Sakharov's Defense

SOVIET UINON

To many Western observers, the recent campaign of criticism directed against Soviet Physicist Andrei Sakharov appeared to be a prologue to his arrest or exile. Last week, though, a massive wave of protest in the U.S. and Europe dampened -at least temporarily -the Kremlin's wrath against the great scientist. Soviet threats that Sakharov might be brought to trial for his bold criticism of totalitarian conditions in the U.S.S.R. and the increasing repression of dissidents (TIME, Sept. 17) moved Western chiefs of state, foreign ministers, and scientists to public indignation. Their words carried a grave undertone of menace to the Soviet Union's hopes for economic cooperation with the West.

In West Germany, the father of Ostpolitik, Chancellor Willy Brandt, expressed his "solidarity" with Sakharov and other dissidents "endangered because of their convictions." In ordinarily neutral Austria, Chancellor Bruno Kreisky called for a "democratic counterweight" to protect Russian libertarians like Sakharov. From Russia came a spirited defense of Sakharov by Author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who has been the target of Soviet vituperation since he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970. Last week he nominated Sakharov for the Nobel Prize for peace.

In the U.S., the Sakharov case hardened congressional opposition to granting the Soviets the most-favored-nation status that is necessary for the expansion of trade. The MFN bill faces a tough battle in the House Ways and Means Committee. Last week Representative Wilbur Mills, the chairman of the committee, said: "I cannot see the U.S. expanding commercial markets with the Soviet Union if the price is to be paid in the martyrdom of men of genius like Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov." Even Secretary of State Designate Henry Kissinger pronounced himself personally "disappointed" and "dismayed" by Soviet repression. At the same time, he reiterated the Administration's position that the aim of U.S. foreign policy is the relaxation of tensions and not the transformation of Soviet society. Otherwise, said Kissinger, "we will find ourselves massively involved in every country in the world."

At week's end, that view was challenged by Sakharov himself. In an extraordinary open letter to Congress, he urged passage of an amendment proposed by Senator Henry M. Jackson that would make MFN status for Russia contingent upon free emigration. Sakharov argued that the amendment should be a "minimum" condition for detente; if it is not passed, he added, the result will be "a strengthening of repression on ideological grounds."

In Purgatory. Another blow to Soviet hopes came from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In a cable to the President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, the American group warned that "harassment or detention of Sakharov will have severe effects upon the relationships between the scientific communities of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. and could vitiate our recent effort toward increasing scientific interchange and cooperation." In the opinion of one ranking U.S. Sovietologist, "The impact of the U.S. academy's position could be greater than the withholding of MFN. The whole Soviet scientific community could be put in purgatory and much-sought-after technological breakthroughs will be limited."

In the wake of these protests, the ten-day-long Soviet press campaign against Sakharov came to an abrupt halt. Instead, the Soviets set out to placate Western opinion. In an attempt to forestall possible disruption of the European Security Conference talks in Geneva this week, Izvestia published assurances that the meeting would take place "in a favorable psychological climate." Then, in a dramatic gesture of conciliation, the Soviets stopped jamming Voice of America, BBC and West German Russian-language broadcasts to the U.S.S.R. for the first time since 1968. This was a major concession to Western nations participating in the ESC; they have insisted on Soviet guarantees of free exchange of ideas and information.

Meanwhile, Sakharov remained imperturbable. In yet another of his now famous forbidden interviews with foreign newsmen, he asked that the security conference consider the plight of dissidents being tortured in Soviet psychiatric hospitals. As for himself, he said: "I am no more afraid now than I have ever been. The world has its eyes on me. I think the world will save me."

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Solzhenitsyn nominated Sakharov for the peace prize in a surprisingly choleric and wide-ranging 3,000-word article for Oslo's daily Aftenposten. In it, he attacked Western liberals for what he termed their readiness to denounce oppression in rightist countries and their reluctance to criticize the Soviet Union. "Such profound hypocrisy is characteristic of American political life today," Solzhenitsyn continued, referring to Watergate. "Without in any way defending Nixon or the Republican Party, I am amazed at the affected, loudmouthed wrath of the Democrats. Wasn't American democracy full of mutual deception during previous election campaigns?"

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