Soviet Police Halt Hunger Strike Seeking Religious Use of Church
Four women who began a hunger strike March 20 to demand the return of a provincial church to religious use were hauled off the church steps Saturday by police and ambulance personnel, a human rights activist said.
Alexander Ogorodnikov, editor of the Bulletin and Chronicle newspaper in Moscow, said the four have refused even water in their fast in Ivanovo, 150 miles northeast of Moscow.
Before dawn Saturday, six carloads of police and ambulance personnel took the women to a local hospital after taking them from the church, where they have been since last month.
The women want the church, built in 1914 and known as the Vedenskaya or Krasni Church, returned to religious use. Since 1938, it has housed the city archives, which are soon to be moved to a new building.
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