Word: bialer
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...convincing as the arguments in favor of Andropov seem, Western experts are far from unanimous in their interpretation of last week's move. Columbia University's Seweryn Bialer considers it unlikely that the Kremlin hierarchy will ultimately choose a former KGB chief as its head. "The political and military leaders do not want to live under the shadow of the secret police as they did under Stalin," he says. Dialer believes that if Andropov is selected, it will be a sign that the leaders believe that the Soviet Union and its empire are in deep trouble. "It will...
...significant rivalries do develop, they could seriously disrupt East-West relations. "I don't know whether it will change the direction of Soviet policies," says U.S. Sovietologist Seweryn Bialer, "but I will look for confrontations, divisions, splits - a volatile situation within the leadership. It will be a dangerous, unpredictable period...
Nonetheless, the workers' revolt shouts out Communism's economic and ideological failures and reminds the world that the glue of Soviet hegemony is force and intimidation, not shared purpose. Says Seweryn Bialer, head of Columbia University's Research Institute on International Change: "Previous challenges to Soviet control have come from above, from the leaders of satellite nations. The Polish challenge comes from below, from the workers, the only class of which the Soviet Union is afraid...
...first the Soviets want to get Poland back into a steady orbit. With 35 million people, Poland is by far the largest satellite, "the 'India' of the Soviet empire," in Bialer's words. It is also strategically vital, the buffer and transportation link between the Soviet Union and East Germany, where 19 Soviet divisions guard the bloc's western flank. The Gdansk agreement, which created the independent unions last Aug. 31, has kept the Soviets in a state of intense anxiety -and for good reason. Solidarity overnight became a third major power center in Poland, along...
...private, Brzezinski is far less pugnacious. Says former Aide Samuel Hoskinson, "He's a gentleman and a scholar in the true sense of the words." Seweryn Bialer, a fellow Polish American who succeeded Brzezinski as director of the Research Institute on International Change at Columbia University, calls him "extraordinarily decent and honest." Bialer says he has profound disagreements with the Carter Administration, particularly over its difficulty in promulgating clear and steady policies, but he does not blame Brzezinski alone: "It's the President's fault. My disappointment with Brzezinski is that he cannot change the President...