(7 of 8)
Will the Kremlin leaders succeed in terrorizing dissidents into silence with show trials like Shcharansky's? The consensus among both dissidents and Sovietologists abroad appears to be that they will live to fight another day. "The publicity given the trials is very encouraging," said Computer Scientist Valentin Turchin, 47, who was a prominent human rights activist before he emigrated to New York City last year. Although the Soviet press has hardly mentioned the protests in Western Europe and the U.S., news of them was beamed to millions in the Soviet Union by Radio Liberty and other Western short-wave stations. "The awful thing about the Stalin era was that people just disappeared, and nobody knew where they had gone, nobody mentioned them," said Turchin. "Now there is public reaction, and people understand what is happening. The struggle is worth the effort."
Attorney Dina Kaminskaya was chosen by Shcharansky and Ginzburg to represent them. She was then disbarred for her previous, vigorous defense of several other dissenters and forced into exile ten months ago. In Washington last week she argued that "the dissident movement will not be defeated in spite of all these persecutions. There will always be people who surface to fight, even when the persecutions become more cruel."
Said one of Shcharansky's close friends, Vitali Rubin, 54, who now teaches Chinese philosophy in Israel: "People have grown tired of being afraid. I had no doubt that Shcharansky would stand up to pressure. He knew that a Jew who is brought to trial has much more responsibility because he represents the entire Jewish community. What is being done to one Jew in a courtroom is really being done to all Jews. This is a fact of anti-Semitism.''
British Sovietologist Peter Reddaway, a longtime observer of the dissident scene, believes that the human rights movement's links with religious minorities and ethnic groups like the Ukrainians give it a potential mass base. "An unpleasant period is ahead for the dissident groups, but I'm sure they will respond as they have in the past, by toughing it out. A pattern has been established over the years: when dissident leaders disappear, others come forward to take their place." There was no more compelling proof of the dissidents' will to resist than the closing statement delivered by Shcharansky at his trial, just before sentence was pronounced:
"In March and April, during my interrogation, those conducting the case warned me that the position I had taken during the investigation made possible a sentence of 15 years to death. But if I agreed to cooperate with them, I would be freed soon and would be quickly reunited with my wife. Five years ago, I applied to emigrate to Israel. Now, as never before, I am far from my dreams.
"One would think I would be sorry, but I am not. I am happy because I have lived at peace with my conscience and I have never betrayed my conscience even when threatened with death. I am happy that I helped people, and I am proud to have met and worked with such honest and courageous people as Sakharov, Orlov and Ginzburg. I am happy to have witnessed the process of liberating Soviet Jewry.