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A Manifest Step Toward a Larger Goal
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11510 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1986 |
3,405 Words |
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Jan Sejna
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On July 22, 1986, a remarkable "samizdat" or underground "manifesto" surfaced in the leftist London-based Guardian in an exclusive story under reporter Martin Walker's byline. The Guardian banner headline read: "Kremlin Radicals Seek Reform. Secret Manifesto Calls for Freedom of Speech. Official Silence Greets the Aims of [Soviet] Senior Officials in Working for Rival Political Groupings [within the Soviet Union]."
In this startling story, which was "secretly" released to "selected" Soviet publications and The Guardian, the reader was told that the co-signers included an elite band of high-echelon Soviet officials whose "patriotic credentials are beyond question." To add to the drama, an NBC-TV correspondent was collared at a Moscow airport with the same document, which was seized by Soviet police before the newsman was released.
Not only did the manifesto call for freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion in the Soviet Union, it also said the economy is so shattered that the nation will soon become an underdeveloped nation. The "Kremlin radicals" (who called themselves the "Movement for Social Renewal") seemed to take their cue from the Americans as they called for rival political parties within the Soviet Union, a return to "state capitalism," and private entrepreneurship in business. The document writers painted a bleak picture of the Soviet Union as a crumbling empire that is losing ground with its satellite states in the East Bloc and with the socialist movement (that is, foreign communist parties) worldwide. They predicted the imminent demise of Soviet military power and the resulting inevitable U.S. military dominance.
What is the cause of this "undeniable" Soviet decline to the state of a second-rate power? The Kremlin "radicals" said the only cure for the economic chaos which has bred a "national disaster" of alcoholism along with a flourishing prostitution trade and "thieving" is a quick and radical reform of the Soviet economy at all levels, more private farming, decentralization of state control over profitable businesses, guarantee of the four freedoms and the rights of private citizens to do business and trade with each other--a program the U.S. Chamber of Commerce itself might approve.
Out of character
To say the least, this proclamation is highly out of character for Soviet senior officials--even "Kremlin radicals." Is it a genuine call for freedom drafted by a new wave of Soviet Solzhenitzyns who have burrowed into the top levels of the Communist Party system?
No, it is rather without question a dish cooked in the KGB kitchen. It is a forgery and a very clever one. The interesting question is: Why was the KGB ordered to produce such a fine forgery and why was it released to the Western press at this moment?
To begin with, a little detective work is needed to determine what details indicate that this ingenious document is indeed a forgery. One sure giveaway is the call for rival political parties in the Soviet Union. In Eastern Europe, where freedom movements have risen and still exist in countries like Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, such an appeal to the people would make sense. Soviet Russia has never known such political movements, nor were they known in the days of the czars. It is not a
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