Word: sakharov
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...pressure on each other by manipulating public opinion," said Gorbachev, waving his hand. "There's no need." Dismissed, Sakharov slowly walked off the stage...
There have probably been moments, like the one last week, when Gorbachev had second thoughts about the telephone call he made to the city of Gorky in 1986, informing Sakharov and his wife Elena Bonner that they could return to Moscow after seven years of political exile. Like the prophets of biblical times who appeared before kings at the most inconvenient times with uncomfortable truths, the distinguished nuclear physicist and Nobel Peace Prize winner was always insisting that Soviet citizens deserved better, much better, than what the Soviet system had to offer. But last week's brisk exchange was destined...
...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, condemned...
From the moment Sakharov returned from 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...
With his whining voice, rambling syntax and rumpled suits, Sakharov was not cut out to be a public speaker in an era of live television. Sometimes he was all too 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...