Vadim Delaunay - 1968 Red Square Demonstration

1968 Red Square Demonstration

Main article: 1968 Red Square demonstration

In June 1968, Delaunay returned to Moscow. On August 25, 1968, he and seven other dissidents organized the now-famous demonstration in support of the Prague Spring in Red Square near the Moscow Kremlin. Delaunay and Pavel Litvinov held the famous banner with the words "ЗА ВАШУ И НАШУ СВОБОДУ" ("For your freedom and ours").

Seven people were arrested, and in court, Delaunay stated that the five minutes of freedom on the square were worth the years in prison that were probably awaiting him. Efforts of the defense to convince the court in the absence of any criminal element in actions of the demonstrators were vain. There is opinion that the sentence was ready before the court session. Delaunay was sentenced to two years and 10 months in a labor camp that he served in Tyumen Oblast in northwestern Siberia.