RFE/RI. INC: BRO4OCAST ARCHIVE \T114)

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

RFE/RI. INC: BRO4OCAST ARCHIVE \T114) RFE/RI. INC: DAILY `,-,RO. BRO4OCAST ARCHIVE ANALYSES \t114) INIFFP _Wm L RADIO LIBERTY DAILY BROADCAST ANALYSIS No. 213 (A summary of the news coverage by the Russian- language programming appears at the end of the DBA) (An * next to a program indicates designated for translation) Russian Daily Broadcast Analysis No. 213 for Tuesday, 1 August 1978 Felton/Riollot/Einfrank/Lodeesen A. SOVIET TOPICS -- POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND CULTURAL: 1. Soviet-US Relations. WASHINGTON REPORT, No. 566 (Orshansky, W 3) reported on American government regulations requiring licenses for the export of oil and gas technology to the USSR. The program said the regulations appear to be the result of Soviet policy in the human rights sphere. 2. Soviet-French Relations. PARIS REPORT (Salkazanova, P 3) was devoted to the expulsion of the Soviet Assistant Military Attache in Paris, Colonel Viktor. Penkov, as a persona non- grata after being caught red-handed when trying to obtain French defense secrets, and also to the sentencing of retired French Colonel Georges Beaufils to 8 years for working as a Soviet agent. The program said it is possible that Penkov was one of the three Soviet agents mentioned in the Beaufils trial. 3. Dissidents and Human Rights. NOTE (Fedoseyev, M 5:30) pointed to the attempt by Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Kovalev at his press conference to separate out of the Final Act the human rights provisions as not relevant to detente and contrasted this with TASS' assertion that human rights are part and parcel of the defense of peace and security. PRESS REVIEW (Gregory, M 6) quoted comment on the third anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in The Times, which took issue with USSR Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Kovalev's .press conference statements on Western "distortion" of the , -2 - document for the purpose of "psychological warfare," which was quite a different thing from ideological warfare; The Washington Post, which observed that at the same time Kovalev made conciliatory references to "healthy tendencies in bilateral relations between the USSR and certain NATO countries; The Daily Telegraph, which ascribed the extensive celebration of the anniversary in the USSR to the fact that it has derived more benefit from it than the West; and L'Humanite, which said that human rights is a major con- stituent of the Helsinki Final Act, and supported the linkage between the defense of human rights and the search for a stable peace. MODERN WOMAN, No. 63 (Gordin and Fedoseyev, M 9) dealt with the efforts of Maria Slepak ahd her husband to emigrate to Israel from the USSR. The program described the Slepaks' protest demonstration which led to the husband receiving a sentence of internal exile and Maria receiving a suspended sentence. The program noted Maria has said she will follow. her husband into exile. UNPUBLISHED WORKS OF SOVIET AUTHORS No. 953 (Fedoseyeva, M 28) featured the 33rd installment of Boris Shragin's book The Resistance of the Spirit. 4. The Political System. GUEST OF THE WEEK, Nos. 89 and 90 (Rudolf, NY 27:30) was A.P. Fedoseev, Soviet scientist, Lenin Prize winner, Hero of Socialist Labor, etc., who in 1971 chose to remain in the West. The interview explained why he had stayed and worked in the Soviet Union for years although his first chance to leave was in 1938 -- he was engaged in work which was important and satisfying. The reason he chose to leave in 1971 was that it had become impossible for hip to continue with important and satisfy- ing work and, furthermore, by 1971 the perspectives which earlier existed for some improvement in the functioning of the system no longer seemed realistic. In addition to working in the West, Fedoseev has spent the last several years trying to think a way out of the current dilemma of the Soviet Union, which has a system which does not function but cannot be abandoned because if those who presently control it should abandon it they will lose all possibilityl of improving it.. 5. The Onassis-Kausov Marriage was the subject of NOTE (Vladimirov, M 6). The program noted that the Soviet press did not mention the marriage although the Soviet news agency Novosti (APN) had carried disparaging comment on the marriage of Monaco's Princess Caroline. 6. VASKHNIL. NOTE (Predtechevsky, M 4:30) gave biographical profiles of the outgoing and incoming Presidents of the Lenin All -Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKHNIL), Academician Lobanov and Petr Vavilov, elected to this position on August 1. The program noted that Lobanov was a protege of Stalin and Lysenko, his career being only briefly interrupted during the Khrushchev era, while Vavilov is a product of the Khrushchev era. It was observed that while little is known about Vavilov, he was one of the signatories of the 1 September 1973 VASKHNIL statement against Sakharov. 