rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) (02/12/86)
Much has been made in the media about Gorbachev being perhaps a change for the better. But repression in the USSR has been steadily growing since the early 70s. Jan Wasilewsky tells me that one statistical estimate of the number of political prisoners gives ten times as many now as ten years ago. Below is a summary of recent repression, the worsening status of dissent, and how Gorbachev fits into the Soviet scheme of things. Regards, Ron Rizzo [ Reproduced without permission from the 2/9/86 Boston Sunday Globe, pages A17 & A22. ] Joshua Rubenstein is the author of "Soviet Dissidents, Their Struggle for Human Rights." SOVIETS SOFTENING LINE ON DISSENT? A Shcharansky Gesture May Be Nothing More by Joshua Rubenstein, Special to the Globe Last week's reports that Soviet dissident Anatoly Shcharansky would be released were widely welcomed. Shcharansky originally tried to leave the Soviet Union in 1974, but the regime turned down his request for a visa, claiming he knew "state secrets." Shcharansky did not submit in silence. He became active in the Jewish emigration movement and then in the broader human-rights struggle, assuming a leading role in the Moscow Helsinki Watch group in 1976. The Kremlin has always been especially wary of activists who bring together diverse elements of dissent. So it was not surprising when Shcharansky was arrested in March 1977. But the world was asto- nished when the Kremlin accused him of espionage, a capital offense, and sentenced him to 13 years of confinement. He was not due for release until 1990. Should he indeed be let go, it will mark the close of a brutal episode for him and his family, and for his wife, Avital, who has not seen her husband since the day after their wedding in 1974 when she left Moscow for Israel. But like Elena Bonner's coming to Boston for medical treatment, the release of Shcharansky is a concession to international public opinion and does not reflect a change in the fundamental status of human rights in the Soviet Union. Sustained Crackdown on Dissidents It is a fateful coincidence that Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power coincides with the Kremlin's most sustained crackdown on dissent. Ever since the human-rights movement emerged 20 years ago, the Kremlin has considered ways to eliminate it. Several attempts were made, but each time, in 1968-69, between 1972 and 1974, and again in 1977 and 1978, the authorities backed off because of pressure and publicity in the West. The Politburo, however, made up its mind to act decisively in the fall of 1979, the same year Gorbachev became a candidate member. The Kremlin has acted with greater assertiveness, increasing brutality and with less concern for public opinion over the last six years. The administrative kidnapping of Andrei Sakharov and his continuing exile in Gorki is the most widely publicized act of repression. But other worrisome episodes have also occurred. * Hundreds of prominent activists have been arrested in the last six years, including Lithuanian Catholics, Ukrainian nationalists, feminists in Leningrad, Crimean Tatars and religious believers affili- ated with several fundamentalist Christian sects. * All five Helsinki Watch Groups have disbanded because of pressure from the KGB. Yuri Orlov, who organized the Moscow group, survived a harsh seven-year term in a labor camp and is now serving five years of internal exile. Scores of other members are in prison, labor camps or psychiatric hospitals. * The Jewish emigration movement has collapsed: 51,000 Jews emigrated in 1979; fewer than 900 left in 1985. For the first time, Jewish refuseniks have been placed in psychiatric hospitals for "observation." The regime is also trying to prevent the unofficial study of Hebrew and has confiscated ritual objects, like mezuzas and phylacteries, claiming that refuseniks use them to hide narcotics because the Jewish religion requires the use of drugs for ritual purposes. * There has been a marked deterioration in the treatment of prisoners of conscience. Many well-known prisoners, like Anatoly Koryagin, a psychiatrist who protested psychiatric abuse for poli- tical purposes, and Anatoly Marchenko, who was arrested for the fifth time in 1981, have been beaten. Three other prisoners died because of mistreatment and medical neglect in 1984 -- Yuri Litvin, Valery Marchenko and Oleg Tykhy. They were veteran Ukrainian dissidents who had recently been sentenced to 15-year terms. It was not the first arrest for any of them, and, as recidivists, they were kept in a "special regime" camp, the most severe confine- ment in the labor camp system. The food is poor and inadequate, while the working conditions physically break prisoners. * The Soviet government likes to proclaim its desire for peace, but it has yet to allow its citizens the right to have an opinion about peace. In June 1982, a dozen Soviet citizens announced the founding of the Group of Establishing Trust Between the Soviet Union and the United States. This "peace group" wanted to encourage direct contacts between ordinary citizens and exchange peace education projects. Hundreds of people signed the group's petitions. Small demonstrations were organized, and group members received visits from foreign activists. For this work, several members were arrested, and others have been placed in mental hospitals. Departure from Brezhnev Period This pattern of increased repression marks a departure from the relative restraint of the Brezhnev period, when the novelty of open dissent and the need for detente with the West inhibited the Kremlin from dealing decisively with the human-rights movement. But once Brezhnev became infirm at the end of the 1970s, Yuri Andropov, the longtime head of the KGB, began to exercise greater influence and power. Andropov succeeded Brezhnev in November 1982 as general secretary of the Communist Party, and it ws he who made the campaign against dissent part of a general crackdown on corrup- tion and lack of discipline in Soviet life. These were Andropov's favorite themes, and Mikhail Gorbachev has made them his own. He came into office with the attention of the world focused on his relative youth, his intelligence and his apparent charm. While these qualities may make him a more charismatic leader than his immediate predecessors, they do not ensure the humane instincts needed to move the Soviet government in a more tolerant direction. Gorbachev inherited many problems from Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko. He has emphasized economic modernization and arms control as the overriding concerns of his domestic and foreign policies. But Gorbachev also inherited many prisoners, and he has no easier way to gain favor in the West than to release prisoners of conscience and thereby put some distance between himself and his predecessors. Upcoming Party Congress But even if Gorbachev is making a humanitarian gesture by releasing Shcharansky as part of an East-West exchange of spies, the international community must keep the substance of his policies in mind. His connection to Yuri Andropov, who championed his rise to power, makes it likely that he shares Andropov's vision of Soviet society. This has already resulted in campaigns for greater disci- pline, not only within the party and at the workplace, but in society at large. There are new laws regulating consumption of alcohol. Scores of government ministers and regional party leaders have been sacked or forced to retire, many of them under suspicion of practicing or at least tolerating corruption. Respect for human rrights has little place in this scheme. These changes need to be seen as part of Gorbachev's efforts to exact more efficient produc- tion from the Soviet economy. They do not signify a willingness to propose genuine economic reform, say, greater initiative for factory managers, dismantling the collective farm system, or allowing small- scal enterprise to flourish as the Chinese have done. Gorbachev is now preparing for the next party congress, where he is expected to disclose more of his intentions for the country. It is interesting to note that the congress is scheduled to begin on Feb. 25, thirty years to the day since Khrushchev denounced Stalin in a speech to a closed session of the 20th party congress in 1956. Khrushchev's revelations marked a major shift in Soviet political history, and one cannot but wonder why Gorbachev chose to open the first party congress under his leadership on such a momentous anni- versary. With his speech and the release of millions of political prisoners, Khrushchev renounced terror as a means to conrol the Soviet population. It remains to be seen if Gorbachev will renounce intimidation. For Soviet leaders regard dissent as a symptom of social anarchy and not as a natural response to repression. As the exper- ience of the last six years demonstrates, and as Mikhail Gorbachev knows from his duties in the Politburo, enforcing social discipline and greter economic efficiency is not inconsistent with repression. In his mind, it may even be a prerequisite.