Paternal home. For two decades, the daughter of a victim of political repression cannot regain property, which had been taken away then

Tamara Akaychikova, a Dagestan pensioner, a distinguished teacher of the Republic of Dagestan, an outstanding pedagogue of the Russian Federation, veteran of labour and bearer of the disability of the second group, fights to regain her legal rights for nearly twenty years. The fight is over and old house in Hasavyurt, which had belonged to her father, who was first, repressed and rehabilitated afterwards.

Islamgerey Akaychikov and his whole family were expelled from Dagestan to Kazakhstan in 1935 for being a “kulak” – a wealthy peasant. His daughter Tamara was born one year later. She hardly ever saw her father – he was shot in 1937 pursuant to a decision of “troika” – a three-person field court – of the Yuzhno-Kazahstanskaya Region Department of the PCIA. He was rehabilitated in 1962, and during all those years Tamara Akaychikova struggled to find out the father’s fate and to locate the house where her parents had lived.

Before retiring, she worked for 26 years as the principal of a school in Kizilyurt and as a Deputy Chairman of the town’s executive committee. When the rehabilitation documents were delivered to her, she immediately decided to regain her family house to honor the memory of her father.

The house on Proletaskaya Street of Hasavyurt is by no means a mansion. According to the evaluation done by the Dagestan Center of independent expert’s studies, it is valued at just over one million roubles. Several families currently have their residence at the house.

In 1993, the Court of Hasavyurt acknowledged her title to the house. In 1994, the administration of Hasavyurt issued an order, according to which the house was taken out of the state housing, and instructed the BTI to re-issue the technical certificate to the house in the name of T.Akaychikova.

However, all those decisions remained on paper.

Tamara Islamgereevna says: “The head of administration of the town, Mr. Arslanov, received me. He said that there was no way to empty the house. I do not want that people living there be expelled – I would be content with compensation of the house’s value, as the law says. But the town allegedly has no money for that”.

T.Akaychikova currently resides in Kizilyurt. Distant relatives gave her a room in a small private household. Everyone seems to agree with her legal claims, but no one is able to help.

A reply from the administration of the Ombudsman of Russia, signed by the head of the section of protection of the residential human rights, came recently. The Ombudsman’s representative confirms that, pursuant to the Federal Law “On rehabilitation of victims of political repressions” dated October 18, 1991, confiscated or excepted property is restored to the rehabilitated persons or its value compensated.

However, according to the employee of the Ombudsman’s administration, the request by T.Akaychikova does not specify, what public authorities she requested to receive the monetary compensation, or what responses she got.

The reporter of “RG” attempted to contact Arslan Arslanov, the head of administration of Hasavyurt. Coincidence or not, but, on hearing that a journalist from “RG” was calling, the secretary always answered that the head of administration was “at the objects” or had just left. Gasan Yusupkadiev, the Prosecutor of Hasavyurt, agreed to comment on the situation. He remarked that the request was closely followed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Dagestan, but that the consideration of land and housing issues, due to its complexity, took long.

The prosecutor said: “There is a court ruling, and we are doing a check. According to the results of the check, we will take the measures necessary to safeguard T.Akaychikova’s interests”.

An expert’s opinion

Alexander Bolomatov, Advocate:

- Children and grandchildren of the victims of political repressions face a lot of difficulties, when fighting to execute such a court act. The only problem is that the application of the respective acts of the Government of the Russian Federation in this area brings spending of public funds and disposing of state property. And this makes the public officials greatly complicate the procedure of execution of the court acts. Also, the citizens do not have the level of juridical education, sufficient to fully protect their rights, and no available information materials on the matter have been elaborated.

The application of the Law “On rehabilitation of victims of political repressions” is worth of a special mention. Many specialists openly proclaim the Law to be unfair to the victims. In practice, certain provisions of the Rehabilitation Law make it almost impossible for the victims or their relatives to receive any significant compensation for the sufferings. Most citizens understand that the amount of compensation will be severely decreased by the long period of administrative and judicial proceedings, and they relinquish their participation in the process of receiving the compensation for suffered damages.

Admittedly, the procedure of execution of the court acts, as well as the approaches to compensation of damages done to the victims of political repressions, needs to be changed. Such changes should be aimed at the protection of the interests of the weaker party to such relations – of the persons, who suffered the repressions, and their relatives.

The source of publication – see here.