As Aeroflot Flight No. SU 229 prepared to take off from Moscow to Amsterdam last week, Russian Writer Andrei Amalrik tucked his Siamese cat Disa under his arm while his artist wife Gyusel accepted a farewell bouquet of red peonies. KGB agents darted in and out of the small crowd assembled at Sheremetyevo Airport, snapping pictures of the couple taking leave of their desolate friends.
The scene marked the end of a historic decade of dissent in the Soviet Union. Since 1965 the KGB had conducted a campaign to fragment Russia's "democratic movement...
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