Eduard Kuznetsov is a former political prisoner. Twice (in 1961 and 1970) he was convicted of “subversive anti-Soviet activities and treason against the socialist homeland” - in total he spent 16 years in Soviet concentration camps and prisons. In 1970, in the famous “Leningrad airplane case,” he was sentenced to death, which, as a result of pressure from US President Nixon and Academician Sakharov, as well as the collusion of the head of the Israeli government with Generalissimo Franco, was replaced by 15 years in maximum security camps. In 1979, he was released early as part of an exchange for two Soviet spies arrested in the United States. The author of many stories, articles and three books, one of which, secretly written in the camp (Diaries), was awarded the French literary Gulliver Prize in 1974 as the best book of the year written by a foreign author. Member of the international Pen Club, doctor honoris causa of the University of Baltimore (USA).