The Moratorium [antikvár]

The day is not far away when you will turn the lastpage of your 1986 calendar and, like most other people,ask yourself: What kind of a year has the one going outbeen? Where have our hopes been realized and wherehave we been disappointed? This question, it must besaid, is not at all rhetorical, for time is measured notonly in hours and minutes, but above all according towhat has been accomplished and what has not.Let us recall how the year began: with silence on theSoviet nuclear test ranges. With strong hopes for con-tinuing broad, productive dialogue in the interests ofradically improving the international situation. Mymeeting with President Ronald Reagan in Geneva pro-mised joint or parallel efforts of the two powers towardsthe goal of ending the arms race on earth and prevent-ing it in outer space. The USSR and the USA made ajoint Statement to the effect that no one can win anuclear war and that war in general should became athing of the past. This joint statement is binding. Therenunciation of war, naturally, presupposes a readinessto renounce weapons, and at the very least, weaponsthat are the most destructive and insidious in character.This is what the Soviet Union thinks.