SAKHAROV CITES THREAT FROM RIGHT
Reuter
MOSCOW--Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms are
threatened by "extreme right-wing politicians," Nobel
Peace laureate Andrei Sakharov says in an interview in an
Estonian newspaper.
Speaking to the Estonian Communist Youth daily Molodyozh
Estonii, the physicist also indicated that he was compelled
during the Stalin era to do research on Soviet nuclear
weapons and said the uranium for the research was mined by
prison laborers guarded by dogs.
The ground for Gorbachev's perestroika economic and
social reform program, Sakharov said, was partly prepared
by "those people who argued that...the country was in very many
ways up a blind alley."
"Nowadays, this is quite clear to everyone, apart from
extreme right-wing politicians who, unfortunately, still enjoy
considerable power in our country," he added in the interview
published in the newspaper's Oct. 11 edition.
Sakharov, a civil rights champion exiled in 1980 under
then Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and freed on the
personal intervention of Gorbachev in 1986, said he feels
there is a certain instability in the Soviet Union despite
reform.
In concrete terms, so far little has altered. That means
that the old apparatus which for decades held power is
preventing change and not giving up its power. Even worse, it
is trying to launch a counter-attack."
The 67-year-old academician did not name any of the political
figures he had in mind in the interview.
(article accompanied by photograph of Dr. Andrei
Sakharov, captioned:
SAKHAROV)
(text of October 15, 1988 Vancouver
Sun article)
*-PRIOR TO MIKHAIL GORBACHEV'S
INTRODUCTION OF PERESTROIKA AND GLASNOST INTO THE SOVIET SYSTEM
IN 1985, I HAD ARRANGED TO MEET WITH A LEADER OF A CANADIAN
NON-GOVERNMENT ACTIVIST GROUP, "THE SAKHAROV INSTITUTE",
AFTER READING ABOUT ITS ACTIVITIES IN A VANCOUVER NEWSPAPER
ARTICLE.
I WAS ALARMED AT THE STATE OF U.S.-U.S.S.R. RELATIONS AT THAT
TIME AND WAS CONSIDERING SENDING A REGISTERED LETTER TO THE
SOVIET NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE--THE SO-CALLED "FATHER OF THE
SOVIET HYDROGEN BOMB"--AND WONDERED IF THEY COULD GIVE ME A
MAILING ADDRESS FOR HIM.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE SPENT TIME EVALUATING THE CONTENTS OF THIS
WEBSITE OF MINE OUGHT TO BE ABLE TO READILY APPRECIATE THAT HAD
I DONE SO AT THAT TIME, ITS CONTENTS WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY
SIMILAR TO THOSE OF MY CHRISTMAS, 1987 REGISTERED LETTER TO
SOUTH AFRICA'S P.W. BOTHA--THE FULL CONTENTS OF WHICH, OF
COURSE, ARE OPEN ON THIS WEBSITE FOR SUCH EVALUATION IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
THE BASIS OF UNDERSTANDING I HAD WITH THE AMERICAN AND UNITED
NATIONS AUTHORITIES INVOLVED IN MY 1978 "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT
BASIS" WAS THAT IF EITHER SIDE RESORTED TO THE USE OF
NUCLEAR WEAPONS, CERTAINLY THE OTHER SIDE WOULD RETALIATE
EQUIVALENTLY, AND "ALL OF US" WOULD
PERISH IN SHORT ORDER. OR THE SO-CALLED "COLLATERAL
DAMAGE"--THE LOSSES OF INNOCENT HUMAN LIVES IN THE EXCHANGE AND
AFTERMATH--WOULD BE SO OBSCENELY HIGH AS TO DRAW INTO PERMANENT
DISPUTE THE MORALITY BY WHICH THIS COULD HAVE COME ABOUT.
SINCE I DID THAT WORK IN 1978 MY UNSHAKABLE PRINCIPLE IN
THIS FIELD HAS BEEN THAT A NUCLEAR WAR WOULD NOT BE
SURVIVABLE...AND THUS, SHOULD NOT BE FOUGHT.
THIS WOULD BE THE PRINCIPLE EXPRESSED IN THAT 1978 "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A
DIRECT BASIS" INCLUSIVE OF THE DOCUMENTATION OF IT PROVIDED
THEN FOR THEN-U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL DR. KURT WALDHEIM,
THE VATICAN, THE ISRAELIS, THE EGYPTIANS, THE SOVIETS, AND, OF
COURSE--MY FELLOW CANADIANS.
DON'T THINK THE WISDOM OF THOMAS
JEFFERSON IS PASSÉ YET IN WHAT YOU ARE ENTITLED
TO FROM YOUR GOVERNMENT? LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD: TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE TO SIGN MY
GUESTBOOK.
TAKE YOUR NEXT FOOTSTEP
HERE.