Fred Weir, 1990

correspondent for the Canadian Communist paper, The Tribune, Sept 6, 1990, Moscow
Interviewer: Gwynne Dyer

He says it doesn’t make much sense to attribute too much of the restructuring to foreign influences. Most of it is indigenous.

He thinks Gorbachev is a communist in his heart of hearts and his bedside reading must be Lenin because of the way he talks.

Dyer: Did Yakovlev’s stay in the West have to do with his points of view?

Weir: Yes, he says it does himself, but it is overstated how much the West influenced the Soviet Union now.

Joke re how people had lost faith in things even in the seventies. Guy goes into a clinic and asks to see an ear and eye doctor. They reply, we don’t have such a thing. We have nose and throat specialists, but not ear and eye doctors. What is wrong with you? My problem is, I hear one thing and I see something different.

The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, by Metta Spencer, published by Lexington Books
mspencer@web.net