Word: vasili
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Dressed in a dark blue suit and blue-striped tie, Gorbachev stood at the head of a receiving line in the white-and-gilt Hall of St. George. Premier Nikolai Tikhonov, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and First Vice President Vasili Kuznetsov were by his side as he greeted the foreign dignitaries. Gorbachev looked his guests in the eye, occasionally giving a visitor a two-handed grip or flashing a reserved smile of recognition...
...eminent among the new émigrés is Vasili Aksyonov, 51, who departed from the Soviet Union in 1980 with two major novels in manuscript and a head full of ideas for new work. Since settling in the U.S. he has finished two more novels, both of which are scheduled for American publication. "I've got no time for nostalgia," says Aksyonov in fluent English. He teaches a seminar in Russian literature at Goucher College near Baltimore, and once a week his reviews of new U.S. fiction are broadcast to the Soviet Union over the Voice of America...
...that another change in command was under way after little more than a year seemed hard to believe. Soviet citizens knew Andropov was ill, but many, uneasy with the prospect of a new transition, believed reports that he was convalescing. So a guessing game began. Some Soviets thought that Vasili Kuznetsov, the oldest member of the ruling elite, might have died on the eve of his 83rd birthday. Others figured it was Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, 75, who had canceled an official visit to India a week earlier. But a worried Moscow housewife gave voice to the fear she shared...
...blaze had broken out on Dec. 15 in a pile of boxes lying on the floor of the station. The flames destroyed important electronic monitoring devices and control panels, but no one was injured. The Soviets denied that the accident would keep the pipeline from completion in June. Said Vasili Dinkov. Soviet Minister of the Gas Industry: "All the contentions by Western propaganda that the pipeline supposedly will not be ready by the scheduled date are nothing but an attempt to engage in wishful thinking." But Western experts contend that the fire at the Urengoi station, the largest...
...Andropov came in through a side door, accompanied by Tikhonov, Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Supreme Soviet Deputy Chairman Vasili Kuznetsov, the new Kremlin leader surprised everyone with his appearance. Pale and looking far older than in his official portraits, Andropov walked with a slow, distinctive gait. He put each leg forward cautiously, his head down as if he were studying the design on the red carpet laid in his path. One guest, a Briton, whispered, "Why, he can hardly see!" Indeed, as Andropov raised his head to face the waiting foreign envoys, his thick bifocal glasses betrayed a vision...