Yevgeny Barazh is a Jewish journalist living in Moscow. nearly a year ago he applied for an exit permit for himself, his mother, his wife and five year old son, Leonid. On December 10, ironically International Human Rights Day, he received a refusal from the emigration authorities, ostensibly on the grounds that he had been in the Red Army some six years previously.
His job in the Army, however, was not such to give him contact with state secrets, as might have been thought a reason for the refusal. he was head of the Soldiers’ Social Club and his main task was to organise activities for conscripts in their spare time.
a couple of months ago, Barazh put his journalistic expertise into a satirical article about the absurdity of his position which was reproduced in the Jerusalem Post of April 12.
Barazh was recently accepted as a member of the Union of Journalists of Israel.
Two friends of Barazh are the scriptwriter, Felix Kandel-Kamov and film cameraman, Mikhail Suslov. The latter was chief cameraman in the making of such well-known soviet films as ‘The Arena’ and ‘The Seagull’. Since the date of submission of his documents to the Soviet Emigration Office , copies of these films have had his name deleted from the credit lists. Neither he nor the other seven members of his family have been able to obtain employment for over a year now.
Felix-Kandel-Kamov is in a similar position. Seven months ago, he found the doors of the doors of the film studio and editorial offices closed to him. He is unable to have a single script accepted and like Suslov his name has been erased from the credits on films that he has worked on. Kandel-Kamov has appealed to cinema companies in Europe, the United States and Israel to give him work.
All three Barazh, Suslov and Kandel-Kamov came together last week and addressed a letter to the ‘creative intelligentsia of the world’, asking them to take up their cause.
Jerusalem Post 16 May 1974