STARS IN THE MORNING SKY

"If a psychological problem were set to find means of making men of our time--Christian, humane, simple, kind people--perform the most horrible crimes without feeling guilty, only one solution could be devised: to go on doing what is being done. It is only necessary that these people should be governors, inspectors, policemen; that they should be fully convinced that there is a kind of business, called government service, which allows men to treat other men as things, without human brotherly relations with them, and also that these people should be so linked together by this government service that the responsibility for the results of their actions should not fall on any one of them separately.
"If one acknowledges but for a single hour that anything can be more important than love for one`s fellowmen, even in some one exceptional case, any crime can be committed without a feeling of guilt."
Lev Tolstoy, from Resurrection, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude

"… They decided to transfer the Olympic flame to Moscow using the most ancient and most reliable athletic means: five thousand runners will carry the flame, carefully passing it from hand to hand…
There are flags, slogans and banners everywhere. Thousands of festively-dressed people. Music, songs, dances by the side of the road. One can here the fanfares and see the balloons of many colors rising into the air.
The Olympic flame is on its way. On July 18 Moscow will greet it. We await you in Moscow, the flame of the 22nd Olympic games…"
Ogonek magazine, Issue # 28, July, 1980