Thousands Rally in Support of Two Soviet Prosecutors
Soviets rallied Tuesday by the tens of thousands in Moscow and Leningrad in support of two embattled prosecutors whose anti-corruption inquiry has become a lightning rod for popular resentment of Communist Party privilege.
About 10,000 people gathered in the shadow of Moscow’s Kremlin, and journalists said at least as many met in front of the former czarist Winter Palace in Leningrad as the Supreme Soviet (national legislature) in Moscow considered lifting the legislative immunity of the two, Telman Gdlyan and Nikolai Ivanov.
“Gdlyan and Ivanov Are Our Conscience!” read signs carried by the Moscow crowd. The two gained fame uncovering a trail of bribery and corruption in Uzbekistan that involved the son-in-law of the late President Leonid I. Brezhnev.
Soviet officials accused the two of abusing their power and making unjustified public accusations against senior leaders in an effort to increase their popularity.
Populist Communist leader Boris N. Yeltsin criticized as incomplete a nearly yearlong investigation of Gdlyan and Ivanov by a legislative committee and urged the legislators to keep their immunity intact.
The Supreme Soviet made no decision Tuesday.
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