7. Literature. NOTE (Roitman, M 7) reviewed the literary contributions of Chingiz Aitmatov in connection with his being made a Hero of Socialist Labor. The program pointed out that Aitmatov, no dissident, is unquestionably a talented writer in a period when few talented writers remain in the Writers' Union. During the "Thaw" Aitmatov wrote only very ID indirectly about those things which were being openly treated by writers who no longer publish. But later Aitmatov was able to continue to write about things which other writers were not permitted to treat at all. His themes have in- cluded Stalinism, religious belief, and the contrast between Soviet reality and official pretensions. B. CROSS-REPORTING AND OTHER TOPICS OF COMMUNIST AFFAIRS: I. PRC-Albanian Relations. NOTE (A. Vardy, M 6) took as its point of departure reports that Albania has stopped re- laying PRC broadcasts to Europe and Africa, and Hsinhua broadcasts in French and Spanish. The program recalled the previous Albanian turnabouts in respect of Yugoslavia and the USSR, and quoted La Stampa that the Albanian leaders will probably not be impressed by wooing by the USSR and East European countries, since the basis of Albanian policy remains sovereignty and independence. The program noted the PRC's rapprochement with Yugoslavia as a factor in Albania's conflict with the PRC, and pointed to the beginning of a quite intensive dialogue between Albania on the one hand and Italy, France, and Greece on the other. F-571 and FF-038 and 039 were used. 2. The PRC. NOTE (Rahr, M 7:30) discussed an article by Chinese Defense Minister Hsu Hsiang-Chien outlining China's defense policy, noting the similarities with traditional Maoist doctrine but also pointing out that Hsu stressed the need for a modern, technologically strong army. 3. The Havana Youth Festival. WASHINGTON REPORT, No. 1281 (Savemark, W 4:30) noted the general lack of interest of the US public in the Havana youth festival. US correspondents were quoted as speaking of an "international tribunal" to try "imperialism:" They also noted the presence of Arafat, Nkomo and large Soviet delegation. The program noted that a number of former CIA agents are attending as witnesses for the prosecution. C. INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC TOPICS: 1. Namibia. LONDON REPORT (Chuguyev, L 3) discussed South Africa's acceptance of a Western plan for the independence of Namibia, noting Pretoria still claims Walvis Bay. 2. The Non-Aligned Movement. NOTE (Henkin, M 5:30) saw little reason to share the satisfaction of the Yugoslav press with regard to the conference of non-aligned countries in Belgrade. Political ambitions among these countries, said the program, as well as great power. rivalries, have torn the movement apart. 3. US-PRC Relations. NEW YORK REPORT, No. 883-78 (Shilaeff, M 3:30) said that US Secretary of Agriculture Bergland has been invited to visit China. The invitation was extended by a high-level Chinese agricultural delegation currently touring the US. It will take place in October this year. Bergland' was quoted as saying that the prospects for the development of Sino-US trade relations is good at this point. 4. US Affairs. NEW YORK REPORT,, Na. 884-78 (Shilaeff, NY 5) reported on the press conference of Senator Edward Kennedy at which he criticized President Carter's plan for a national health care program as being inadequate. 5. Britain. LONDON REPORT (Chuguyev, L 3) discussed the proposed establishment of local assemblies in Scotland and Wales as part of the British government's attempt to deal with its nationality problems. The program noted that under the plan there will be greater autonomy in both areas because local problems can be dealt with by the assemblies. D. CULTURAL, SOCIAL, AND SCIENTIFIC TOPICS OF NON-COMMUNIST COUNTRIES: 1. An Obituary of Arctic Pioneer.and Airship Designer. Umberto Nobile.was given in NOTE.(Predtechevsky, M 2:30), which also referred to Nobile's role in the Soviet airship construction program following his Arctic mishap. 2. *Holidays in France Were. the aubject of MISCELLANEOUS' ITEMS-No.*324 (Gladilin, P 8). .3. Holidays in Italy. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS, No.. 323 (Maltsev, Rome discussed the -numerous. opportunities for taking a 'vacation in Italy, noting that limitations that exist in the USSR are not part of the Italian. vacation scene. 4. Cultural Miscellanea. CULTURAL CHRONICLE (Maltsev, Orlov, and Gittelson, Rome, NY, and NY, 4 + 4 + 0:30) featured brief items on the annual music festival in Verona; performan- ces of ancient Greek plays in Syracuse; Rigoletto in Phila- delphia; John Kerry's Theater on Ice in New York; open air Concerts in New York; and a symphony concert in -a summer theater near Washington. THEATER AND DRAMATURGY (Zinik, L 9) contained an item on London's National Theater on the south bank of the Thames which among other things referred to performances of Naclav Havel's The Audience and Pushkin's Eugenie Onegin.
