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Sakharov Speaks Out

Q: Would you describe yourself as liberal?

A: My position is not political, but lies in the actions that have formed my life. One of my main concerns is the problem of disarmament and international security and the other is human rights. This is not political, it is above politics.

Q: What is the chief human rights issue in the USSR now?

A: The position of the Crimean Tartars. They are a simple people without education. They could not afford to buy houses; they sleep under the open sky. They want to work in agriculture and they have tried, but they cannot work on the farms because they are not allowed. The Crimean Tartars were brought from Crimea in 1944--it was a Stalin decision. In one day in 1944 the whole population of Crimean Tartars was brought from Crimea. They were brought in railway cars to Uzbekistan. On the way half of them died. Dead people lay near those not yet dead.

Stalin said they were collaborating with the Germans, but this is not true. Some were, but some from every republic were collaborating. Many Crimean Tartars were fighting against the Germans and died fighting the Germans. They were not different from any other people.

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Today, they cannot return to the Crimea. We don't understand why the Soviets have such a policy. It is discriminative and hundreds of people have joined the great struggle. One man had a cannister of oil and he burned himself. When he was brought to the hospital, he said everyone must do this, and died. His name was Usmanov. Some thousands of Crimeans came to Crimea to attend his funeral and the officials could not disperse them. It was a great demonstration.

Recently the Soviet Government decided that 700 Crimean Tartars must be expelled from the Crimea and today bulldozers came, and people watched the Tartars leaving. Then their houses were levelled by the bulldozers. People were deported in open trucks from Crimea. This is only one example, but it is very dramatic.

Many people know about the problem, but we don't know why our government does not want Crimean Tarta in Crimea. Crimea is a place of tourism and hotels for the political elite and these people are not good for the government. They want these Tartars to live in Uzbekistan, far from the government.

Q: What about the labor camps?

A: Today there are not as many as in Stalin's time--then there were ten million people interred, today there are one and a half million. Some people who came from the camps say there must be more. But U.S. experts using satellite photos say it is one and a half million.

Q: You've spoken a lot about Stalin. How much do the young people know about him?

A: Today, the main policy is silence about Stalin. Soon there will be Stalin's centennial. There appeared until now only one small newspaper article, which was positive towards him, but admitted he made mistakes. Not that he was a criminal, only that he made mistakes. It said his mistakes will not return. The main part of it was positive, though.

Q: What about Brezhnev, will he try to reform anything?

A: Brezhnev's leadership is more conservative. Today the policy is strength. Military defense. We don't know how effective we will be in war, but in peacetime--we have the greatest army and navy in the world. It [the military] seems to be the only thing in which we are most effective. Education, medicine, agriculture--we are not effective. Every year they get worse and worse.

It is a great military system in peacetime, but we will see [how it does] in war.

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