Petitioning the USSR
Sir: I was interested in Mr Levy's article (15 July) entitled 'How Russia gets away with it' and I was especially struck by his assertion that 'Soviet strategists care little about the opinions of politicians and journalists. Mass opinions and the effect on the masses . . . concern them far more.' I am sure that the Soviet authorities are aware that there will be stock posturings in Parliament and the press, and they are also aware that these will be of a very transient nature. It must be much harder for them to evaluate the feelings of the Western masses; and this must be of some concern to them, as it is to these masses that they must hope to sell their exports.
It is for this reason that I am organising a petition deploring the trial of, and the sentence meted out to, Dr Yuri Orlov, and calling on the Soviet government for his release. It is intentionally a petition organised by an ordinary woman, signed by ordinary people; and in this way! hope to mobilise the frustration and anger of the mass of British people, and bring them to bear upon the Soviet government.
Anyone who is angered by the Soviet government's gross disregard for the most basic human rights, and who wants to do something about it, may obtain a petition form by writing to me at the address given below. And in this way I hope we may disprove Mr Levy's assertion that the whole furore will just die away.
Frances Zwarts 67 lnkerman Street,
Preston. Lancashire
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