Word: unrested
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...rioting in Sumgait, an industrial center in the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, was one of the worst known cases of ethnic disorder in Soviet history. Coming after two weeks of nationalist unrest in two southern republics, it confronted Communist Party Leader Mikhail Gorbachev with a problem that is not likely to go away and could blossom into the most serious political crisis of his three years in power...
...best, the uprisings in Armenia and Azerbaijan are an embarrassment for Gorbachev; at worst, they could prove fatal to him. Party conservatives are almost certain to turn the ethnic unrest into an argument against further liberalization. "What is the implication in these riots for Gorbachev?" asks Marshall Goldman, associate director of Harvard's Russian Research Center. "The implication is disaster. After 70 years of repression, it is not so easy to accomplish what he wants, and this will be a black mark against him by Russian nationalists and traditional centralists...
...repression smother it entirely? South African State President P.W. Botha seemed intent on testing the proposition once again last week. Since declaring a state of emergency in June 1986, the Pretoria government has virtually stamped out violent protest in black townships that for more than two years seethed with unrest. Under the 1986 proclamation, some 30,000 activists were detained, while thousands more fled into hiding. With all outdoor meetings banned and political funerals tightly restricted, even the most determined antiapartheid groups were close to paralysis...
...upheaval in the south was the latest sign of unrest among the Soviet Union's more than 100 national ethnic groups. In December 1986 thousands of demonstrators rioted in Alma-Ata, capital of Kazakhstan, to protest the appointment of an ethnic Russian as the regional Communist Party head. Last July a group of Crimean Tatars protested in Moscow's Red Square, demanding the right to return to their hereditary homeland in the Crimea. In the Estonian capital of Tallinn last week, a march celebrating the 70th anniversary of Estonia's short-lived independence drew 20,000 people into the streets...
...disturbances and the demands of the Armenians, which were, after all, not directed against Soviet rule. But the limits of glasnost were soon reached. Authorities banned foreign journalists from the area and imposed a virtual news blackout. Telephone conversations with local residents, however, provided some details about the unrest...