SOVIET UNION: Gulag Avenger

A Stalin-era prisoner sues

Armand Maloumian, then 20 years old, was visiting Moscow in 1948 when he was suddenly arrested by agents of the MGB (now the KGB). A French citizen of Armenian descent whose father was a physical education instructor temporarily teaching in the Soviet Union, Maloumian was accused of spying for the French secret service. He was first condemned to death, but was later convicted of treason, despite his foreign nationality, and sentenced to 25 years at hard labor. In early 1956, when Soviet authorities...

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