Word: kremlinologist
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...Soviets the consequences could be disastrous. First of all, there would be the strong possibility of armed resistance from the Polish population and even from units of the conscript-based armed forces. "The Poles will not stand aside as the Czechs did in 1968," predicts a Bonn Kremlinologist. Though open resistance would eventually be subdued by Moscow's overwhelming might, the myth of Warsaw Pact unity would be forever destroyed, and underground rebellion might smolder on for years. Even short of that, the Soviets would have to assume responsibility for Poland's $27 billion foreign debt...
...members were convinced that the government, possibly egged on by Moscow, had ordered the beatings to force a showdown with the union. Said a Solidarity official in Bydgoszcz: "It was meant as a provocation to provide an excuse for action against the union." Many foreign analysts concurred. Said a Kremlinologist in the French foreign ministry: "We have no doubt that Bydgoszcz was a deliberate provocation...
...attempt to forestall a costly upward spiral of the arms race. That is something that Moscow, which has to deal with an expensive war in Afghanistan and a sluggish economy at home, can ill afford. "Having listened to President Reagan's plans for the military budget," speculates U.S. Kremlinologist S. Frederick Starr, "Brezhnev knows that a similar [Soviet defense] effort would be painful and dangerous domestically...
Despite its high propaganda content, the Brezhnev initiative could not be ignored. Some skeptics felt that his soothing tone was aimed mainly at driving a wedge between the U.S. and its European allies. But most assessments concluded that the overture should be explored. As Kremlinologist Starr put it, "Brezhnev's proposal indicates a commendable willingness to talk-and, at the same time, a staggering blindness to the recent events that have made us reluctant to talk. Still, [in the balance] I take it as positive...
...sullen resentment of authority. With the possible exception of Rumania, other Warsaw Pact nations would be likely to assist the Soviets in an invasion of Poland. But the last illusions of East bloc cohesion would surely be shattered if the Poles fought back. In that case, says British Kremlinologist Edward Crankshaw, "the bogus fabric of the Warsaw Pact would be in tatters. The U.S.S.R. would be left a moral leper with a ruined 'grand alliance' and a crippling economic liability...