Recommended publications
  • After Stalin: the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union (Weeks 1-12) | University of Kent
    10/01/21 After Stalin: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union (Weeks 1-12) | University of Kent After Stalin: The Decline and Fall of the View Online Soviet Union (Weeks 1-12) 435 items Operation Typhoon: Hitler's march on Moscow, October 1941 - Stahel, David, 2013 Book Introductory Bibliography (12 items) Conscience, dissent and reform in Soviet Russia - Boobbyer, Philip, 2005 Book Soviet communism from reform to collapse - Daniels, Robert V., 1995 Book The rise of Russia and the fall of the Soviet empire - Dunlop, John B., 1995 Book Russia and the idea of the West: Gorbachev, intellectuals, and the end of the Cold War - English, Robert D., 2000 Book Last of the empires: a history of the Soviet Union, 1945-1991 - Keep, John L. H., 1996 Book The Soviet tragedy: a history of socialism in Russia, 1917-1991 - Malia, Martin E., 1994 Book Russia's Cold War: from the October Revolution to the fall of the wall - Haslam, Jonathan, c2011 Book Rulers and victims: the Russians in the Soviet Union - Hosking, Geoffrey A., 2006 Book The shadow of war: Russia and the USSR, 1941 to the present - Lovell, Stephen, 2010 Book Lenin's tomb: the last days of the Soviet Empire - Remnick, David, 1994 Book Twentieth century Russia - Treadgold, Donald W., 1995 Book Zhivago's children: the last Russian intelligentsia - Zubok, V. M., 2009 1/34 10/01/21 After Stalin: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union (Weeks 1-12) | University of Kent Book Collections of documents (9 items) The Soviet political poster, 1917-1980: From the USSR Lenin Library Collection - Baburina, Nina, 1986 Book The Soviet system: from crisis to collapse - Dallin, Alexander, Lapidus, Gail Warshofsky, 1995 Book A documentary history of communism - Daniels, Robert Vincent, 1985 Book The great patriotic war of the Soviet Union, 1941-45: a documentary reader - Hill, Alexander, 2009 Book Revelations from the Russian archives: documents in English translation - Koenker, Diane, Bachman, Ronald D., Library of Congress, 1997 Book Sedition: everyday resistance in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Brezhnev - Kozlov, V.
