There is much about life in the Soviet Union that puzzles, frustrates and saddens the Western observer--a depressing catalogue of differences in outlook, ideology, style of government and attitude to the liberty of the individual. Perhaps we could clear some of this away by working harder at understanding an unfamiliar lifestyle, but sooner or later we would still stub our toes painfully on the case of Anatoly Shcharansky.
This is where the chasm opens to an unbridgable width, where a stubborn state cruelty is being directed against an individual who will not conform. Mr. Shcharansky, a Soviet Jew who has played a prominent part in attempts to loosen the Soviet stranglehold on Jewish emigration, refused to submit to any of the normal intimidation methods used to subdue irritants and was convicted in 1978 on the absurd charge of treason and sent to prison and labor camps for 13 years.
From the prison within the greater prison that is the Soviet Union, disquieting reports emanate about the health and wellbeing of this astonishingly courageous and resolute man. Little is known with certainty about his condition, since this is the sort of setting in which facts are constrained almost as tightly as individuals, but there have been indications of heart trouble followed by allergic reaction to medication.
Ominous as that is, one can imagine the additional psychological stress heaped upon Mr. Shcharansky as he faces bleak and lonely years, broken only by very occasional visits from friends and relatives.
In a country where every emigration appears to be regarded as an insult to the state, Jewish emigration has now been squeezed to a nervous trickle and there is widespread speculation that it has been brought to that level by the awful example of a man who pushed too hard for freedom. He is ill, he has been repeatedly place in solitary confinement, he has lost the right to regular visits by his family and he has gone through a lengthy hunger strike.
But he is as magnificent as his captors are despicable.
(text of July 4, 1983 Globe and Mail editorial)