Baltic states jail ex-agents for Stalin-era abuses
By Michael Tarm
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TALLINN, Estonia -- Millions of people were arrested, exiled or shot during Josef Stalin's iron-fisted reign. But you can count on one hand the number of those who were ever tried and jailed specifically for carrying out those atrocities.
You'd count Karl-Leonhard Paulov.
He, along with Mikhail Farbtukh in Latvia, are the only men in the world currently behind bars after being convicted of Stalinist-era repressions.
The Baltic states, unlike any of the other 12 former Soviet republics, have actively prosecuted former agents since the Soviet collapse.
During a recent interview inside Tallinn's Central Prison, slamming cell doors echoing through the dreary, cavernous jail, the 76-year-old Paulov kept grimacing, fumbling with his cane and angrily protesting his fate.
"What they're doing to me, it's a sin! It's unfair!" the Estonian said, raising his voice, then sinking into a chair, his tone lowering to a despondent mumble. "It's depressing. If someone handed me poison right now, I'd take it."
Paulov and Farbtukh were cogs in a police apparatus that killed at least 15 million and deported some 40 million when Stalin ruled the Soviet Union.
They helped consolidate Soviet power after the Baltics were occupied by the Red Army in 1940. Most of their superiors have long since died.
But after regaining independence in 1991, the Baltic states vowed to try anyone who participated, even as minor figures, in Stalinist abuses.
Of 12 men convicted, four have been jailed. One died serving his term. Another was jailed but released after a judge questioned the evidence against him.
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Neither Russia nor any of the other former Soviet republics have ever indicted or tried a single ex-agent.
Moscow has criticized the Baltic prosecutions, saying courts are exacting revenge, not achieving justice.
Baltic officials argue they're merely seeking justice for some of the worst crimes of the 20th century and that the proceedings help people come to terms with the past.
Inside prison, Paulov admits he shot three anti-Soviet resisters who'd taken refuge in Estonia's forests. But he claims he too was a resister and that he killed the men in self-defense.
Speaking in rambling sentences, Paulov also blamed what he said was an insanity pervading life in Estonia then.
"Even cows were going mad," he said, furrowing his bushy black eyebrows.
Prosecutors described Paulov as an eager-to-please agent who even pried a false tooth from one corpse to prove to his bosses he had obeyed the execution orders. He shot two victims in the back.
A court last year sentenced him to eight years in prison for the killings.
Farbtukh, 84, was given five years for deporting scores of Latvians, including children, in 1941. He's at Matisa Prison in Riga, Latvia.
Paulov said he suffers from advanced bladder cancer and liver disease. When he traverses the labyrinthine prison, little changed since it was built in 1842, he said he keeps falling on the damp slab floors.
"I'll never last the eight years. I'll surely die here," he said.
Most Estonians have at least one relative who was killed or deported in the '40s, so there is broad public support for prosecuting ex-agents. But given their ages, there seems to be at least some ambivalence about actually locking them up.
Jaan Sibul, the son of the man who Paulov killed and then extracted a false tooth from, harbors no doubts that justice has been done.
"My dad was a decent, good-hearted man," said Sibul, 62. "Paulov can complain all he likes. But when he commits murders the way he did, jail's where he belongs, even if it's 50 years after the crime. I don't feel sorry for him."
Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar said in an interview before Paulov was jailed that he had also no sympathy for convicted ex-agents.
"I don't have any sympathy," he said. "None of these men have ever said, 'I understand what I did was wrong and I'm sorry.' "
That certainly seems to apply to Paulov.
Asked if he'd apologize to the relatives of the men he shot, he snapped: "What for? Those guys threatened me! I did what I had to do."
His only hope for release is a presidential pardon, for which Paulov said he'll apply.
President Lennart Meri, himself deported to Siberia in 1941, hasn't said whether he might grant clemency. But he's previously sounded conciliatory.
"We should not have an emotional relationship with our past, but a rational one where, after suspects have had their day in court, we will also have the chance to forgive," he said in an interview before Paulov was jailed.
Pressed, Paulov agreed that sticking to the line that he wasn't to blame and isn't at all sorry for what he did is hardly likely to advance his bid for a pardon. To qualify, convicts first must admit their guilt.
"But I'm not guilty," he growled, then checked himself and offered a concession, of sorts. "OK, I was guilty -- I was guilty of being so young, so green, so stupid."
Michael Tarm is the Baltics bureau chief for The Associated Press and editor of City Paper, a Tallinn, Estonia-based publication.
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City Paper: The Baltic states
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