    [Show full text]
  • American Jewish Year Book
    AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK A Record of Events iind Trends in American and World Jewish Life 1979 AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE AND JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA The 1979 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, the seventy-ninth in the series, continues to offer a unique chronicle of developments in areas of concern to Jews throughout the world. The present volume features Professor Charles Liebman s "Leadership and Decision-making in a Jewish Federation." This in- depth study of the New York Fed- eration of Jewish Philanthropies provides important insights into the changing outlook of American Jews, and the impact this is having on Jewish communal priorities. Another feature is Professor Leon Shapiro's "Soviet Jewry Since the Death of Stalin," an authoritative overview of Jewish life in the So- viet Union during the past twenty- five years. Particularly noteworthy is Professor Shapiro's emphasis on religious life and cultural endeavors. The review of developments in the United States includes Milton Ellerin's "Intergroup Relations"; George Gruen's "The United States, Israel and the Middle East"; and Geraldine Rosenfield's "The Jewish Community Responds to (Continued on back flap) $15. American Jewish Year Book American Jewish Year Book 1 VOLUME 79 Prepared by THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE Editors MORRIS FINE MILTON HIMMELFARB Associate Editor DAVID SINGER THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE NEW YORK THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA PHILADELPHIA COPYRIGHT, 1978 BY THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE AND THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher: except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights and History a Challenge for Education
    edited by Rainer Huhle HUMAN RIGHTS AND HISTORY A CHALLENGE FOR EDUCATION edited by Rainer Huhle H UMAN The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention of 1948 were promulgated as an unequivocal R response to the crimes committed under National Socialism. Human rights thus served as a universal response to concrete IGHTS historical experiences of injustice, which remains valid to the present day. As such, the Universal Declaration and the Genocide Convention serve as a key link between human rights education and historical learning. AND This volume elucidates the debates surrounding the historical development of human rights after 1945. The authors exam- H ine a number of specific human rights, including the prohibition of discrimination, freedom of opinion, the right to asylum ISTORY and the prohibition of slavery and forced labor, to consider how different historical experiences and legal traditions shaped their formulation. Through the examples of Latin America and the former Soviet Union, they explore the connections · A CHALLENGE FOR EDUCATION between human rights movements and human rights education. Finally, they address current challenges in human rights education to elucidate the role of historical experience in education. ISBN-13: 978-3-9810631-9-6 © Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” Stiftung “Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft” Lindenstraße 20–25 10969 Berlin Germany Tel +49 (0) 30 25 92 97- 0 Fax +49 (0) 30 25 92 -11 [email protected] www.stiftung-evz.de Editor: Rainer Huhle Translation and Revision: Patricia Szobar Coordination: Christa Meyer Proofreading: Julia Brooks and Steffi Arendsee Typesetting and Design: dakato…design. David Sernau Printing: FATA Morgana Verlag ISBN-13: 978-3-9810631-9-6 Berlin, February 2010 Photo Credits: Cover page, left: Stèphane Hessel at the conference “Rights, that make us Human Beings” in Nuremberg, November 2008.
    [Show full text]
  • Homosexuality in the USSR (1956–82)
    Homosexuality in the USSR (1956–82) Rustam Alexander Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2018 School of Historical and Philosophical Studies Faculty of Arts The University of Melbourne Abstract The history of Soviet homosexuality is largely unexplored territory. This has led some of the few scholars who have examined this topic to claim that, in the period from Stalin through to the Gorbachev era, the issue of homosexuality was surrounded by silence. Such is the received view and in this thesis, I set out to challenge it. My investigation of a range of archival sources, including reports from the Soviet Interior Ministry (MVD), as well as juridical, medical and sex education literature, demonstrates that although homosexuality was not widely discussed in the broader public sphere, there was still lively discussion of it in these specialist and in some cases classified texts, from 1956 onwards. The participants of these discussions sought to define homosexuality, explain it, and establish their own methods of eradicating it. In important ways, this handling of the issue of homosexuality was specific to the Soviet context. This thesis sets out to broaden our understanding of the history of official discourses on homosexuality in the late Soviet period. This history is also examined in the context of and in comparison to developments on this front in the West, on the one hand, and Eastern Europe, on the other. The thesis draws on the observation made by Dan Healey, the pioneering scholar of Russian and Soviet sexuality, that in the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death a combination of science and police methods was used to strengthen heterosexual norms in the Soviet society.
