The poet and memoirist Semyon Vilensky died

In the 88th year of his life, a poet, a memoirist, publisher, founder and head of the Return Historical and Log by the Journal of Totalitarian Systems, Semen Vilensky, died. This was reported by Radio Liberty with reference to his son, human rights activist Leo Levinson.

In 1948, Vilensky was arrested on charges of anti -Soviet agitation and terrorist intentions. The reason was the verses containing criticism of Joseph Stalin. In 1949, Vilensky was sentenced to 10 years of camps under the 58th article "For counter-revolutionary activities". The main part of the term was serving on Kolyma. In 1955, Vilensky was released, in 1956 he was rehabilitated.

After the liberation, Vilensky was engaged in literary work. He is the author of the poetic collections "Barrow Row" and "Wide Day", memoir books "Are there any questions?" And "Docking years".

Since the second half of the 1950s, Vilensky gathered an archive of the memoirs of the prisoners of the Gulag. In 1963, along with former co -coaling people, he created the Kolyma partnership, uniting the past concentration camps of writers. Later it was registered as the Moscow Historical and Literary Society and the Return Publishing House.

The archive gathered for more than half a century was transferred to Vilensky to the Gulag History Museum.