Edward Kuznetsov, the Soviet political prisoner, dissident, and writer, has passed away.

Eduard Kuznetsov was born in 1939 in Moscow and studied at the philosophy faculty of Moscow State University. Even in his youth, he became an active participant in the samizdat movement. For this, he was arrested in 1961 and sentenced to seven years of imprisonment under the charges of anti-Soviet agitation.

After serving his sentence, Kuznetsov attempted to move to Israel with his wife, Silva Zalmanzon, but the Soviet authorities denied him an exit permit. Kuznetsov and Zalmanzon joined a group of "refuseniks" who decided to hijack a passenger plane to Israel. The KGB learned of the conspiracy, and on June 15, 1970, the participants in the "Leningrad hijacking case" were arrested. Charged with treason, they received lengthy prison sentences. Kuznetsov was sentenced to the death penalty, but due to significant international outcry, his sentence was reduced to 15 years in prison. In 1979, the USSR exchanged Kuznetsov and four other dissidents for arrested Soviet spies in the United States.

While still in prison, Kuznetsov began actively advocating for the rights of political prisoners. After his release, he moved to Israel and worked in the local Russian-language press. From 1983 to 1990, he served as the editor for Radio Liberty. In 1991, he became the head of the Israeli Russian-language newspaper "Vremya" and later founded the newspaper "Vesti". In 1999, he organized the agency "MIG-news", and in 2003, he became the editor-in-chief of the literary and artistic almanac "Nota Bene". His diaries, two memoirs titled "Mordovian Marathon" and "Russian Novel", and numerous articles have been published in Russian.