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On Jan. 17, Charles Bierbauer, an ABC television correspondent, and his crew arrived for an interview. Afterward I accompanied them to their car. I was surprised by the number of KGB agents in the area and by something peculiar in the air -- a mixture of hostility and gloating.
I said, "Well, here they are."
"Yes, here we are!" a KGB agent echoed derisively. I suppose they'd already learned of the decision to exile me. But the Americans were allowed to drive off.
Our phone rang at 1 a.m. on Jan. 22. A friend, very excited, said he had heard that a decision had been made to deprive me of my awards and exile me from Moscow. I remarked, "A month ago, I wouldn't have taken it seriously, but now, with Afghanistan, anything's possible."
Jan. 22 was a Tuesday, the day the theoretical-physics seminar met at FIAN ((the physics institute where Sakharov still worked)). I followed my customary routine, ordering a car from the academy's motor pool and leaving home at 1:30. At the Krasnokholmsky Bridge, a traffic-patrol car forced us to stop. From the front seat I saw two men get in the rear, flashing red IDs marked MVD ((for Interior Ministry)). They were actually KGB.
They ordered the driver to follow the patrol car to the Procurator's Office on Pushkin Street. KGB agents escorted me to the fourth floor, where "chats" about my activities had taken place in 1973 and 1977. I asked Alexander Rekunkov, the deputy procurator-general, "Why didn't you send a summons instead of shanghaiing me?"
Rekunkov replied, "I gave orders to have you brought here due to the extraordinary circumstances and the great urgency involved. I have been instructed to read you a decree passed by the Presidium:
"In view of A.D. Sakharov's systematic actions, which discredit him as a recipient of State awards, and in response to many suggestions made by the Soviet public, the Presidium of the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet has decided to deprive Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov of the title Hero of Socialist Labor and all his State awards."
Rekunkov continued, "It has been decided to banish A.D. Sakharov from Moscow to a place that will put an end to his contacts with foreigners." The official looked up and added, "The place that has been selected is Gorky, which is off limits to foreigners. Please sign here to acknowledge that you have been informed of the decree's contents."
He handed me a typewritten sheet of paper. I saw the typed -- not signed -- name of Leonid Brezhnev. The decree was undated and made no mention of banishment.
As I studied the paper, Rekunkov said, "The regulations require that persons deprived of awards return them." I refused, since the awards had been given in recognition of services rendered.
I asked why the decree was undated and why Brezhnev had not personally signed it. Rekunkov said something about "technicalities." I failed to ask who had made the decision to banish me and on what authority. I considered the entire proceeding completely illegal and thought it pointless to argue fine points of jurisprudence with those who obviously had no respect for the law. By maintaining this attitude all through my first weeks in Gorky, I may have created the inadvertent impression that I accepted their right to proceed in this totally unlawful manner.