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17 Questions
Regarding Raoul Wallenberg
submitted to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Russian Federation
Moscow
Guy von Dardel, Susanne Berger, Ari D. Kaplan,
Mawin W. Makinen, & Susan E. Mesinai
(former consultants
and members of the Russian-Swedish Working Group)
Independent Investigation into the Fate of
Raoul Wallenberg, Inc.
332 Bleecker Street K-65, New York,
New York 10014
- If Raoul Wallenberg was alive after 1947, he would most
likely have become a secret prisoner in isolation. Such
prisoners were assigned either a false identity or a number.
Who were the convicted prisoners incarcerated in the Vladimir
Prison under the Nos. 14, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 sentenced
by Special Tribunal (OSO) between the Spring of 1947 and
May, 1948. Please, make their files available to researchers.
Please provide also information of whether numbered prisoners
were held in other Soviet prisons and make those documents
available to independent consultants and researches.
- What happened on July 17, 1947? If Raoul Wallenberg
died, how did it happen? If he was executed, who took the
decision? And in that case, where is he buried? If he was
held in isolation, where are the relevant documents? In
relation to this date, what were the contents of the letter
Abakumov wrote to Molotov on July 17, 19477 Where is the
letter?
- Russian members of the Swedish-Russian Working Group
on the Fate of Raoul Wallenberg reported that Willi Rodel,
Raoul Wallenberg's cellmate in the Lefortovo Prison in 1947,
died of natural causes en route from Moscow to Krasnogorsk
on October 15, 1947. However, recent publications from Russia
cite documents still held within the FSB indicating
that Rodel was executed by order of Serov, the first Chairman
of the KGB. If Russian members of the Working Group intentionally
provided misleading information in the mid-1990s about the
fate of Willi Radel, there is no basis to believe that they
have been truthful about the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. Provide
access to all records and documents pertaining to Raoul
Wallenberg, W~lli Radel, and Vilmos Langfelder.
- Who were the foreign prisoners in solitary confinement
in 1960 in Korpus 2 of the Vladimir Prison described
by Varvara lvanovna Larina and Aleksandr Timofeiyevich Kukin,
former employees of the prison; and in 1970 by Josip Terelya,
a former prisoner, also in Korpus 2 of the Vladimir
Prison? Please. provide all documentation of their imprisonment
in Vladimlr, including their registration cards and cell
occupancy data. The relevant documents of these prisoners
have been removed from the karioteka of the
Vladimir Prison, as demonstrated through the database cell
occupancy analysis carried out by Ari Kaplan and Marvin
Makinen, as consultants to the Swedish-Russian Working Group.
- In 1956 a Soviet citizen by the name of Shiryagin in
Kharkov wrote to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
claiming to have important information about Raoul Wallenberg.
Why did the Foreign Ministry request the KGB to silence
Shiryagin on this issue? Where is the letter and what are
its contents?
- Who was Sandor Katona and why was he transferred as
a prisoner with Vilmos Langfelder, from the Lefortovo Prison
to the Lubianka Prison on July 22, 1947? Please provide
full documentation of Katona's arrest and imprisonment.
- The Soviet and Russian governments claim that Wallenberg
died in 1947. Yet the currency in his possession at the
time of arrest was not confiscated within six months of
his alleged death, as stipulated by Soviet prison regulations
at that time, but was returned to the family in 1989. How
did Soviet authorities know what amount they should return?
A receipt stating the precise amount taken from Wallenberg
should have been placed in his personal file when he arrived
in prison. From where was the information obtained for the
amount of money to be returned? What happened to Raoul Wallenberg's
other personal possessions, his clothes, the contents of
his rucksack, and his automobile? Where is the documentation
attesting to these possessions taken from him?
- What possessions did Raoul Wallenberg take with him
from the Lefortovo Prison to the Lubianka Prison in March,
19477 The relevant entry in the official registry
of possessions of prisoners in the Lubianka Prison remains
censored. What is the reason for this censorship and why
was it not revealed to the Swedish-Russian Working
Group?
- Zigurds Dzidris Kruminsh, the former cellmate of Grigorii
Mendeleyevich Mairanovskii, Francis Gary Powers. and Marvin
W. Makinen in the Vladimir Prison, stated that he met a
Swedish prisoner in Vladimir. List all of Kruminsh's cellmates
in the Vladimir Prison, particularly those in Korpus
1 at the time the Gromyko Memorandum was released in
February, 1957. Since Kruminsh was pardoned by act
of the Supreme Soviet in 1963, documentation of this
act and the basis for it must exist within its archives.
Please, provide access to these documents.
- Itwas reported to the Swedish-Russian Working Group
that a total of approximately 120 Swedish nationals
have been incarcerated in the Soviet Union since 1917.
