Word: congress
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...second session of the Congress of People's Deputies had barely begun last week when a bald, stoop-shouldered man hesitantly made his way to the front of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. Mikhail Gorbachev motioned for Deputy Andrei Sakharov to step up to the podium, then settled back in his seat, not quite sure what to expect...
...subdued Gorbachev looked on, Politburo member Vitali Vorotnikov opened the next day's session of the Congress by asking the Deputies to stand in a moment of silent tribute. Considering the abuse that was once heaped on the former dissident, Vorotnikov's words of praise groaned with irony. "Everything that Sakharov did," he said, "was dictated by his keen conscience and profound humanistic convictions." Whatever bitterness Sakharov's friends may have felt about the way he was treated in the past, the authorities, at least, tried to make amends. An official obituary published on Saturday in the party daily, Pravda...
...Gorky, he was often at odds with the man who gave him his freedom, whether pressing at home for the immediate release of all political prisoners or warning audiences abroad that Gorbachev was amassing too much power. He clashed with the Soviet leader on the opening day of the Congress last May, saying he would support him as President only after an open debate, and was dismissed from the podium on the final day when he tried to outline his own political program...
...ready to embrace every needy political cause and seemed in danger of squandering his considerable moral authority. Two weeks before his death, Sakharov joined a handful of Deputies from a radical coalition known as the Interregional Group in calling for a "warning strike" to force Congress to debate Article 6 and a package of reform laws. The strike was a failure, a tactical error that strained relations with Gorbachev, who was already impatient with Sakharov's frequent interruptions at legislative sessions. Nonetheless, Sakharov's death left a permanent void in the ranks of the liberal opposition and deprived the democratic...
Gorbachev too is likely to regret that Sakharov's prophetic voice has been silenced. Despite their differences, the two men had managed to carry on something resembling a dialogue amid all the clamor at the Congress. Seven months have passed since the new parliament held its first meeting, more than half a year in which political change has outpaced progress in solving economic problems and ethnic tensions. At times last week, Moscow's maestro tried to orchestrate the debate, cutting off talk with a curt "That's all." Still, plenty of sour notes were struck. The Armenian delegation stormed...