Student to Protest Soviet Imprisonment With Hunger Strike

Convinced that "there has never been a case where you could have greater sympathy with the people." Donald C MacDonald, Jr '61, of Dudley House and Brighton, today begins a projected week long hunger strike to protest the imprisonment of Mrs. Olga Ivinskaya, long-time friend of the late Soviet novelist Boris Pasternak.

MacDonald, a senior in government who specializes in Russian affairs, said yesterday that he hoped others would protest the action, but did not want the responsibility for leading mass support: "I just want to make my voice heard." He said that "since no law or decency as we know it exists under Soviet rule, the only hope that Mrs. Ivinskaya has is that a great protest can be directed against Khrushchev."

On January 19th the New York Times revealed that Mrs. Ivinskaya and her daughter Irina had been secretly tried and convicted of currency fraud.

"An Attack Upon Me"

Pasternak once wrote that "An attack upon her is an attack upon me," and a Life magazine article last week stated that fear for her safety kept Pasternak in Russia after the storm over his book. Mrs. Ivinskaya spent four years in a Urals concentration camps ten years ago.

The father of two young children. MacDonald said he hoped he could get through the week without water or food, but was not sure about the water. A University Health Service official said that the ordeal, with or without water, "would not be good for him."