Background
Iakir, Petr was born in 1923 in Kiev. Son of Iona Iakir.
Iakir, Petr was born in 1923 in Kiev. Son of Iona Iakir.
Graduated from the Moscow Historical-Archival Institute.
After his father’s arrest in 1937, was arrested together with his mother. Spent 17 years in camps as a ‘son of an enemy of the people’. In 1956, returned to Moscow.
In the early 1960s, became involved in the de-Stalinization campaign. Gave numerous lectures on Stalin’s crimes all over the Soviet Union. After Khrushchev’s fall, became a focus of persecution by the Committee for State Security.
One of the founders of the human rights movement in Moscow and Leningrad. Instrumental in collecting information on political arrests, camps and psychiatric institutions, also distributed samizdat. Arrested in 1972, together with V. Krasin.
Under physical threat, was broken and cooperated with the Committee for State Security. Released, 1974. Ostracized by dissident circles. Wrote memoirs, Detstvo V Tiur'me, London, 1972.
Religion makes people base their lives on false foundations.
Individuals have rights to express freedom if it safeguarde the interests of a collective.