Unlike Sakharov or Walesa, Winner Makes News in Russia
The Soviet media promptly reported today’s award of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, indicating official pleasure that its Soviet co-founder, cardiologist Yevgeny Chazov, was honored.
Chazov is a leading spokesman for Kremlin views on nuclear war.
Tass press agency reported the award less than two hours after it was announced in Oslo.
That contrasted with the reaction 10 years ago when dissident Soviet physicist Andrei D. Sakharov won. No official announcement was made at that time, and 24 hours later the Soviet media referred to the prize indirectly by condemning the judges and branding Sakharov a fascist. He later was refused permission to travel West to accept the prize.
His wife, Yelena Bonner, went instead. Five years later, Sakharov was banished to the closed city of Gorky, where he and Bonner live.
In 1983, when the prize went to Lech Walesa, leader of the banned Polish trade union Solidarity, the award was not immediately reported in the Soviet media. An article soon afterward in the government daily Izvestia denounced Walesa as a money-grubbing, foul-mouthed demagogue.
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