Evdokimov-Vogak, Rostislav Borisovich

Born November 29, 1950 in Leningrad .

Family

The father of Rostislav Evdokimov, one of the oldest members of the NTS, Boris Dmitrievich Evdokimov, (1923-1979) illegally smuggled his anti-Soviet articles abroad and was published in the journal Posev under the pseudonyms Sergei Razumny and Ivan Ruslanov.

Mother - Ksenia (Oksana) Vladimirovna Vogak (1922-2000), came from the well-known noble family Vogak in the Russian Empire , which gave Russia a galaxy of naval and army officers.

Grandfather - Captain I rank of the Russian Imperial Fleet Vladimir Andreevich Vogak, was arrested by the Bolsheviks in 1937 and died in the Gulag in 1942.

Sister - Svetlana Borisovna Evdokimova. Philologist, graduated from Leningrad University (now St. Petersburg State University ) and graduate school at Yale University in the United States. Doctor of Philology, Head of the Department of Slavic Studies and Professor of Slavic Studies and Comparative Literature at Brown University, USA. The author of books about A. S. Pushkin and numerous articles about A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, L. N. Tolstoy and A. P. Chekhov. Publication of poems in the Northern Aurora. Currently lives in Providence , USA.

Wife - Lyudmila Petrovna Bershatskaya, a pedagogical speech therapist by training, is also a member of the NTS in the past.

Childhood and Youth

As a child, Rostislav Evdokimov graduated from a music school in the violin class. In 1968, after graduating from high school with a silver medal, he entered the Physics Department of Leningrad State University . In 1969 he transferred to the Faculty of History.

Rostislav Evdokimov began to engage in poetry during his studies at Leningrad State University. So, in the 1970s, he begins to write poetry and prose, which were distributed in Samizdat under the pseudonym Vogak (published in exile periodicals).

The beginning of political activity

In 1971, as a student at the Faculty of History of Leningrad State University , he joined the People's Labor Union of Russian Solidarists . After the KGB arrested his father in October 1971, Rostislav Evdokimov was expelled from the university. In 1972-1982, Evdokimov worked as a laborer and an explosive engineer in geological and geophysical expeditions in remote areas of the USSR. In particular, as an explosive engineer, he took part in expeditions to the Far North as part of sled tractor trains, and also worked in Transcaucasia.

In 1977, he collaborated with the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes. Transmits information on the situation in special psychiatric hospitals in Leningrad abroad. Kazan, Dnepropetrovsk - in which his father was - fighting to save his life.

Since 1979, after the death of his father from an oncological disease, received by him in conditions of detention in the Kazan Special Psychiatric Hospital ^[1] , Rostislav Evdokimov took an active part in the activities of the Free Interprofessional Association of Workers (SMOT), in particular, in 1980-1981 he was the co-editor of the underground SMOT Newsletter.

On the day of his father’s death on October 4, 1979, Rostislav Evdokimov addresses with an open letter “To all honest people of the Earth”, in which he thanks everyone who helped in saving his father and calls him torturers. The text of the letter is distributed in Samizdat and transmitted by Western radio stations.

At the same time, Rostislav Evdokimov took an active part in the activities of the Free Interprofessional Association of Workers, in particular, in 1980-1981 he was the co-editor of the underground SMOT newsletter.

Arrested on July 22, 1982 in Leningrad. Charged with anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (article 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). I agreed to cooperate with the investigation, gave evidence that did not concern any other persons, except himself. At a trial in the Leningrad City Court on April 4, 1983, he was sentenced to 5 years in high security political camps, followed by 3 years. In custody, he was in camp VS-389/36 in the Perm Region. He was released ahead of schedule in March 1987.

In 1987, Evdokimov became the creator and leader of the Leningrad group of the International Society for Human Rights (IHRC). In December 1988, he was again brought in as an accused already under part 2 of Art. 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda). For 9 months, Rostislav Evdokimov, hiding from the KGB, was in an illegal situation. The case was dismissed only in connection with the cancellation of Art. 70 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.

In 1988, 17 years after being expelled from Leningrad State University , Evdokimov was reinstated at the University’s History Department and graduated in 1992 with a degree in the history of ancient Greece and Rome .

First use of the tricolor during the Perestroika period

In the same year, for the first time, raised a white-blue-red flag of Russia at a rally in Leningrad ^[2] . In fact, this was the first use of the Russian tricolor in the era of Perestroika . The Russian tricolor was sewn by the wife of Rostislav Evdokimov Lyudmila Bershatskaya from improvised materials.

Management of the St. Petersburg NTS Group

In 1991-1996, Rostislav Evdokimov headed the St. Petersburg NTS group, was a member of the leadership (Council) of the People’s Labor Union of Russian Solidarists (NTS) and the editorial board of Posev magazine. Evdokimov is the author of many articles on socio-political issues in the journal "Sowing" and other publications, as well as several collections of poems.

Educational and literary activities

As an expert in the field of ancient history and an Orthodox Christian, in 1999 Rostislav Evdokimov prepared and conducted a live broadcast of a program on St. Petersburg Radio "Maria" under the name "Plato is my friend ...". The series was devoted to the role of the ancient Greek philosophical heritage in the works of the Church Fathers , as well as to the influence of ancient Greek art on Christian and, in particular, Orthodox worship .

Later, in the early 2000s, at the same radio station, Rostislav Evdokimov prepared a series of lectures “The Sacred Stones of Europe” ^[3] (broadcast in recordings). In it, accessible and understandable for all, he spoke fascinatingly about the history, life, literature, as well as the philosophical and religious views of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations from their inception to the gospel times.

Already after the death of Rostislav Evdokimov, the lecture series “Sacred Stones of Europe” was published in a one-volume collection of his works entitled “Notes of the Perjury” ^[4] , published in 2015 by the Posev publishing house.

As a poet, in his work he used such a form as a wreath of sonnets , which is considered one of the most complex in European poetry. He wrote a work devoted to the experience of creating a double wreath of sonnets, as a fundamentally new form ^[5] . One of the double wreaths of sonnets created by Rostislav Evdokimov was called “Travel Time” ^[6] .

Rostislav Evdokimov was a member of the French and Swedish PEN clubs (since 1982), the Russian PEN club (since 1994), and in 1988-1991 he was the chief editor of Petropolis magazine.

Tragically died (drowned while swimming in the ocean) December 12, 2011 in Costa Rica . He was buried in St. Petersburg at the Bolsheokhtinsky cemetery.

• 58.10. Supervisory Proceedings of the USSR Prosecutor's Office on Cases of Anti-Soviet Agitation and Propaganda: Annotated Catalog, March 1953-1991 Ed. V.A. Kozlova, S.V. Mironenko; Comp. O. V. Edelman; With the participation of E. Yu. Zavadskaya, O. V. Lavinskaya. M.: International Fund "Democracy", 1999

• Panorama "Rostislav Evdokimov - hereditary NTS-sheep"
• Collection of poems by Rostislav Evdokimov “After silence”