The Shameful Roar Of Silence

December 10, 1985

The suffering of Andrei Sakharov is a reminder of how the Kremlin can humiliate any citizen, even the most prominent, who fights the system.

The vivid stories of Mr. Sakharov`s travail have come out at the same time his wife has arrived in the West. But Yelena Bonner is unable to give personal voice to her husband`s plight. As her price of getting out of the Soviet Union for medical treatment, she signed an agreement that she would not give interviews while away from the Soviet Union. This agreement does not extend to her American son and stepson, who have been disclosing the abuse Mr. Sakharov and Bonner have faced under banishment in Gorky.

The sight of Bonner facing the world press with her lips pathetically sealed ridicules Mikhail Gorbachev`s supposed sophistication in Western-style public relations. No words could describe the inhumanity of the Soviet state as eloquently as the vow of silence Mr. Gorbachev and his secret police have forced her to take.