All the Placards Demand Greater Freedom From The

By Chingiz Aitmatov, Oleg Chernyshev, Maral Amanova, Erkin Auelbekov, Makhmud Esambayev, Igor Gryazin, Lyudmila Arutyunyan, Veli Mamedov, Taras Shamba, Tulepbergen Kaipbergenov, Ilmars Bisers, Bikhodzhal Rakhimova

KIRGHIZIA

CHINGIZ AITMATOV

Novelist

"The Soviet Union has exhausted its possibilities. We can't remain in kindergarten forever; we must become a federation of nations. We shouldn't think that if our republic wants to secede that this will lead to destruction -- that is the old imperial stereotype. If a person is in unrequited love, he suffers. Now we must have mutual love.

"But you can't blindly copy what goes on, for instance, in the Baltics. They have a democratic Europe behind their back. They will be a key link between Europe and Russia. Kirghizia doesn't have that advantage. We have China next door. For better or for worse, if we want to integrate into civilization, we must be together with Russia. But Kirghizia must also have an independent government. Emissaries from the center will not be accepted."

BELORUSSIA

OLEG CHERNYSHEV

STAGE DESIGNER

"Belorussia is industrially strong, so that means we contribute much more to Moscow than we get in return. Belorussians also work harder than people in all the other republics. Our national front is seeking independence, but I'm not so sure. All the republics can help each other. We have good farming, so if we secede, we will be fine. But those republics that do not have rich earth will not be able to survive on their own."

TURKMENISTAN

MARAL AMANOVA

Biologist

"We don't discuss secession in our republic, and ethnic conflict does not exist. Our misfortune is that Moscow kept making us grow more and more cotton. We didn't even have room to raise cattle. Can a republic that produces only oil, gas and cotton really feed itself?

"I am for a more independent republic but within the framework of a union. This way we can make agreements with other republics: you give us cotton and we give you meat. Otherwise, if we have a market economy and each republic can sell abroad or to another republic, we will not get enough meat."

KAZAKHSTAN

ERKIN AUELBEKOV

Communist Party official

"In Kazakhstan many atomic-weapons tests have been conducted, but the people were never consulted. So there is a conflict now between the republic and the center. There is also the tragedy of the Aral Sea, which is dying. Prices for the republic's wool, coal, metallurgy and grain are set by the center, and the republic loses. Kazakhstan should decide its own cultural and economic problems, except those it willingly gives over to the center, such as the defense of borders or railroad lines."

RUSSIA

MAKHMUD ESAMBAYEV

Ballet dancer

"I am a Chechenian, and I live in the autonomous republic of Chechen-Ingush in Russia. But I speak Russian better than Chechenian. Our language is complicated, and there are only 800,000 people who can speak it. We can't be alone. We are a small nation, and we don't think about whether we have food on the table. Russia does it all. If others want autonomy, they should be given it. It bothers no one. But if we separate, who needs us? We have the oil industry, but if we did it all ourselves, we couldn't get oil out of the ground."

ESTONIA

IGOR GRYAZIN

Lawyer

"Sovereignty is a fiction in the U.S.S.R. As before, the Moscow center holds its monopoly, especially over the economy. It refuses those economic forms of life Estonians prefer: private property and farming on a cooperative basis, the development of light industry and food production, with a minimum of heavy industry.

"Secession is now irreversible. All of Moscow's decisions for democracy came too late. Two years ago, I supported a confederation and was blamed for nationalism. Today, my idea is old. This is idiocy -- the Estonians say they are being robbed, the Russians and the Uzbeks say they are being robbed. Nobody wins. But the mechanism of Soviet power is that we all produce and give it to Moscow and Moscow reallocates while everyone loses."

ARMENIA

LYUDMILA ARUTYUNYAN

Sociologist

"Our country was founded on taboos, and one of them was that you could not leave the union. Armenia is on the border of Turkey, our historic enemy. That fact did not allow us to think about secession. But in the past two years, we have had a crisis of faith in Moscow as the Azerbaijanis continue to harass us. Our appeals to the center were answered with formal notes, requests for calm and rationality. They should have said, 'Let's figure out a compromise between Armenians, Azerbaijanis and the federation.' If the union does not defend the people of Nagorno-Karabakh ((an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan)) against violence, then the question arises, Can we be a part of the Soviet Union? The center must fulfill those functions that make it attractive to stay."

AZERBAIJAN

VELI MAMEDOV

Communist Party district leader

"To exit the Soviet Union is not necessary. But we should have independence in economic, cultural and political matters. Azerbaijan can feed itself, but it still owes the center 7 billion rubles. This dependence is a bad habit. Each region should take account of itself and develop a contractual relationship with Moscow. Now is the time to show we are an independent republic, and later our children will decide whether or not to leave the union altogether."

GEORGIA

TARAS SHAMBA

Law professor

"We have 15 union republics, but we also have smaller, autonomous republics. Equality for these people does not exist yet, and we must make all peoples equal. I come from Abkhazia, an autonomous republic within Georgia. For 42 days in 1918 we were an independent state. Then Georgia destroyed the Abkhaz government and subjugated us. Today, we want to make an agreement on an equal basis with Georgia and with Russia and create our own small republic. We want this to preserve our language, our culture, our history, so the people will not disappear."

UZBEKISTAN

TULEPBERGEN KAIPBERGENOV, Writer

"The union is like a Matryoshka doll. You get a Matryoshka doll inside a Matryoshka doll, and you get identical dolls, just smaller and smaller. We have 15 union republics, but within those republics we have 20 autonomous republics, eight autonomous regions and ten autonomous areas. What we really need is 53 independent republics, each with a direct line of submission to the center. In the U.S. there are 50 states. We need the same."

LATVIA

ILMARS BISERS

Lawyer

"Nothing has been done by the Communist Party Central Committee to give the federation new meaning. Only those proposals that codify centralization have been put forth. The rights of republics will be limited, not expanded, under a new presidency. No rights are being assigned to republics, and different points of view are not being accepted. Once again, we are fighting over the law on property and land. Our peasants won't trust any law unless they have private ownership.

"But we are not economically ready to break away. We want to remain linked to the Soviet Union, partly because we need raw materials and energy. But we also want to be closer to a new European confederation."

TADZHIKISTAN

BIKHODZHAL RAKHIMOVA

Mechanical engineer

"Our republic was created in 1924, and in all these years we've had nothing. We were a distant Czarist outpost. Tadzhikistan had been part of the Great Silk Road, and this trade left its traces in the northern part of our country, which is better off. But without the Soviet Union today we won't advance. Compared with the Baltics, we are a milk cow for raw materials. To build enterprises we need equipment, and where will we get it if we separate?"