Word: tashkenters
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While en route to India last November, Mikhail Gorbachev made his first visit as Communist Party leader to Soviet Central Asia. At Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Gorbachev gave a speech to local party officials on such familiar problems as economic inefficiency and official corruption. But at one point his address took a distinctly unfamiliar turn. According to the Uzbek daily Pravda Vostoka, Gorbachev called for a "firm and uncompromising struggle against religious phenomena." Then he said, "We must be strict above all with Communists and senior officials, particularly those who say they defend our morality and ideals...
...months ago. Indeed, it is rare for a Soviet General Secretary to attack religion so directly; that is usually left to underlings. Beyond that, the critique suggested the Kremlin is concerned that the state's struggle against religion has not been going well. Finally, the fact that Gorbachev chose Tashkent as the place to attack religion indicated that the Soviet leadership is specifically fearful about the currents of fundamentalist zealotry sweeping the Islamic world, which might eventually infect the fast-growing Muslim nationalities of Soviet Central Asia...
...other major U. S. cities have, linked up with Minsk, Odessa, Murmansk, Nakhodka, Baku and Tashkent...
Dressed in a natty business suit festooned with medals, Brezhnev looked slimmer than when he was last seen in public, on a visit to Tashkent in Central Asia. He appeared animated, chatting with Chernenko, who smiled and nodded back. As observers searched for signs of recent illness, Brezhnev displayed exemplary endurance. He remained alert throughout Andropov's 55-minute speech, in which the KGB chief reiterated Brezhnev's invitation to President Reagan to meet in Europe next October. Following the speech, the Soviet leader even had the stamina to attend a two-hour concert of Russian songs...
...most credible line of speculation is that Brezhnev was suffering either from exhaustion or from a slight stroke when he returned from Tashkent, and is now recuperating. Nikolai Blokhin, president of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences, told colleagues at a conference of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War held in Cambridge, England, that he had spoken to Brezhnev only days before and had invited him to meet with the organization's leaders later this year. Insisted Blokhin: "President Brezhnev is taking his routine winter vacation...