Abstract
If there is one subject concerning the USSR that has evaded the attention of Western scholars it is the disabled.l Partly this is because few are equipped to study the crippled, insane, blind or deaf. In any case, even within the (former) USSR, the dimension of the disabled population and the extent and effectiveness of its treatment is little publicised; for decades virtually nothing on the subject reached the foreign eye. Perestroika is changing that. But it is the agitation by Afghan veterans for a better deal for themselves and other disadvantaged groups in the population, especially the handicapped, that has done much to bring publicity, and force action.
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Notes
The first Western book meriting attention on the Soviet disabled came out in 1989: see W. O. McCagg and Lewis Siegelbaum (eds), The Disabled in the Soviet Union (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989).
V. Matizen, ‘Ot otchayaniya k nedezhde’, Isskustvo kino, 1987, no. 4, p. 37.
See Tribune de Genéve, 18 November 1985, and Martin Walker, The Waking Giant (London: Michael Joseph, 1986) p. 136.
Artem Borovik, ‘Desant severnee Kabula’, Ogonek, January 1988, no. 4, p. 12.
P. Studenikin, ‘Ya vas v Afganistan ne posylal … ’, Pravda, 5 August 1987, p. 3.
Kim Selikov, ‘Po trudnoi dorozhke’, Literaturnaya gazeta, 14 October 1987, p. 14.
See Bill Keller, ‘Russia’s divisive war. Home from Afganistan’, The New York Times Magazine, 14 February 1988, p. 28.
Alexander Vasilevsky, ‘Moi zemlyaki v Afganistane’, Avrora, 1988, no. 2, p. 35.
Juris Podniecs, Abram Kletskin, Yevgeny Margolin, ‘Nashi soavtory’, Avrora, 1987, no. 9, p. 20.
Laura Tsagolova, ‘Snova snitsya voina’, Sobesednik, January 1988, no. 3, p. 11.
Sergei Yesin, ‘Nazyvaya imena’, Sobesednik, March 1988, no. 12, p. 3.
Martin Walker, ‘Afghan war toll topped 13 000’, Guardian, 26 May 1988, p. 9; ‘They’re home’, Moscow News, June 1988, p. 2.
See Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978) p. 451. In Algeria, France also committed half a million men (in 1958). See Charles Gallagher, The United States and North Africa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963) p. 275.
See V. Gavrilyan, ‘Dolzhny znat’ pravdu’, Sobesednik, no. 46, November 1989, p. 7.
A. Deryugin, ‘Ne khotim milostyni’, Argumenty i fakty, no. 14, 7–14 April 1990, p. 8.
A. I. Osadchikh, ‘Invalid: o nem i dlya nego’, Sotsial’naya zashchita, no. 1, July 1990, p. 48.
I. Bobrova, ‘Standing on your own two feet’, Moscow News, 6 March 1988, no. 10, p. 2.
Victor Turshatov, ‘How those who are returning from Afghanistan are faring in wheelchairs’, Moscow News, 13 December 1987, p. 13.
A. Simurov, P. Studenikin, ‘Net blagodarnosti v ikh serdtsakh’, Pravda, 25 November 1987, p. 6.
Lev Indolev, ‘No place like home?’, Moscow News, no. 2, 1990, p. 16.
V. Ponomareva, ‘Yeshche odna pobeda’, Sobesednik, September 1987, no. 37, p. 12.
A. G. Vishnevsky (ed.), Perestroika v chelovecheskom izmerenii (Moscow: Progress, 1989) p. 196.
Ivan Vilkin, ‘Driven to extremes’, Moscow News, no. 41, 1989, p. 14.
Valery Baidanov, ‘Pomogite vstat’ na nogi … ’, Ogonek, no. 21, May 1989, pp. 22–4.
Colonel I. Dynin, ‘Ostaemsya v stroyu … ’, in Pul’s: voyenno-politichesky almanakh, vypusk 1 (Moscow: Voennoe izdatel’stvo, 1989) p. 173.
Michael White, ‘Russians ask Vietnam veterans to rehabilitate troops homeward bound from Afghanistan’, Guardian, 24 August 1988, p. 1.
Alexander Kupriyanov, ‘I tol’ko pyl’ iz-pod sapog … ’, Molodoi kommunist, 1989. no. 6, p. 75.
The US Department of Defense sponsored survey in 1971 showed that 50.9 per cent of US Army personnel in Vietnam had smoked marijuana, 28.5 per cent had used heroin and opium, and 30.8 per cent had taken other psychedelic drugs. See Alan H. Fisher, Jr., Preliminary Findings from the 1971 DOD Survey of Drug Use (Alexandria, Va.: Human Resources Research Organization, 1972) p. 23.
Sergei Biryukov, Oleg Minayev, Viktor Shaurin et al., ‘Myi vmeste!’, Sobesednik, January 1988, no. 3, p. 11.
Igor Korolkov, ‘Iz boya ne vyshli’, Sobesednik, February 1987, no. 6, P. 5.
Igor Chernyak, ‘Ne iskat’ po zemle zhizni sladkoi’, Sobesednik, December 1987, no. 49, p. 4.
Alexander Zver’ev, ‘Opalennaya sovest”, Sobesednik, April 1987, no. 17, p. 15.
Korolkov, ‘Iz boya’. See also Marat Serazhetdinov, ‘Khochetsya v nebo’, Molodoi kommunist, May 1987, no. 5, p. 68.
Such critics as Boris Kagarlitsky and Valeria Novodvorskaya were cited and taken to task by V. Gubenko and N. Piskarev, ‘Samozvantsy i “Samodelshchiki”’, Komsomol’skaya pravda, 31 January 1988, p. 2.
V. Kozin, ‘Kaskad speshit na pomoshch’, Komsomol’skaya pravda, 20 January 1987, p. 2.
Yuri Shchekochikhin, ‘O lyuberakh’, i ne tol’ko o nikh’, Literaturnaya gazeta, 11 March 1987, p. 1.
B. Vishnevsky, ‘Koroli trubyat sbor’, Komsomol’skaya pravda, 22 April 1987, p. 2.
Galina Nekrasova, ‘Privet iz “Kalifornii”!’, Sobesednik, February 1987, no. 11, p. 3.
Dina Gurevich, ‘Nabolelo’, Smena, October 1986, no. 20, p. 8.
Vladimir Kolinichenko, ‘Pochemu po komosomol’skuyu rabotu ne vyd-vigayut byvshikh voinov-internatsionalistov?’, Sobesednik, May 1987, no. 22, p. 3.
Leonid Zhilnikov, ‘Dlya nas net tyla’, Sobesednik, March 1987, no. 5, p. 2.
Dimitri Muratov, Yuri Sorokin, ‘Duble vykhodit na svyaz’, Sobesednik, March 1987, no. 13, pp. 8–9.
Laura Tsagolova, Igor Chernyak, ‘Muzhskoi razgovor’, Sobesednik, November 1987, no. 47, p. 2.
V. Goncharenko, ‘Budut plastinki’, Sobesednik, November 1987, no. 47, p. 2.
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© 1992 International Council for Soviet and East European Studies, and Walter Joyce
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Riordan, J. (1992). Disabled ‘Afgantsy’: Fighters for a Better Deal. In: Joyce, W. (eds) Social Change and Social Issues in the Former USSR. Selected Papers from the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22069-4_7
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