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Page 254
Chapter Thirty-Two
Moscow/Washington, D.C./December 1
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On our crowded planet there are no longer any internal affairs. The Communists say, "Don't interfere in our internal affairs. Let us strangle our citizens in peace and quiet." But I tell you: Interfere more and more. Interfere as much as you can. We beg you to come and interfere.
ALEKSANDR SOLZHENITSYN, 1975
Aleksandr Cherny looked wearily at the stack of papers that needed his prompt attention and closed his eyes to hide the sight. He rose from his chair behind the vast, antique table that served him as a desk in his Kremlin suite and walked across the parquet floor to the window overlooking the inner court of the citadel. On the horizon a low sun had broken through the gray sky of late afternoon, shining a golden path across the perfectly smooth coating of snow coveting the cobblestones. From where he stood he could not see the ugly tracks left by the departing Mercedes limousines of the members of the Council of Ministers, nor could he see the sandbagged machine-gun emplacements that Colonel Temko, the

 
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