Soviet Union Life in a Weary Land

After the quake, political unrest may rise in Armenia

Many painful and poignant images have emerged from earthquake-devastated Armenia, but one scene last week seemed to capture perfectly the changes that the tragedy has wrought in the Soviet Union. There, at the same table in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, sat Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, representing a state that officially avows atheism, and Nobel peace laureate Mother Teresa, founder of the Roman Catholic Society of the Missionaries of Charity and one among 2,000 foreign volunteers taking part in the unprecedented relief effort. The tiny, veiled nun nodded approvingly as the Communist official showed her a new information bulletin created...

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