18 Facts About Gleb Yakunin

Gleb Pavlovich Yakunin was a Russian priest and dissident, who fought for the principle of freedom of conscience in the Soviet Union.

Gleb Yakunin was a member of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and was elected member of the Supreme Soviet of Russia and State Duma from 1990 to 1995.

Gleb Yakunin converted from atheism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity at the end of the 1950s, after coming into contact with Alexander Men, and graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1959.

Together with the priest Nikolai Eschliman, Yakunin wrote an open letter in 1965 to the Patriarch of Moscow, Alexius I, where he argued that the Church must be liberated from the total control of the Soviet state.

Gleb Yakunin published several hundreds of articles about the suppression of religious freedom in the Soviet Union.

Gleb Yakunin was arrested and convicted for anti-Soviet agitation on 28 August 1980.

Gleb Yakunin was kept in the KGB Lefortovo prison until 1985, and then in a labor camp known as "Perm 37".

Gleb Yakunin was given amnesty in March 1987 under Mikhail Gorbachev.

Gleb Yakunin was allowed to return to Moscow and worked again as a priest until 1992.

In 1990 Gleb Yakunin was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation and worked as deputy chairman the Parliamentary Committee for the Freedom of Conscience.

Gleb Yakunin was co-author of the law concerning "freedom of all denominations" that was used for the opening of churches and monasteries throughout the country.

Gleb Yakunin was a member of the committee created for the investigation of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 and chaired by Lev Ponomaryov, and thereby gained the access to secret KGB archives.

Gleb Yakunin published code names of several KGB agents who held high-rank positions in the Russian Orthodox Church including Patriarch Alexius II, Metropolitans Filaret of Kyiv, Pitrim of Volokolamsk, and others.

Gleb Yakunin was one of the organizers of the Democratic Choice of Russia political alliance in 1993, prior to the opening of the Constituent Assembly of Russia called by the Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

Gleb Yakunin became a State Duma delegate representing the party "Democratic Russia" in 1996.

Gleb Yakunin created the Committee for Defense of Freedom of Conscience in 1995.

Gleb Yakunin criticized the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" adopted by the Duma and made numerous statements in support of human rights in Russia.

Gleb Yakunin died at the age of 78 after a long illness on 25 December 2014.