Vladimir Danchev (russian: Владимир Данчев, born 1948) is a former Russian

newscaster A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

at the foreign broadcasting service of Soviet radio in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, who changed the English texts he was given to read in 1983, to express support for the

Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

people in their resistance to Soviet armed forces in their country. His activities, which began in February 1983, were not uncovered until the BBC and other Western media reported his actions in May that year. His case was then followed throughout 1983 by the fortnightly USSR News Brief bulletin. Of mixed Russian-Bulgarian descent, Danchev refused to repent his actions and was subsequently sent to a

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

, the city where he had grown up. He was released from the hospital that autumn, according to his employers at

Radio Moscow Radio Moscow ( rus, Pадио Москва, r=Radio Moskva), also known as Radio Moscow World Service, was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics until 1993. It was reorganized with a new name ...

, and returned to work in December 1983 by which time all broadcasts were pre-recorded. According to

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

and other commentators, Danchev's principal transgression was to embarrass the Soviet government by describing the presence of Soviet forces in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

as an "invasion".Noam Chomsky, "Invasion NewSpeak", ''Fair'', December 1989
According to official ideology, the USSR had not invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. It was defending the Afghan people against "terrorists funded by foreign sources": this was how the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

referred to the

Mujahedin ''Mujahideen'', or ''Mujahidin'' ( ar, مُجَاهِدِين, mujāhidīn), is the plural form of ''mujahid'' ( ar, مجاهد, mujāhid, strugglers or strivers or justice, right conduct, Godly rule, etc. doers of jihād), an Arabic term th ...

and their backers in the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

and Saudi Arabia. Danchev was praised at the time in the U.S. media as a hero of free speech and free thought and in 1991 the

International Federation of Human Rights The International Federation for Human Rights (french: Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l'homme; FIDH) is a non-governmental federation for human rights organizations. Founded in 1922, FIDH is the third oldest international h ...

inaugurated an award for journalists in his name.

References

*''The New York Times'', 6 August 1983 *Henrik Jøker Bjerre, University of Aarhus, "Everything Politics is, Chomsky is not", (2005). Paper published at www.wittgenstein-network.dk. Presented at the conference “The Grammar of Politics: Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy” held in November 2005 and arranged by The Wittgenstein Network.
Edward S. Herman. (2000) "IngSoc and NewSpeak to AmCap, AmeriGood, and MarketSpeak", published at World-Information.Org: Digital Ecology
Abridged version of a more extensive and footnoted paper, delivered at the "1984: Orwell and Our Future" conference, University of Chicago Law School, 12 November 1999. *Neilson Voyne Smith, ''Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals'', CUP, 1999 (1st edition), p. 192. {{DEFAULTSORT:Danchev, Vladimir 1948 births Living people Radio in the Soviet Union Russian radio personalities Russian people of Bulgarian descent Soviet people of Bulgarian descent Soviet dissidents

See also

References