Word: sokolovs
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Three weeks after West German Flyer Mathias Rust's daring touchdown outside the Kremlin, another Soviet air-defense official joined the list of the unemployed. Rust's flight was quickly followed by the ouster of Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov and Air Defense Chief Alexander Koldunov. Last week a report in Red Star, the Defense Ministry newspaper, announced the replacement of Marshal Anatoly Konstantinov, commanding officer of the Moscow air-defense district. Four high-ranking officers had been expelled from the Communist Party, Red Star added, and other party members would soon be asked to account for their "irresponsibility...
...wrist slapping, and thus deflect attention from its embarrassment, only underscored the extreme seriousness with which the Soviets viewed Rust's romp through more than 400 miles of well- guarded airspace. Soviet and Western military experts were still digesting the news of the abrupt departure of Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov, the first official of that rank to be ousted since Nikita Khrushchev's celebrated firing of Georgi Zhukov for meddling in party affairs in 1957. Marshal of Aviation Alexander Koldunov was also dismissed. Further casualties were expected in the course of a top-level investigation ordered by the ruling Politburo...
Sure enough, what began as a zany stunt swiftly escalated into a major crisis for the Soviet military command. Communist Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who returned to Moscow on Friday from East Berlin, where he and Defense Minister Sergei Sokolov had been attending a Warsaw Pact summit, acted decisively. The next day Gorbachev convened an emergency meeting of the Politburo in the Kremlin. After that session, the Politburo fired Sokolov, 75, and Marshal of Aviation Alexander Koldunov, 63, who headed the nation's air- defense system. Sokolov was replaced as the top Soviet military leader by General of the Army...
...Sept. 5, I was just planning to go out when Andrei walked in. I rushed to him, and he said warily, "Don't be overjoyed, I have only got three hours." I must have looked puzzled, because he immediately added, "Sokolov came to see me again, he wants me to write certain papers." Without listening to anything else, I got upset and shouted, "The KGB can go f itself!" Andrei said calmly and quietly, "Just listen to me. They want you to write that if you are given permission to travel to see your mother and children...
...same." Andrei said that Sokolov had come to see him that morning and had said that Gorbachev had given him orders to handle the situation with Sakharov. So I sat down at my typewriter, and wrote: "In case I am allowed to travel abroad to see my mother, children and grandchildren, and also for treatment, I will not hold press conferences or give interviews. Elena Bonner. Sept. 5, 1985." Andrei's statement said, ". . . If my wife is allowed to travel abroad for treatment and to see her relatives, I plan to concentrate on scientific work and on my private life...