The Week That Was - Feb.9-16, 1974
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - ran somewhat afoul of the Politburo.
Not every week in history could be as momentous as this last one. It's a good thing because a steady diet of that sort of drama would really see a boost in anti-Psychotic medication throughout the world.
In 1974, this particular week (sort of half last week and half next week) saw The Soviet Union strip author and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn of his citizenship, the first time since Trotsky ran afoul of Stalin and feelings ran high it was a sign of things to come with other Soviet dissidents.
The Patty Hearst kidnapping saga was in its second week with "Tanya" not having been established yet and periodic communications still on the level of "Mom-Dad, I'm okay" as opposed to a few weeks later when it became "I'm with a combat unit". Still, the kidnapping of a publishing heiress on the level of the Hearsts was not going to go away anytime soon.
The Middle East and our obsession with oil made the news, yet again. This time with friction between Israel and Syria was putting a threat on oil prices.
And so it was that week in February 1974. If you're reading this and you're old enough, you survived it. Further evidence life goes on.
In the days immediately following her abduction, Hearst was sequestered in a house two short blocks from my parents own home. It was there she was locked in a closet, and (if memory serves) raped. I had a friend who was a manager for a super market in that neighborhood. One day, employees of the store were convinced that a shopper fitted the description of Cinque, the alleged SLA ringleader (an artists sketch of his face had recently been broadcast). They actually phoned the cops, who arrived after he had already split. Of course, everyone put it down to over-active imaginations, until the story of her ordeal was revealed a couple of years later. He must have picked up a vibe, because he never showed his face at the store again (fortuitously for the police, one must assume). I also worked alongside a guy from San Francisco's Fillmore district who was aware of another house they holed-up in afterwards, and who assured me that it was common knowledge among the neighborhood. A weird, weird story, from what I will always consider the tail end of a weird, weird era.
For the record, I do not believe that Hearst should ever have been brought to trial.
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