25 April 1979* (819-A) “Anti-Soviet” activities and the Olympic Games

KGB REPORT. “Anti-Soviet” activities with regard to holding of the summer 1980 Olympic Games in the USSR [R: 25 April 1979, 819-A]. 4 pp (excerpt).

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[page three]

[…]

The enemy’s intelligence agencies and foreign anti-Soviet centres are trying, as previously, to use various insinuations about ‘the violation of human rights in the USSR’ to discredit the 22nd Olympic Games in Moscow. In certain cases, they are able to incite provocative acts on the part of anti-social elements /…

[page four]

within the Soviet Union, prompting some of them to make irresponsible statements of a slanderous nature which help inflate anti-Soviet hysteria in the West.

Sakharov, that well-known anti-Soviet, has recommended that each foreign sporting delegation should demand the release of one or two ‘Soviet prisoners of conscience’ as a condition for its participation in the 1980 Olympic Games [1].

A group of anti-social elements has sent a statement to the West about the creation of a so-called Association of Olympic Guarantees in the USSR, which contains abundant libellous fabrications and provocative appeals. […]

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NOTES

Bukovsky described and discussed mounting opposition, abroad and in the Soviet Union, to the Olympic Games, due to be held in the USSR in summer 1980 (see Chapter Nine, “Pages of Shame“). This brief excerpt was included in Judgement in Moscow.

One disruptive episode he does not mention was the death (25 July 1980) and burial of Vladimir Vysotsky, the bard and actor, whom he quotes on several occasions.

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  1. Early in 1980 Sakharov voiced unequivocal support for a boycott of the Games in the USSR (see Chronicle report, CCE 56.1-2 “Sakharov in exile”).
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GENERAL

Translation and annotation, JC

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