RUSSIA . . . NOBELIST SEES NO DEMOCRACY

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Nobel Prize-winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who ended 20 years of exile last May with a tour of Mother Russia, spared no political party or faction from barbs in a major address today to the country's parliament. Saying that the nation's health care and educational systems had "collapsed," the 75-year-old former dissident, in his first formal speech since his return, said that not only free marketeers, but also Communist holdovers hadn't convinced the public that democracy was taking root. "The people have begged me to come to Moscow and tell the Duma [the lower House] and the president what has piled up and boiled in the soul of an ordinary man," he said, shouting and gesturing. "We must admit honestly, this is not a democracy. Now we have an oligarchy since the power belongs to a limited number of people. The people have no say in what affects their lives." The speech drew frequent applause from lawmakers though many later said Solzhenitsyn was out of touch.