VADIM BELOTSERKOVSKY
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destruction and breakdown we have already experienced several
times ."
" Our Socialism is simply an extreme form of the same capitalist
evolution which exists , let us say, in the United States or in other
Western countries . .. and we should therefore not be surprised by the
rise of the same problems experienced by them . The same problems of
crime , of alienation , of identity. . . ."
To sum up and to add to my personal impressions
(I
saw Sakharov
shortly before my departure from the USSR) : one might draw a
portrait of Sakharov using the whole list of alleged' 'Russian national
characteristics" -in reverse. There is no trace of frivolity or irresponsi–
bility in him ; no tendency toward instability , toward heresy, toward
mysticism , but instead , utter sobriety. Finally , there is no bravado , but
serene courage and consistency in everything.
The year before last, Moscow Jews assembled at the Lebanese
Embassy to protest the crimes of the Arab terrorists at the Olympic
Games in Munich . And Sakharov , too, considered it his duty to come
to this assembly. The whole group was , of course , immediately
surrounded by police and agents of the KGB who proceeded to beat
the demonstrators and shove them into buses . People who had fallen
down were kicked and dragged on the pavement . Sakharov fortunately
arrived a few minutes late for the "beginning" of the meeting (he
came not alone , but with his son). The street was already cordoned off
and the police colonel stopped him with the words :
" Where are you going?"
" Tell me please, where is the Lebanese Embassy? " Sakharov
asked .
" What is your business there? "
" I want to express my protest ."
"Then get inside that bus!" pointed the colonel.
When, toward evening , after the interrogations, we were allowed
to
leave the police "sobering-up " station where we had been kept , 1
saw Sakharov's tall figure among those released earlier. He was waiting
with the others until the last of the arrested was freed, to make sure that
nobody had been "set-apart " by the police or the KGB .
It
is common knowledge that Sakharov attends almost every
political trial , spending long days together with the friends of the
defendants standing at the doors of these "open" courts , which are
