Word: helsinki
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...mean the Soviet Union had changed its attitude toward dissidents. "I am overjoyed that Tolya is a free man, after so many years of suffering," said Naum Meiman, 74, a retired mathematician in Moscow. Like Shcharansky, Meiman was an early member of the Moscow branch of the Helsinki Watch Group, whose aim was to monitor Soviet compliance with the 1975 Helsinki human rights agreement. Adds Meiman: "But his release is not a victory for us because we are now further away from reaching the goals Tolya fought for than when we struggled together." Similarly, Soviet Exile Lev Kopelev...
...Shcharansky insists that there is a distinction between him and other Soviet dissidents. "My desire has always been to leave the Soviet Union, not to change it. How to reform that country is a problem for people who want to stay there. Even when I was part of the Helsinki Watch group, I never signed documents recommending changes in the system, but I signed a lot of appeals on behalf of individual people...
According to the New York-based Helsinki Watch Committee, an independent group that monitors Soviet human rights abuses, the Kremlin under Gorbachev has continued to ferret out and arrest the few dissidents and human rights activists who are not already in labor camps or psychiatric hospitals. And - while the Soviet Union permitted a few more Jews to emigrate in 1985 than it did in 1984--1,140, vs. 896--Jewish emigration still lags far behind its peak year of 1979, when 51,320 Jews were allowed to leave...
...Moscow, Shcharansky became the spokesman for groups of Jews who staged demonstrations near the Kremlin. His activism broadened as he joined the unofficial Moscow Helsinki Watch Group set up to monitor Soviet compliance with the human-rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki agreements. Shcharansky's fluency in English, his easy good nature and visible courage made him an ideal go-between for human-rights activists and the Western press. The KGB kept him under constant surveillance while he shuttled around Moscow keeping foreign correspondents apprised of the dissident movement...
...faithful lackeys." But the current Kremlin spokesmen slip easily into Western argot and affect a more relaxed, laid-back style. Ebullient Eduard Shevardnadze, the new Foreign Minister who replaced Andrei Gromyko (known as Grim Grom by Western newsmen), disarmed U.S. officials during a technical discussion of arms control at Helsinki last month with a rare display of Soviet humility. "Well, of course, I'm not a real expert!" he reportedly exclaimed and then turned to informally solicit the views of his delegation. Says Greg Guroff, a USIA Soviet expert: "He represents a whole new generation of Soviet leaders whose hallmark...