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<text id=89TT0013>
<title>
Jan. 02, 1989: Soviet Union:Life In A Weary Land
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
Jan. 02, 1989 Planet Of The Year:Endangered Earth
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
WORLD, Page 83
SOVIET UNION
Life in a Weary Land
</hdr><body>
<p>After the quake, political unrest may rise in Armenia
</p>
<p> Many painful and poignant images have emerged from
earthquake-devastated Armenia, but one scene last week seemed to
capture perfectly the changes that the tragedy has wrought in
the Soviet Union. There, at the same table in the Armenian
capital of Yerevan, sat Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov,
representing a state that officially avows atheism, and Nobel
peace laureate Mother Teresa, founder of the Roman Catholic
Society of the Missionaries of Charity and one among 2,000
foreign volunteers taking part in the unprecedented relief
effort. The tiny, veiled nun nodded approvingly as the
Communist official showed her a new information bulletin created
to help reunite missing family members. It was an unusual
concordat of hearts, if not of minds, that would have been
inconceivable before the disaster opened Armenia to the world.
</p>
<p> With hope fading that any survivors remained buried in the
rubble, many of the doctors, rescue squads, fire fighters and
dog handlers who had converged on the ravaged cities of
Leninakan and Spitak from around the globe began to head home
last week. Ryzhkov, who spent 13 days in the area as head of a
special Politburo commission supervising the relief efforts,
offered a grim tally before he returned to Moscow. The number of
dead, he reported, was certain to exceed 55,000. Relief workers
had rescued 15,300, while 514,000 had been left homeless by the
quake. The cost of rebuilding Armenia: much higher than the
original estimate of $8 billion. Said a weary Ryzhkov: "A
disaster is a serious test not only for friends but for
leaders."
</p>
<p> The task of reconstruction may pose even greater challenges
for President Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviet leader has kept such
a low profile since cutting short his journey abroad to fly to
the earthquake zone that he seemed all but eclipsed by Ryzhkov
in news reports. Gorbachev may have good reasons for turning the
reconciliation work in Armenia over to others. His prestige
there has plummeted since Moscow refused to recognize Armenian
claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave in
neighboring Azerbaijan that has been the focus of ethnic strife
for the past ten months.
</p>
<p> Such quantities of food, clothing, construction materials
and other essentials have been flooding in from distant parts of
the Soviet Union that freight trains were backed up on railroads
leading into Armenia. But despite the nationwide display of
generosity, Armenian suspicions of Moscow still run high. Rumors
continue to circulate that Moscow has exploited the disaster to
raise its troop strength in the Caucasus republic to 20,000.
Some military units have been pelted with stones by discontented
Armenians, who charged that soldiers spent more time checking
passes than digging out victims.
</p>
<p> During his visit to Yerevan, Gorbachev expressed puzzlement
over such ingratitude and lashed out at rumor-mongering
extremists, labeling them "profiteers sponging on the working
class" who were "holding the people in their hands by
intimidation." At least eleven Armenian nationalists, including
seven members of the Karabakh committee, were rounded up by
police and sentenced to 30 days in jail for disturbing the
peace. Four other committee members went into hiding to escape
the crackdown. In a shrill propaganda campaign, police
officials have accused the nationalists of stirring up unrest
and forcibly evicting people from their homes. Government
patrols reported that while sifting through the rubble in Spitak
they found a secret cache of automatic rifles and handguns.
</p>
<p> Sensitive to criticism that the high death toll was due to
shoddy building methods, Soviet officials pledged last week that
new housing would be constructed of traditional Armenian stone
and would be no higher than five stories. All building plans
would be submitted for public debate "in an atmosphere of
glasnost." But the promises may sound hollow to those living in
tent villages, who stubbornly nurse ethnic grievances. "Just
wait and see," vowed a young Armenian engineer. "Things will be
quiet for a few months. But the movement will be back, bigger
and stronger than ever."
</p>
</body></article>
</text>