU alongside an urgent report on the case. The first version of the report mentioned 26 skeletons; the figure was later corrected to 29 [6][8].
Death had occurred so long ago that the remains had already fully skeletonized; in effect, the police found themselves holding 29 desiccated skeletons. All of them had been dressed in fine gowns.
See also
Sources
- rusprofile.ru — extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRYuL) on the regional public organization "Nizhny Novgorod Society of Victims of Communist Terror" (NOZhKT), Nizhny Novgorod (INN 5262131585) (archive)
- soprotivlenie.marsho.net — "Soprotivlenie" website — essay by Vladimir Panteleev — Vladimir Panteleev, political prisoner 1970–76 (archive)
- blogs.mail.ru — blog of Vladimir Panteleev — NIZHNY NOVGOROD POLITICAL PRISONER
- NN.RU — post by Vladimir Panteleev about a personal seal source lost The page no longer opens, and there is no copy in the web archive source lost The page no longer opens, and there is no copy………
- NN.RU — post by Vladimir Panteleev about treating a cat, 2010 source lost The page no longer opens, and there is no copy in the web archive source lost The page no longer opens………
- web.archive.org — NN.RU — user profile "Vladimir Panteleev" (2009 copy) — NN.RU user profile (archive)
- web.archive.org — NN.RU — user profile knopern — NN.RU user profile (archive)
- life.ru — report on the search of Anatoly Moskvin's home, November 3, 2011 — 29 female corpses found in a scholar's apartment (archive)
- newsru.com — on the detention of Anatoly Moskvin by officers of Center "E," November 3, 2011 (archive)
- kokina.ru — website of Tatyana Kokina-Slavina — interview with Anatoly Moskvin (archive)
- nlr.ru — National Library of Russia — index of regional encyclopedias of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Regional encyclopedias. Nizhny Novgorod Region (archive)