Eduard Kuznetsov

Who is Eduard Kuznetsov?

Eduard Kuznetsov is a Soviet-born Israeli dissident, human rights activist, and writer.

In 1961, Kuznetsov was arrested for the first time and served seven years in Soviet prisons for making overtly political speeches in poetry readings at Mayakovsky Square in the centre of Moscow and for publishing samizdat.

After his release, he was one of the organizers of the Dymshits–Kuznetsov hijacking affair in May 1970 and was arrested for "high treason", punishable by the death sentence. His capital punishment sentence was appealed and after international protests his sentence was replaced with fifteen years of incarceration. This affair "opened the doors of emigration to thousands of Soviet Jews." In 1970 Kuznetsov shared a prison cell with Danylo Shumuk for five years.

In 1979 he and four other dissidents were exchanged for two Soviet spies arrested in the US. Kuznetsov then emigrated to Israel. From 1983 to 1990 he was chief of the news department of "Radio Liberty". In 1992 he cofounded the Israeli Russian-language newspaper, "Vesti", which he edited until 1999.