Dissident to speak on Soviet system

Speaking about the ideas of Andrei Sakharov and their influence on Russian politics, Russian physicist Boris Altshuler will address University students Wednesday. Altshuler, a theoretical physicist at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, was Sakharov's last protege and served as his spokesman while the dissident physicist was exiled in Gorki in the 1980s. Fired from his job as a physicist because of his support of Sakharov's anti-Communist ideas, Altshuler worked as a janitor for five years. When former president Gorbachev brought Sakharov out of exile in 1988, he also restored Altshuler as a physicist at the Lebedev Institute. According to University Physics Professor Sidney Bludman, who suggested that Altshuler speak at the University, the Russian professor will speak about how Sakharov's ideas contributed to liberalization in Russia. Referring symbolically to the Soviet military-industrial complex in an abstract of his lecture, Altshuler warned that the former Soviet Union is still dangerous. "A decaying rhinoceros is not less dangerous than the living one," wrote Altshuler. Altshuler will give a speech that is open to the public at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in Logan Hall 17. He will also speak to a smaller group of physics students about cosmology Thursday at 12 p.m. at the David Rittenhouse Laboratory room 2N36. Altshuler's wife, Lorissa Miller, will read original poetry to Soviet Studies professor Elliott Mossman's International Studies 602 class Wednesday morning at 10:30. as a guest of the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies. According to Professor Bludman, Miller's poetry presents literary ideas, covering issues of human rights, the suffering of minorities, glasnost, and democracy.

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