Title: Shcharansky
Published: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Date: Feb. 12, 1986
About this cartoon: In the earlier part of his time in power, Soviet Premier Mikhael Gorbachev was still a tough adversary, not the great reformer he later became. The fate of Jewish dissident Anatoly Shcharansky was a longstanding sore point, and Gorbachev finally let him have his freedom to emigrate, a somewhat token gesture not available to less-famous Jews stuck in the Soviet Uunion.
Noteworthy: Somewhat inspired by a line from Britain's Margaret Thatcher, that Gorbachev had "a nice smile, but iron teeth."