1912. Lev Kopelev was born

Photo: Elke Wetzig

105 years ago, on April 9, 1912, a writer, literary critic and human rights activist Lev Zinovievich Kopelev was born. In 1945, Major Kopelev, who sharply condemned the crimes of the Soviet military in relation to the civilian population of East Prussia, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in camps for the "propaganda of bourgeois humanism" and "sympathy for the enemy." In 1956 he was rehabilitated and a decade later actively joined the human rights movement. In 1980, during a trip to Germany, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship, which was returned to him only in 1990.

Of great interest are Kopelev’s memoirs - “and created an idol”, “Store forever” and “quenched my sorrows”.