7,000 exit permits were granted to Soviet Jews during the first six months of 1976—about the same figure as 1975. A few prominent people—including Tamara Galperina and Vitaly Rubin—have been given permission to leave, yet permits have been refused to most of the major activists. Moreover the KGB has waited two years to announce that … Read more
When did you first think of leaving for Israel? About six years ago. It seemed that Israel was the right place for me to be. What happened after you applied to leave? The day after my husband applied, he was thrown out of his job. I worked for a few months, but everyone was afraid … Read more
Ever since Krushchev’s denunciation of Stalin, western Communists have been uneasy continued abuse of human rights in the Soviet Union. Earlier this year, the former secretary general of the British Communist Party, John Gollan, indirectly criticised Soviet anti-Semitism. Yet that same person nearly a quarter of a century ago condemned international Zionism for instigating the … Read more
Of the 16 people arrested on June 19 1970—four in a forest near a stopover point and the rest on the tarmac—two are still in strict regime labour camps in Potma and Perm. They include Leib Knokh, whose wife Meri now lives in Israel with their son Yigal, whom he has never seen. Merl was … Read more
The KGB appears to be embarking on a new campaign aimed at Jewish scientists who have been refused permission to leave for Israel. Over 20 scientists in Moscow have been warned that unless they find work quickly, they will be charged with parasitism. Most of them have organised and participated in the seminars held by … Read more
When the Soviets finally allowed some Jewish emigration from the USSR, they also ensured the expulsion of some of their greatest literary talents, Jewish and non-Jewish. Although there is now a considerable wealth of contemporary Russian language writers in thewest, very little is heard of specifically Jewish writers from the USSR. David Markish’s book is … Read more
Kontinent 1: The Alternative Voice of Russia and Eastern Europe 180pp, published by Andre Deutsch 3.95 Since the Soviet authorities crush all forms of uncontrolled art and literature, it is not surprising to find that the best known of the country’s creative intelligentsia are emigrés. As the only creative literature is samizdat, it was only … Read more
LENIN IN ZURICH, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. (Bodley Head). £3.75. Sozhenitsyn’s latest book consists of chapters extracted from his panoramic history of the Russian Revolution. The first is the is the missing chapter 22 of August 1914. The rest comes from the still-to-be-published parts two and three, October 1916 and March 1917. ‘Lenin in Zurich” parallels … Read more
Colonel Yefim Davidovich, a Red Army hero and one of the Leaders of the Soviet-Jewish exodus movement, died last Saturday in Minsk at the age of 52 after suffering a fifth heart attack. Davidovich symbolised the heroism of the Jewish activists in the USSR. He survived one assault after another on his integrity yet his … Read more
Calls for a change in the basis of the Soviet Jewry campaign has been made frequently in the past few years and have even included demands that it should be turned into an overtly anti-Soviet action. Such a policy would clearly appeal to people whose prime motive is ideological anti-Communism and not concern for the … Read more