I ''0 ie of the best- informed West rn correspondents in Moscow told me flatly · 'that the dissident ·movement had been ·'destroyed' '' a Aulh for be Phlladelp ll Inqulru Joseph Kraft ·Soviet Dissidents ·on the Run MOSCO V-1 was ln the apartment of Andrei Sakharov a year and a half · ago when an Italian journalist brought the famous dissident physi• cist the first tape of the Nobel Peace Prize lecture delivered by his wife in his absence Dr Sakharov was burning to hear the tape But before playing it he made us all listen to the story of another caller He was a one-legged Ukrainian sailor who was being harassed by Soviet authori• ties because be had tried to order a new wooden leg from Wesl Germany Today that almost ludicrous effort to work others into the protest act would almost certainly not occur Far from doing new recruiting the Soviet dissidents are on the run They have been put on the defensive by the wellmeaning but ill-conceived human• rights campaign or President Carter Carter it will be remembered inlti• ated his campaign in January with a reply to a personal communication from Sakharov Though tile embassy · here warned against it the message was delivered and made public The President followed with various staternents aimed at Russia and by receiv• ing an exile Vladimir Bukovsky Whom tbe Russians regarded as a criminal The President's intervention into the affairs of the dissidents banded the Soviet authorities a weapon they · had always wanted It enabled them to · Lie the dissidents to Washington in a · way that suggests the protests are a cover for American espionage The authorities have made the most or the opportunity even lbough it means breaking with the policy of keeping mum about the ctissitlents as if they didn't really exist · The first big break wilh that policy came on March 4 when Izvestia car- ried under the title· ''The CIA and Human Rights an opef Jetter from one S L Lipavsky a former dissident and medical doctor whose vulnerability to official pressure is suggested by the fact that both his father and son have committed jailable offenses Li· pavsky confessed that he had been recruited as an agent for American intelligence by the so-called dissidents In his letter Lipavsky cited three leading Jewish dissidents He said they were connected with two Amertcan embasSy officials both Jews Melvin Levitsky who used to work in the American mission here and Joseph Preset who ls still on the staff He further implicated as go-betweens several American correspQn• dents including Alfred Friendly Jr who used to represent Newsweek magazine here and Peter Osnos presently the Washington Post correspondent in Moscow Finally he tied the whole Jot in with another Soviet dissident group including Yuri Orlov and AnatolyScharansky who bad organized a committee to monitor Soviet compliance with the ·bumanrights provision oI the Helsinki declaration on peace and security The statement of March 4 was CoJ lowed early last month with a press conference given by Llpavsky and published by Izvestia under the title How I Was Recruited by the CIA The interview again threw into the same bag the American diplomatic officials the newsmen and two groups or Soviet dissidents the Jews seeking to emigrate and _the liberals trying to monitor the Helsinki accord It asserted that under the guise of interest in human rights the Americans and the dissidents were actually collecting information about the defense capacity of the U S S R Naturally the Russians have not stop f d at mere words Yuri Or ov one of the founders or the Helsinki monitoring movement was arrested in February and bas been held Incommunicado Seven other memlx rs of his • monitoring group based in the Ukraine and Georgia have met the same fate At the beginning of March Anatoly Scharansky--a young physicist who has been the link between Sakharov and the two groups of dissidents-was taken into custody He is charged with having collected on behalf or CIA agents seer-et intelligence In scientific technical military and political f elds Yesterday there was word that charges or treason were being prepared against Scharansky 'J'be great tear is that he and perhaps others will be put on display in a show trial loaded with antl mitlsm and ringing appeals to Soviet patriotism In these circumstances dissident activities have been reduced to a trickle The frequent protes not to mention · the press conferences and other contacts with the West are a thing or the past Even the most heroic pe1$ons have become cautious One of tbe best• informed Western correspondents in ·Moscow told m flatly that the dissident movement had been destroyed Perhaps noL The dissidents are daring and ingenious people They may survive especially if an agreement on arms control eases the climate ot Soviet-American relaUons But it i apparent that President Car· ter's firSt fine careless fling of enthusiasm tor human rights boomeranged ln the U S S R Carter ought to medi• tate on tha t experience with the kind of intell$ity that caused Socrates on reviewing hls ll e just before the end to recall that he had a debt to pay Om'I Field EDC rpr IO lu