Such people were not everyday Soviets. Everyday Soviets were not activists. They were also usually rather pro-state. The crushing of the Hungarian uprising and the invasion of Afghanistan were both supported by the bulk of the Soviet population. Sakharov was about as representative of public mood in the Brezhnev era as Chomsky is of American, possibly less so.
This is totally anecdotal, but I work with a New Zealand woman who learned Russian as a teenager hanging out with the Soviet sailors who would dock at the port in the 80s (probably the only teenage girl in New Zealand who had a poster of Kino on her wall). They were all free to walk around through the city unsupervised and, being sailors, carouse and live it up. In the entire history of Soviet sailors docking in New Zealand in the 80s, only ONE defected. They did not understand why anyone would want to leave the Soviet Union.
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