RFE-RL. Current abstracts and annotations, Dec. 1 1978
Pravda, 11/ 11/ 78. The 900-year-old Kiev-Pechersky Lavra — the Monastery of the Caves — was closed in 1961 and is now part of the Kiev-Pechersky State Preserve. Pravda’s correspondent M. Odinets describes the present situation of the preserve. Eight different organizations for the «welfare» of the preserve, he writes, are working « in discord, extremely slowly, and badly». Many organizations located on the territory of the preserve «litter the ground, converting the hillsides into scrapheaps». Odinets also tells about «the plundering of rare valuables from museums», which happened one and a half years ago, and about the administrators in charge of the preserve, who «engage in machinations» with museum property. (A year ago, Gleb Yakunin reported to Western newsmen in Moscow that a group of monks had appealed to Leonid Brezhnev to have the monastery reopened; see Reuter, November 12, 1977.) (OA)
