Gorbachev Sends Envoy for Nobel Prize

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev accepted the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia today. He said problems in his homeland prevented him from coming to the awards ceremony.

“I do not regard the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize as an award to me personally but as a recognition of what we call perestroika and innovative political thinking, which is of vital significance for human destinies all over the world,” Gorbachev said in a message from Moscow.

In an acceptance speech read by his envoy, Anatoly Kovalyov, Gorbachev promised to continue the process of openness and reform. Kovalyov said the prize’s $715,000 cash award probably would be donated to worthy causes.

In Stockholm, King Carl XVI Gustaf handed out gold Nobel Prize medallions and diplomas at a ceremony for the 10 laureates in medicine, literature, physics, chemistry and economics.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the 71st Peace Prize recognized Gorbachev’s international efforts, more than his domestic policies. But committee leader Gidske Anderson said at the Oslo City Hall ceremony that she hoped the award would be seen as “a helping hand in an hour of need” as Gorbachev and the Soviet people cope with the restructuring of their economy and government.

“This transformation is inevitably a painful process, involving great sacrifice,” she said. Norway’s royalty, government leaders and roughly 900 guests applauded as Anderson presented the Peace Prize medal and diploma to Gorbachev’s stand-in.

Gorbachev had hoped to attend the ceremony in person but last month said problems at home required his attention “hour by hour.”

Demonstrators in Moscow protested the award Sunday and today, blaming Gorbachev for ethnic and political violence in his country.