    [Show full text]
  • The Blogization of Journalism
    DMITRY YAGODIN The Blogization of Journalism How blogs politicize media and social space in Russia ACADEMIC DISSERTATION To be presented, with the permission of the Board of School of Communication, Media and Theatre of the University of Tampere, for public discussion in the Lecture Room Linna K 103, Kalevantie 5, Tampere, on May 17th, 2014, at 12 o’clock. UNIVERSITY OF TAMPERE DMITRY YAGODIN The Blogization of Journalism How blogs politicize media and social space in Russia Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1934 Tampere University Press Tampere 2014 ACADEMIC DISSERTATION University of Tampere School of Communication, Media and Theatre Finland Copyright ©2014 Tampere University Press and the author Cover design by Mikko Reinikka Distributor: [email protected] http://granum.uta.fi Acta Universitatis Tamperensis 1934 Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 1418 ISBN 978-951-44-9450-5 (print) ISBN 978-951-44-9451-2 (pdf) ISSN-L 1455-1616 ISSN 1456-954X ISSN 1455-1616 http://tampub.uta.fi Suomen Yliopistopaino Oy – Juvenes Print 441 729 Tampere 2014 Painotuote Preface I owe many thanks to you who made this work possible. I am grateful to you for making it worthwhile. It is hard to name you all, or rather it is impossible. By reading this, you certainly belong to those to whom I radiate my gratitude. Thank you all for your attention and critique, for a friendly talk and timely empathy. My special thanks to my teachers. To Ruslan Bekurov, my master’s thesis advisor at the university in Saint-Petersburg, who encouraged me to pursue the doctoral degree abroad. To Kaarle Nordenstreng, my local “fixer” and a brilliant mentor, who helped me with my first steps at the University of Tampere.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence
    Russia • Military / Security Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, No. 5 PRINGLE At its peak, the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) was the largest HISTORICAL secret police and espionage organization in the world. It became so influential DICTIONARY OF in Soviet politics that several of its directors moved on to become premiers of the Soviet Union. In fact, Russian president Vladimir V. Putin is a former head of the KGB. The GRU (Glavnoe Razvedvitelnoe Upravleniye) is the principal intelligence unit of the Russian armed forces, having been established in 1920 by Leon Trotsky during the Russian civil war. It was the first subordinate to the KGB, and although the KGB broke up with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the GRU remains intact, cohesive, highly efficient, and with far greater resources than its civilian counterparts. & The KGB and GRU are just two of the many Russian and Soviet intelli- gence agencies covered in Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Intelligence. Through a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introductory HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries, a clear picture of this subject is presented. Entries also cover Russian and Soviet leaders, leading intelligence and security officers, the Lenin and Stalin purges, the gulag, and noted espionage cases. INTELLIGENCE Robert W. Pringle is a former foreign service officer and intelligence analyst RUSSIAN with a lifelong interest in Russian security. He has served as a diplomat and intelligence professional in Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. For orders and information please contact the publisher && SOVIET Scarecrow Press, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • E Helsinki Forum and East-West Scientific Exchange
    [E HELSINKI FORUM AND EAST-WEST SCIENTIFIC EXCHANGE JOINT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON SCIENCE, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND THE Sul COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND SCIENTIFIC AFFAIRS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE NINETY-SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JANUARY 31, 1980 [No. 89] (Committee on Science and Technology) ted for the use of the Committee on Science and Technology and the Committee on Foreign Affairs U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 421 0 WASHINGTON: 1980 COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DON FUQUA, Florida, Chairman ROBERT A. ROE, New Jersey JOHN W. WYDLER, New York MIKE McCORMACK, Washington LARRY WINN. JR., Kansas GEORGE E. BROWN, JR., California