WORLD

SOVIET LEADER REPLIES

TO CANADIAN STUDENT

How can the
world’s people

live in peace?

Eighteen year-old Calgary student
Laurie Piraux, who plans to become a
commercial artist, was the centre of at-
tention last week when Soviet ambas-
sador Alexey Rodionov arrived at her
home with a letter from Soviet President
Konstantin Chernenko. :

It was a reply to a letter Piraux had
written last fall to the Soviet leader in
which she expressed her concerns over
the danger of a world nuclear war and
asked how Soviet young people feel
about the arms race. ‘‘My letter probably
touched him,”’ she told reporters. ‘‘He
could see I was concerned.”’

Chernenko’s reply to Piraux was given
wide coverage by the media of both
countries. And while the Soviet leader
spoke about the concerns of Soviet
youth on this issue, so did Soviet youth.

The day following its publication in the
USSR, reports Novosti press agency,
“the editorial offices of youth news-
papers and magazines were swamped
with letters. Long and short, hand-
written and typed, they all reflected
Soviet young people’s desire to live in
peace: ="

The Soviet press agency also went out
on the streets asking young people their
opinions of the problems Piraux raised in
her letter. ‘‘I’m frightened when people
talk of nuclear war,’ said Sveta
Polyakova, a 17 year-old student. ‘I’m
sure that together with youth in Canada
and other countries, we'll be able to do a
great deal to uphold peace.”

Others spoke of personal experiences
in their families during World War Two,
a war that left virtually no Soviet family
untouched. ‘“‘Like Laurie,”” said 18
year-old Dennis Inshakov, ‘‘we want the
signs of mutual agreement (seen at
Geneva) to be embodied in specific
agreements to ensure lasting peace.”’

A number of students from Moscow’s
Secondary School 14 sent a joint letter to
Piraux pointing out that not only are the
wishes for world peace similar in our two
countries, but also the climate and ter-
rain. ‘‘Unfortunately,”’ they wrote, ‘‘it’s
because of this the U.S. has chosen your

province, Alberta, for testing their
Cruise missiles.”’

The letter spoke of the tremendous
cost of the world’s arms race, monies
that could be spent on schools, hospitals,
culture and to feed the hungry. ‘‘Over
200 children will die of starvation on
earth in the few minutes it will take you to
read this letter,’’ they wrote.

Expressing their fear of war, the
Soviet students said: *‘We don’t want
your land to be covered with as many
cemeteries of dead soldiers as the USSR
and other European countries have ...”’
Speaking of the wonders of winter sea-
son, the letter ended, ‘‘Let’s throw
snowballs at each other, not rockets,”
and pledged to work together to attain
peace.

This is what the Soviet president wrote
in reply to Laurie Piraux:

“I have read your very serious letter
with great attention and interest. It is
emotional, sincere and permeated with
anxiety about most important things —
how to avert a nuclear catastrophe, to
preserve peace. The fact that being 18
years old and at the beginning of your life,
you ponder over the grave threat hanging
over humanity says a lot about you. I felt
that you are concerned not only about
your own present and future. You also
consider yourself to be a part of a huge
family of peoples inhabiting our planet
which we have to preserve in its beautiful
state for ourselves. and those who will
live after us.

Their very thoughts command today
millions and millions of peoples in do-
zens of countries — participants in the
anti-war and anti-nuclear movement.
These people are different, they have dif-
ferent convictions, traditions and religi-
ous. beliefs. But what unites them is
much more important than any dif-
ferences because they are guided by the
major concern — to prevent nuclear an-
nihilation.

Soviet youth like the young generation
of Canadians have grown up in condi-
tions of peace. Our youth have all the
opportunities to prove themselves in

“Youth have a right to a peaceful future”
Toronto.

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 6, 1985

%

. ———
~~ . . xx Nok
a oo oe te

Say young Canadians at an anti-Cruise rally in

TRIBUNE PHOTO

TASS PHOTO

their studies and work, to continue the
cause of older generations and to have
friends among young people in other
countries. The young generation in the
Soviet Union is confident that people on
earth can overcome military threats and
preserve peace.

This year Moscow will host the World
Youth and Student Festival. Your com-
patriots will undoubtedly, participate. It
presents a rare opportunity to see and
understand the young people living in
different corners of the world, to realize
how strong is solidarity in the struggle for
universal security.

As I see from your letter you consider
the following questions to be of para-
mount importance: Why can’t all people,
all races live in a world of peace? Why is
there such a power struggle? I will ans-
wer most definitely: nobody will ever
gain power over the world, and attempts
to implement this insane idea may cost
mankind a great deal.

Soon we shall commemorate a great
jubilee — the 40th Anniversary of the
Victory over Fascism in World War
Two, during which the Soviet Union and
Canada were allies. The attempts of fas-
cists at that time to gain power over the
world were crushed and the ‘“‘crusade”’
against the Soviet state ended in defeat.
In that war the Soviet Union lost over 20
million people, i.e. almost the entire
population of Canada today. The vete-
rans of that war, the people of the older
generation pass on to Soviet youth a be-
hest — strengthen peace, hate war.

The essence of your letter, so far as I
understand, is the following: What can
and must be done so that people should
live in peace and with confidence, that
there should be no threat of war. The
answer is simple: It is necessary to ob-
serve the norms of relationships among
countries and peoples and to develop re-
lations between them. on the basis of
equality and non-interference in internal
affairs; it is necessary to renounce for-
ever the use of force and the threat of
using force; it is necessary to do every-

‘The great Lenin considered disarma- —

thing possible in order to make mutually —
beneficial cooperation among states a ~
standard of international life. These are, —
briefly, the principles of the policy of —
peaceful co-existence which our country |
put forward immediately after the Great 4
October Socialist Revolution in 1917. i

It is imperative to stop the arms race. —

ment an ideal of socialism. As long ago aS
in 1946 the Soviet Union proposed to ban
forever the production and use of nuclear
weapons, — to destroy its stockpiles.
Can you imagine what kind of a world it
would have been today if our proposal
had been accepted? How much easier it |
would be to breathe in the world if other
countries followed our example and also —
took an obligation not to be the first to
use nuclear weapons? The Soviet Union
supports freezing nuclear arsenals, ban-
ning completely nuclear tests and the
development and use of other types of
weapons of mass destruction. Our coun-
try firmly advocates the preservation of
peaceful space forever. The final goal of
these initiatives is to completely elim-
inate nuclear weapons everywhere.

We are convinced that only by taking |
concrete actions in the name of peace is it
possible to get rid of fear for the future
and to ensure confidence’ in tomorrow.

Of course, in order to achieve that, it iS —
necessary to know each other better. —
This helps to overcome prejudices.and to —
assure mutual understanding and trust. _
This is a powerful weapon in the struggle —
for peace. 1

Your country, its economic achieve-
ments and culture are known pretty well
in the USSR. The Soviet people regard —
Canada and the Canadian people with ©
respect and goodwill. Our people want
Soviet-Canadian relations to develop fo
the benefit of both our peoples and
states, for the benefit of peace in the
world. I wish you and your compatriots —
in the year that has just started peace and ©
confidence in the future for which we
have to struggle persistently an
staunchly.”’

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