I do support your idea with all my heart. On many occasions in the past I tried to publicize Alik's role in our Movement. I usually refer to him as the “Godfather of Russian Democracy.” I could never forget one of the gatherings in earlier sixties at Vitya Timachev's place, if my memory is not betraying me. I still was leaning to the left and Alik words, that we should demand that authorities respect their own laws, was probably the turning point in my perception of society and the way to a really humane society. I also remember that the idea was foreign for the majority present. Somebody even sad: 'Don't you know, Alik, that laws are not respected in this country. And perhaps they kept you in psikhushka not without a reason'. But Alik continued his quixotic crusade and in less than a couple of years we gathered in Puskin square under the Alik's slogan 'Respect your own Constitution'. A lot of water has flowed under the bridges since that December of 1965, but time and time again life proves that Alik was right. If it would be enough people following in his footsteps, the World would not know massacres in Yugoslavia or the ongoing genocide in Chechnya. Andrei Grigorenko
|