September 18,1973
#2244-Ts 

TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU

	The Committee for State Security reports that, on September 17, 
1973, SOLZHENITSYN’s wife invited Academician SAKHAROV and his 
wife to her apartment and had a two hour conversation with them.
	In the course of the conversation, SAKHAROV was handed a letter 
from SOLZHENITSYN commenting on SAKHAROV’s provocative Open 
Letter to the US Congress, in which he raised the question of the right of all 
citizens desiring to change their country of residence to leave the Soviet 
Union freely.
	Expressing SOLZHENITSYN’s view, his wife persistently argued the 
necessity for an additional appeal by SAKHAROV to world public opinion 
on a wider range of issues connected to the alleged lack of freedoms in the 
Soviet Union. According to her, issues raised in SAKHAROV’s letter 
“sound, nevertheless, too limited considering the scope of today’s issues. 
On one hand, these are, without a question, very important issues, but, on 
the other hand, they are derivative. If there was inner freedom, even just a 
little bit, then this would be the unquestionable result. The freedom you 
strive for, the true freedom, when everybody can travel anywhere, it should 
be the result of some inner rights.”
	Arguing in support of this point of view, Mrs. SOLZHENITSYN 
said: “ In June of this year, they issued a Decree, which denies seasonal 
workers the possibility to travel. This is real serfdom, which is getting 
stronger and stronger.”
	Responding to SAKHAROV’s objection that Americans are afraid “to 
widen the issue beyond Jewish problem,” Mrs. SOLZHENITSYN stressed 
that, in any event, such an appeal by SAKHAROV will have a great 
propaganda effect: “Thousands and thousands who have started putting two 
and two together, who now pay attention and read, just won’t read it at some 
other point in time. And, if they read, they will come to the conclusion that 
there is no freedom here at all. It’s just much more terrible than the lack of 
freedom to leave... 
	This is issue is petty compared to what SAKHAROV could say from 
the pedestal he now occupies. Now there are forces in the Congress as well 
that see that there exist wider questions, that reflect a new understanding, 
which has been hammered into their brains, by you and Sanya 
(SOLZHENITSYN).”
	Mrs. SOLZHENITSYN expressed the opinion that a possible increase 
in emigration from the USSR will be “a temporary tactical move,” just like, 
for example, the current “cessation of jamming.”
	During the conversation, SAKHAROV, while sharing in general 
SOLZHENITSYN’s position, at the same time indicated that the approach 
suggested is not expedient at the moment, and SAKHAROV continues in 
fact to maintain his earlier point of view.

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE FOR STATE SECURITY 
OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE USSR
								TSVIGUN