BARRY M. GOLDWATER, JR., California JAMES H. SCHEUER, New York HAMILTON FISH, JS., New York RICHARD L. OTTINGER, New York MANUEL LUJAN, JR., New Mexico TOM HARKIN, Iowa HAROLD C. HOLLENBECK, New Jersey JIM LLOYD, California ROBERT K. DORNAN, California JEROME A. AMBRO, New York ROBERT S. WALKER, Pennsylvania MARILYN LLOYD BOUQUARD, Tennessee EDWIN B. FORSYTHE, NeW Jersey JAMES J. BLANCHARD, Michigan KEN KRAMER, Colorado DOUG WALGREN, Pennsylvania WILLIAM CARNEY, New York RONNIE G. FLIPPO, Alabama ROBERT W. DAVIS, Michigan DAN GLICKMAN, Kansas TOBY ROTH, Wisconsin ALBERT GORE, JR., Tennessee DONALD LAWRENCE RITTER, WES WATKINS, Oklahoma Pennsylvania ROBERT A. YOUNG, Missouri BILL ROYER, California RICHARD C. WHITE, Texas HAROLD L. VOLKMER, Missouri DONALD J. PEASE, Ohio HOWARD WOLPE, Michigan NICHOLAS MAVROULES, Massachusetts BILL NELSON, Florida BERYL ANTHONY, JR., Arkansas STANLEY N. LUNDINE, New York ALLEN E.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 History of Russian Culture Through Film and Literature HIST E-1557/W
    History of Russian Culture through Film and Literature HIST E-1557/W (Spring 2015) (December 21, 2014) Harvard University Extension School Donald Ostrowski Wednesdays 5:30–7:30 pm (lectures) 51 Brattle St. E-703 phone (617)495-4547 e-mail: [email protected] website: http://isites.harvard.edu/k109152 Teaching Assistants: David Nicholson Robert Goggin email: [email protected] email: [email protected] office hours: By appointment only phone: 617-625-6983 office hours: TuesThurs 4:30–5:30 (rm. 701) Karen J. Wilson email: [email protected] phone: 978-275-6927 (o); 978-255-2279 (h) Course Goals: The course has three main goals. First, it attempts to introduce the history of Russian culture and provide a foundational basis for further post-course study of it. Second, it attempts to improve critical thinking abilities and the powers of observation on the part of the student. Third, it attempts to develop writing skills. Writing Assignments: I have designed the course as writing intensive. In order for the course to fill that function, I expect each student (both undergraduate and graduate) to write a draft and a revised version of one “five-paragraph beast” (625−750 words), a draft and revised version of two 3–5- page “analytical-critique” papers (750–1250 words each) and one final project. For undergraduates, the final project will consist of one 10-page theme-analysis paper (2500 words). Graduate students are required to write a draft and a revised version of a proposal (around 3 pages [750 words]) that must be approved by their teaching assistant before they can commence on a 15–20-page research paper (4000–5000 words).
    [Show full text]
  • From Helsinki to Human Rights Watch: How an American Cold War Monitoring Group Became an International Human Rights Institution
    Peter Slezkine From Helsinki to Human Rights Watch: How an American Cold War Monitoring Group Became an International Human Rights Institution On September 7, 2010, George Soros gave Human Rights Watch (HRW) a $100 million grant, the largest in its history. ‘‘I’m afraid the United States has lost the moral high ground under the Bush administration, but the principles that Human Rights Watch promotes have not lost their universal applicability,’’ he said. ‘‘So to be more effective, I think the organization has to be seen as more international, less an American organization.’’1 Today, it is taken for granted that HRW’s scope should be international and its principles universally applicable. It seems self-evident that an organization called Human Rights Watch should strive to monitor abuses wherever they occur and to enforce universal standards on a global scale. It is also understood that to be most effective (and least vulnerable to criticism), HRW should appear to reflect the univer- sality of its principles. In its ideal form, it would operate outside the world of particular allegiances, origins, and ideologies; at the very least, it would embody a global cross-section of particular concerns. Of course, such perfect impartiality and universal representativeness must always remain elusive. A headquarters in New York and a significant percentage of American donors and staff risk tying HRW’s moral standing to that of the U.S. government, as Soros pointed out. And the opening of each new office, the issuing of each new report, and the acceptance of each new donation may be construed as examples of particular biases that would undermine HRW’s declared universalism.
