Word: refusnik
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...album. "So Fast, So Numb" projects a convincing exasperation with a deluded second person, imploring "This is now! This is here! This is me!" "Electrolite" snidely comments on the slippery and ultimately minimal value of fame: "I'm Steve McQueen/I'm Jimmy Dean/You are the star tonight." That this refusnik sensibility might be the expression of the band's own attitude is teasingly suggested by the song's final line, which is also the final lyric on the album: "I'm outta here...
Furthermore those in our group who knew other Soviet citizens--primarily refusniks, Jews who have been refused exit visas, and nonconformists--saw another side of Soviet life and heard a different view of Gorbachev's reforms. Where the students were optimistic, many others saw a dismal future. One woman whose husband spent 15 years in a Siberian labor camp described the Soviet premier as "a man in search of power." And a long-time refusnik said, "Russia just isn't made for democracy. History proves it." When asked what she thought about the current situation, one woman abruptly answered...
Soviet brutality and blatant disregard for human rights was sharply brought into focus yesterday when Moscow security police beat and arrested CNN's Moscow bureau chief for "assaulting a Soviet citizen." The Kremlin must be complimented on its novel way of describing a journalist watching a refusnik protest. For most Russians, such incidents are a part of everyday life...
Mendelsohn explained that Jewish organizations are developing several projects which will focus on the plight of the refusniks. In one of the programs being considered, college campuses will "adopt" a college-age refusnik, admitting him or her to the college "in absentia" and establishing contact by writing letters and cards...
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