To ensure that other Swedish prisoners could not be
a source of confusion with Raoul Wallenberg, provide a list
of all Swedish nationals imprisoned in the Soviet Union,
their personal data, with dates of incarceration in prisons,
labor camps, and psychiatric hospitals. Please, provide
also complete documentation, including personal files, of
all Swedish nationals incarcerated in the Vladimir Prison.
- Former Soviet Intelligence official lgor Prelin, as
well as other former Soviet officials, have repeatedly alluded
to information that they claim originates directly from
the interrogations of Vilmos Langfelder. Where are these
interrogation records and why have they not been shared
with Swedish officials? In a reply to the Hungarian government
in 1957 the Soviet government claimed that Langfelder
died in March. 1948. What were the circumstances
of his death and where are the official records documenting
his death?
- The Soviet and Russian governments claim that Raoul
Wallenberg died in the Lubianka Prison of a myocardial infarct
on July 17, 1947. The report was supposedly written
by A. Smoltsov, head of the Lubianka Medical Services. However,
it is known that as of March 21, 1947, Smoltsov was
on medical leave because of illness. This information was
given by Smoltsov's son, whom Swedish officials were not
allowed to interview. What are the precise dates and circumstances
of Smoltsov's illness and employment in 1947? Also,
please provide access to Smoltsov's personal file which
has not been made available to the Swedish-Russian Working
Group.
- While the American Esav I.Oggins was in a Moscow prison,
the head of the MGB, Viktor Abakumov, suggested to Stalin
in May, 1947, that the United States Embassy in Moscow
be informed that Oggins had died of tuberculosis in Norilsk.
However, researchers learned that Oggins was actually transferred
from Moscow in late 1946 and died in the Internal
Prison in Penza. Soviet and Russian officials have repeatedly
pointed to similarities between the Oggins and Wallenberg
cases. Therefore, please provide all proof of transport
of Oggins from Moscow to Penza, including
all relevant Convoy Troop records. Also, provide the correct
cause and date of Oggins' death.
- In 1961 Dr. Nanna Svartz of Sweden reported that
her Soviet colleague Dr. A. L. Myasnikov, whom she had previously
met on several occasions at international medical conferences,
revealed to her during a meeting that he had direct knowledge
of Raoul Wallenberg's presence in the Soviet Union. A second
physician, Dr. Grigory Danishevsky, was also present during
part of the conversation. Please provide all reports of
Drs. Myasnikov and Danishevsky to Soviet authorities about
their encounter with Dr. Svartz. In May, 1965, the
Central Committee of the CPSU approved an official reply
to be given to Dr. Svartz. The notations on the document
show that the Myasnikov/Svartz issue was also discussed
by a full session of the Politburo. Disclose the information
that is contained in the documentation that was preparatory
to the meetings of the Central Committee and the Politburo.
- The Russian government continues to restrict direct
access to many files and archival collections that are directly
relevant to the investigation of Wallenberg's fate. This
includes the investigative and personal files of several
prisoners known to be connected with the Wallenberg case;
administrative records and special registries of Soviet
Ministries and prisons; special papers of the highest decision-making
level of the Soviet government, e. g., the Politburo and
the Central Committee of the CPSU; and records from Russian
intelli- gence services, including the Foreign and Military
Intelligence Archives, concerning details of Raoul Wallenberg's
activities in Hungary and the reasons for his arrest. Restriction
of access to these records remains a major impediment to
clarifying the fate of Raoul Wallenberg and the reasons
for his arrest ordered by Bulganin on January 15,1945.
- Where are the documents relating to the discussion in
1956 between Vladimirov, the Soviet diplomat and
KGB official, and Frey, the Finnish diplomat, in Turkey?
On what other occasions has the Soviet government made direct
or indirect suggestions to the Swedish government about
a possible exchange for Raoul Wallenberg? Wolfgang Vogel,
the former East German lawyer instrumental in many exchanges
of East and West prisoners, has admitted that he did once
have the assignment from the Soviet government to discuss
the possibility of an exchange for Wallenberg. These discussions
were mediated to the Swedish government by the late Karl
Svingel. Where is the documentation about these discussions?
- Exactly when were the names of Raoul Wallenberg, Vilmos
Langfelder, Sandor Katona, and Aladjan- Aladjani blotted
out in the KGB prison registry journals, under whose direction,
and for what reason? Were names of other prisoners similarly
blotted out from registry journals, e.g., names of
Karl Schandl, Tibor Klement, and Lazlo Pap, who were incarcerated
as numbered prisoners in the Vladimir Prison and were from
Hungary, and if so, for what reason?
Individuals to whom questions should be addressed :
- Mr. Jonas Hafstrdm
Ambassador
Embassy of Sweden
2900 K Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20007
- Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Prime Minister
Russian Federation
Staraya Ploshchad, 4 Moscow
103132 Russia
Raoul
Wallenberg A STUDY
OF HEROES,
General News
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