... ON DECEMBER 3 or 4, 1966, I found an envelope in my mailbox containing two sheets of onionskin paper. The first sheet was an anonymous report on the arrest and confinement in a psychiatric hospital of Viktor Kuznetsov, an artist who had helped draft a model constitution for our country-Constitution Il-which the authors hoped would spark discussion about the introduction of democracy. The second sheet announced a silent demonstration on December 5, Constitution Day. It proposed that interested persons arrive at Pushkin Square a few minutes before six P.M., assemble near the monument, and then at the stroke of the hour remove their hats and observe a minute of silence as a sign of respect for the Constitution and support for political prisoners, including Kuznetsov. (I learned much later that Alexander Esenin-Volpin was the author of this Constitution Day appeal, and of several other original and effective ideas to promote respect for human rights.) I decided to attend. Klava didn't object, though she did say it was an odd thing to do. I took a taxi to Pushkin Square and found a few dozen people standing around the statue. Some were talking quietly; I didn't recognize anyone. At six o'clock, half of those present, myself included, removed our hats and stood in silence. (The other half, I later realized, were KGB.) After a minute or so we put our hats back on, but we did not disperse immediately. I walked over to the monument and read the inscription aloud:
I shall be loved, and the people will long remember After that, I left the Square with the others. Andrei Sakharov, Memoirs, New York: Alfred A. Knopf,1990
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