Ivan Tolstoy, who still works at Radio Liberty in Prague, spoke at the gathering organized on March 1 in Moscow by Radio Liberty in Exile about solidarity of those Radio Liberty journalists who resigned in protest against the mass firing of their colleagues. He also mentioned Mario Corti in Italy and Ted Lipien in the United States among those who gave support to fired Radio Liberty staff.
Ivan Tolstoy told the audience about a 1967 visit to Moscow by British Foreign Minister George Brown. Soviet officials demanded that he stop a BBC program with Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Allilueva that was about to be broadcast. Brown called London, the BBC was asked not to put it on the air, and all the Russian Service staff reacted by resigning. So, in order not to loose the entire staff, BBC managers had to revoke the order and the broadcast went on the air.
Tolstoy added that what most surprised him was not so much the reaction of the people who were fired from Radio Liberty, and not so much the support they received from many people in Russia and in the West, in the first place Ted Lipien in the United States and Mario Corti in Italy, but the fact that some staffers resigned in solidarity with their fired colleagues. That was the most remarkable thing, he said.
Вечер посвященный 60-летию радио Свобода.