Marchenko Died of Hemorrhage--Soviets

The Soviet government said Wednesday that the dissident writer Anatoly Marchenko, 48, died of a brain hemorrhage in a prison hospital after a long illness.

Formal confirmation of Marchenko’s death came at a news conference, called to mark the observance of International Human Rights Day, at which Soviet officials called dissident Andrei Sakharov a criminal.

In the evening, there was an officially sanctioned human rights rally in Pushkin Square, where unofficial observances have taken place in the past. The police cordoned off the square and several banners with government-endorsed slogans were unfurled. A crew from the state television network filmed the proceedings.

At Least 4 Detained

Earlier in the day, at least four Soviet citizens were detained by police on their way to inquire about applications to leave the country to join relatives in the West.

In Vienna, meanwhile, the Soviet Union formally proposed a special congress on humanitarian issues to take place in Moscow. Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly G. Kovalev said his government is ready for serious discussions, and added, “We are not afraid of critical voices.”

The announcement of Marchenko’s death on Human Rights Day--the anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948-- was tinged with irony because Marchenko had acquired international recognition for describing the brutal conditions in Soviet prison camps, where he spent nearly half of his adult life.

Marchenko’s last conviction was for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda,” a charge often used against critics of the regime. For years, Soviet authorities refused to allow him to emigrate to the United States, but two weeks ago, as his poor health apparently worsened, they suggested that he go to Israel, though he was not Jewish.

No Visitation Rights

Marchenko’s widow, Larisa Bogoraz, was refused permission to see her husband for the last three years. She was told of his death Tuesday.

At the press conference, Deputy Procurator General Sergei A. Shishkov told reporters that he could not explain why Bogoraz was not allowed to visit her husband. Sometimes, he noted, prisoners who defy camp regulations are not permitted family visits.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, talking with reporters Wednesday on board his plane en route to Brussels, said of Marchenko’s death: “This is part of the continuing failure of the Soviet Union to live up to its commitments in the arena of human rights. It is an eloquent statement that they simply have not got the message.”

At the press conference, Mikhail S. Kapitsa, a deputy foreign minister, said the Soviet constitution guarantees not only the right to work and the right to medical care but freedom of conscience and freedom of the press as well.

‘Only One Limitation’

“There is only one limitation,” he said. “The exercise by the citizens of their rights and freedoms should not infringe on the rights of the state nor the rights of other citizens.”

The Soviet officials were asked about the status of Sakharov, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who is serving seven years of internal exile, and they defended the sentence. They indicated that Sakharov will be restricted indefinitely to the closed city of Gorky, about 250 miles east of Moscow.

At first the officials responded vaguely to the question, but in time Sergei Gusev, first deputy chairman of the Supreme Court, provided a fuller explanation of the controversial case.

Gusev said Sakharov was banished to Gorky by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Parliament.

Warning in 1977

“I knew Sakharov in 1977,” he said, “and I was warning him then of his unlawful criminal activities in our state. We had to settle this question, we had to do something. We could apply the criminal law or take a lesser measure. We took an administrative measure. There is no legal problem, and all the lawyers in the world are aware of this.”

Asked whether Sakharov might be allowed to return to Moscow, Vesevolod Sofinsky, first deputy chief of the Foreign Ministry’s Department for Humanitarian Affairs, gave an answer that elicited laughter.

“There is nothing permanent in the world,” he said. “What is temporary is most permanent in the world.”

‘Basis of a Plan’

Asked to explain himself, he replied, “You know that we do everything on the basis of a plan except those things which cannot be planned.”

Meanwhile, a Soviet national who gave his name as Vladimir Pimenov told reporters about being detained Wednesday. He said that he and three other Soviet citizens who were planning to visit the offices of the Communist Party Central Committee to seek reunification with relatives in the West were held by the police for several hours.

Pimenov, who has been trying for three years to join his wife and daughter in Denmark, said he and Moscow artist Alexander Zhdanov were stopped together. In separate episodes, he said, Yuri Balovlenkov and Alexander Pereldik were also detained by the police, then released.