Word: crackdowns
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...assault marked the first time that Communist Poland's martial-law troubles have spilled over into violent protest in the West. It gave Poland's government an opportunity to vilify the suspended Solidarity trade union, only a week after a harsh crackdown on tens of thousands of Polish demonstrators took to the streets to commemorate the second anniversary of Solidarity's founding. Said Warsaw's Communist Party daily Trybuna Ludu: "Solidarity extremists are now switching, as proved by numerous facts, to terrorist activities." But the terrorist action was energetically denounced by spokesmen for Solidarity, who disclaimed...
While agreeing that the internal Soviet telephone system urgently needs improvement, Western experts doubt the Soviet explanation. They see the elimination of direct international dialing as part of a general Soviet crackdown on communications with the outside world. Last month the Kremlin expelled Newsweek Bureau Chief Andrew Nagorski, accusing him of unethical journalistic practices. The Soviets arrested several members of an unauthorized "peace group" that was founded in June to press for better relations with the U.S. And last week Yelena Bonner, the wife of dissident Physicist Andrei Sakharov, announced that "cruel persecution" had finally destroyed the Moscow Helsinki Watch...
...author of the crackdown, according to some Western analysts, is Vitali Fedorchuk, who replaced Yuri Andropov as head of the secret police last May. Fedorchuk, who won a reputation for harsh treatment of dissidents when he was the KGB's chief in the Ukraine, is believed to be more sensitive than his predecessor to police complaints that there is too much contact between Soviet citizens and the outside world...
...Administration initially proposed an allied boycott of the Siberian pipeline as a response to the military crackdown in Poland last December. Reagan has held fast to his opposition-despite marked criticism from former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. and others, on the grounds that events in Poland were severe enough to preclude a "business as usual" stance towards the Soviets. He also feared the pipeline would endanger allied security by making western Europe dependent on the Soviet Union for energy...
...found dead following disturbances in Gdansk. They were Poland's first fatalities in political demonstrations since Dec. 16, when nine striking miners were shot by security forces at the Wujek colliery after the imposition of martial law. In the wake of the rioting, the government announced a major crackdown on all sources of dissent in the country. Said Government Spokesman Jerzy Urban: "Solidarity's extremists played their funeral march...