Nation: From Gulag to Gotham

Washington trades two Soviet spies for five dissidents

From distant points in the vast Gulag archipelago, five bone-weary men were rounded up and taken to Moscow. At 4 a.m. on Friday of last week, they were abruptly awakened, handed suits in exchange for prison garb, curtly informed that they were being stripped of their Soviet citizenship, and rushed to Sheremetyevo Airport. There they boarded Aeroflot Flight 315 for New York City. At Kennedy Airport in the foggy afternoon, the ex-prisoners of conscience—Dissidents Alexander Ginzburg, Georgi Vins, Mark Dymshits, Eduard Kuznetsov and Valentyn Moroz—were...