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Article: Raising the stakes in Soviet reform; another bold step: freeing Sakharov. (Andrei Sakharov) (column)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- January 12, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1987 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Raising the stakes in Soviet reform
For anyone puzzled by the sudden freedom of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, the answer lies in Mikhail Gorbachev's fundamental strategy. It is one of his most dramatic gambles, and a highly risky one, in a high-stakes campaign to modernize the mighty but stagnant Soviet system.
The decision to end Sakharov's seven years of exile in remote Gorky was far more a calculation of national strategy than of humanitarianism. By Western estimates, at least 800 political prisoners remain in custody, including 200 in psychiatric hospitals. One of the best known of these "prisoners of conscience," Anatoly Marchenko, died in ...