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ventured beyond officially sanctioned limits, the authorities cracked down ruthlessly, putting an end to the experiments.
And how does a man who defected almost 20 years ago, and was declared a traitor and an enemy of the people, still know the status of life inside his former country?
“I ask my friends who visit the Soviet Union to ask their friends and family members. They say that they know of Glasnost only through the newspapers.”
Note also, he continued, that even the criticism allowed now is mostly of past leaders. “Criticism of present leaders, foreign policy: ‘No, no!’.” He pointed to the cult of personality which surrounded Josef Stalin, which after his death became official vilification of the former leader, who murdered million of Russians during the Great Purges of his reign.
A similar fate, Mr. Lezhnev added, befell Nikita Khruschev after he was ousted by Leonid Brezhnev, his former protege.
“Seventy million Russians have been murdered by the Soviets during their 70 years in power,” Mr. Lezhnev said. “That’s far more people than died by the hand of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis.” And those murders were committed against their own people, but yet there is no international outrage against those atrocities.
What about the Western perception that the Communists are great patrons of the arts?
“Yes, and no,” the cellist answered. “If the art serves their purposes, the artist may be compensated very well. If it does not, they will remain poverty-stricken. Those who write music to glorify the Communist Party are paid well — but it’s junk, garbage. The people vote with their feet: The concert halls are empty.”
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