260
PARTISAN REVIEW
fifteen accused activists of the Zionist movement, Mark Dymshits and
Eduard Kusnetsov, were sentenced
to
death. The authorities would
probably have performed the executions, notwithstanding the fact that
the alleged crime was never committed. However, <;It precisely the same
time in Spain, several Basque nationalists were sentenced to death.
Immediately a strong world outcry in protest against the executions
arose, which the Soviet authorities joined. Franco
lift~d
the death
sentence, and the Soviet authorities had no choice but to do the same
for Dymshits and Kusnetsov. Their sentence was changed to fifteen
years imprisonment in "special hard camps." Thus Franco actually
saved the lives of two Jewish activists in Russia. The impact of the
Leningrad trial as well as other anti-Jewish trials in 1971 and 1972 was
the reverse of what authorities had anticipated. Excited by the solidar–
ity shown from abroad, the Jewish movement grew. For the first time
in the history of the USSR the authorities were compelled to concede,
and the gates of the country were opened to a limited extent. Within a
few years' time, more than 120,000 people left. The success of the
Jewish movement had an important psychological effect: it showed
that determined and well-planned actions could compel the Soviet
organs of power to yield.
The opposition movement, which reached its height at the begin–
ning of the seventies, now seems
to
be in decline. There are several
reasons for this. Many dissenting activists are currently serving time in
prison camps, while others have emigrated. Some dissenters have been
forcibly exiled, among them Solzhenitsyn, Maksimov, Litvinov, Gal–
itch, Sinyavsky, Nekrassov, Chalidze, Korzhaven, Amalric, and Ply–
ushch. Moreover, in the West one sees a decline of interest in Soviet
affairs. Once the evidence of outright dissent in the USSR caused a
sensation. By now, however, it has become a trivial event. However, the
attention of the free world is crucial
to
the development of freedom of
thought in the USSR. In many cases it is the only protection the
dissenters have against the KGB. When the KGB discovers a new group
of dissenters unknown in the West, a cruel blow is struck immediately.
However, when a dissenting group succeeds in declaring its existence,
aims, and activity loudly enough, the KGB often uses relatively "soft"
means. Cases in point are the Soviet division of Amnesty International,
and Sakharov's group.
One may assume that the decline in dissent is to a significant
extent merely apparent and that the opposition movement is on the eve
of a new stage. It seems certain that one of the most significant features
of the new stage will be a demarcation of opposition groups according
to ideology. In the sixties all the dissenting movements seemed rela-