    [Show full text]
  • PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE in the USSR Table of Contents Introduction
    PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE IN THE USSR Table of Contents Introduction. 1 Recommendations . 2 Background. 4 Current Cases of Concern. 6 Alma Ata Six . 8 Patients Release Appeal. 9 Psychiatric Detention in the Soviet System. .10 New Psychiatric Legislation . .11 American Critique of Psychiatric Legislation . .12 "Social Dangerousness" . .13 Soviet Response to Critique. .13 Code of Criminal Procedures. .14 Kuznetsov Case . .16 American Psychiatrists' Fact-Finding Mission to the USSR. .17 Case Analysis. .20 Findings . .21 American Report Not Published in USSR. .23 Soviets Re-Enter World Psychiatric Association. .23 Background . .23 Independent Psychiatric Association (IPA). .25 Official Psychiatric Society (AUSPN) . .26 Official Society Acknowledges Abuse. .27 Official Society Conditionally Accepted. .30 Independent Psychiatric Association Unconditionally Accepted. .32 Confusion of Two Groups. .33 A False IPA is Legalized . .34 Official Soviet Response. .35 Soviet Review Commission Established . .38 In the Soviet Parliament . .39 Debate Within the Soviet Psychiatric Profession . .41 An Evening With Georgy Morozov . .41 Sulphazine. .44 Three Camps. .45 The Moderates . .45 The Radicals. .47 The Conservatives . .49 Recent Soviet Press and Media Coverage. .50 Failure to Prosecute Abuse . .50 Some Breakthroughs . .51 Sources . .53 2 INTRODUCTION The recent release of many victims of psychiatric abuse and the passing of new, although flawed, legislation on psychiatric internment have created the impression in some circles that the abuse of psychiatry in the USSR has ended. Yet, despite a dramatic increase in tolerance for outspoken discussion and criticism of this issue, Soviet medical authorities responsible for past and present abuses remain in place. The fact of Soviet psychiatric abuse has never been properly acknowledged or corrected.
    [Show full text]
  • Talking Fish: on Soviet Dissident Memoirs*
    Talking Fish: On Soviet Dissident Memoirs* Benjamin Nathans University of Pennsylvania My article may appear to be idle chatter, but for Western sovietolo- gists at any rate it has the same interest that a fish would have for an ichthyologist if it were suddenly to begin to talk. ðAndrei Amalrik, Will the Soviet Union Survive until 1984? ½samizdat, 1969Þ All Soviet émigrés write ½or: make up something. Am I any worse than they are? ðAleksandr Zinoviev, Homo Sovieticus ½Lausanne, 1981Þ IfIamasked,“Did this happen?” I will reply, “No.” If I am asked, “Is this true?” Iwillsay,“Of course.” ðElena Bonner, Mothers and Daughters ½New York, 1991Þ I On July 6, 1968, at a party in Moscow celebrating the twenty-eighth birthday of Pavel Litvinov, two guests who had never met before lingered late into the night. Litvinov, a physics teacher and the grandson of Stalin’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Maxim Litvinov, had recently made a name for himself as the coauthor of a samizdat text, “An Appeal to World Opinion,” thathadgarneredwideattention inside and outside the Soviet Union. He had been summoned several times by the Committee for State Security ðKGBÞ for what it called “prophylactic talks.” Many of those present at the party were, like Litvinov, connected in one way or another to the dissident movement, a loose conglomeration of Soviet citizens who had initially coalesced around the 1966 trial of the writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, seeking to defend civil rights inscribed in the Soviet constitution and * For comments on previous drafts of this article, I would like to thank the anonymous readers for the Journal of Modern History as well as Alexander Gribanov, Jochen Hell- beck, Edward Kline, Ann Komaromi, Eli Nathans, Sydney Nathans, Serguei Oushakine, Kevin M.
    [Show full text]
  • Soviet Political Parties and Leadership
    ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: EMANCIPATION FROM DOUBLETHINK? POST- SOVIET POLITICAL PARTIES AND LEADERSHIP Peter Voitsekhovsky, Doctor of Philosophy, 2013 Dissertation directed by: Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu Department of Government and Politics This study examines the phenomenon of doublethink as a core feature of the “mental software” that continues to define the character of post-Soviet societies. It is revealed in patterns of prevarication and equivocation that characterize the thinking and behavior of both the elites and the masses. Doublethink is also manifested in incongruous values and duplicitous rules that prevail in society. It accounts for the perpetuation of simulative and fake institutions of “façade democracy.” Political parties in post-Soviet Ukraine are analyzed as a major example of simulative and imitative institutions. Here, traditional ideology-based party taxonomies prove misleading. Political parties are quasi-virtual entities with the character of “post- Orwellian political machines”: they operate in a topsy-turvy world of imitated supply and deluded demand. The study employs three levels of analysis: macro (surveys data and “Tocquevillean” observations); meso (biographical data and political discourse analysis); and micro (in-depth interviews). EMANCIPATION FROM DOUBLETHINK? POST-SOVIET POLITICAL PARTIES AND LEADERSHIP Peter Voitsekhovsky Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor
    [Show full text]