President-elect Jimmy Carter’s position on human rights in the USSR is being deliberately examined by a relentless KGB offensive. Beginning with an unexpected willingness to release Vladimir Bukovsky, the KGB has stepped up its campaign to intimidate Soviet Jews and human rights activists. Two weeks ago, Amnir Zavurov was arrested in Uzbekistan for violating passport … Read more
What did you do on arriving in Moscow? I tried to contact the people involved in the seminar and found that all the telephones had been cut. I then attempted to approach some of these people personally. For example, I went to the home of Professor Benjamin Levich. He had earlier been accosted as he … Read more
Despite the severe measures taken by the KGB last week against the organisers of the Jewish cultural seminar in Moscow, 1976 was a better year in some respects for the Jewish activist movement in the Soviet Union than the previous one. There were no trials (there were eight in 1975) and the activists adopted a … Read more
There are now grave doubts about whether the KGB will permit the Jewish cultural seminar to open in Moscow next Tuesday. Five of its 13 organisers were warned by the Deputy Minister of Culture last week that the symposium was a “provocation contrary to the interests of Soviet Jewry and to Marxist-Leninist ideology”. In addition, … Read more
There is growing disquiet among Moscow activists over the fate of Edward Kuznetsov. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in the first Leningrad trial, the sixth anniversary of which will be marked next week, but no one now knows for cerrtain where he is. A letter sent to him at the strict regime Potma … Read more
There was rejoicing in Moscow this week—and indeed throughout the Jewish world—at the surprise announcement that the authorities were dropping their charges against two Jewish dissidents, Boris Chernobilsky and Iosif As. The two men had been held in prison since their arrest last month following sit-ins staged by a group of refuseniks. It had … Read more
Why did you apply to go to Israel? It’s a very simple yet very difficult question. We wanted to go to Israel because we wanted to bring up our children in a Jewish atmosphere. • So why did the Soviet authorities refuse to give you permission for over five years? You never know where … Read more
THE visit to Britain of Boris Ponomarev, like that of former KGB chief Alexander Shelepin last year, has been an unmitigated disaster for those who try to promote the human face of Soviet socialism Beginning with the uproar in Parliament and ending with a bevy of cat-and-mouse demonstrations, Ponomarev was quite clearly shaken by the … Read more
The dramatic events of the past two weeks in Moscow, in which leading Jewish activists have been severely beaten and arrested because of their open demands for exit visas, have brought this issue’ to a head just at a time when the Kremlin would most have liked things to remain dormant—on the eve of the … Read more
What is the current situation regarding Jews in the Soviet Union? It is a matter of life and death for them to be out of the country because of the catastrophic growth of anti-Semitism. Despite requests from the west, there has been no improvement at all in the religious facilities available for those who wish … Read more