In December 1968 the engineer David Khavkin, a former political prisoner in the Mordovian camp, applied to the appropriate authorities for permission to leave the USSR for Israel. In August 1969 his application was refused.
After sending in a second application through unofficial channels to Kosygin personally, the Khavkin family were granted permission to leave.
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David and Ester Khavkin and their nine-year-old son were due to fly to Vienna on 29 September 1969.
At Sheremetyevo International Airport (Moscow) they were asked to undergo a customs examination an hour before departure. This turned out to be a real ‘body frisk’ in classic camp style. Ester Khavkin was stripped naked, and subjected to a humiliating gynaecological examination. The search lasted more than three hours. The Khavkins missed their plane. When they tried to lodge a complaint, they were told quite openly:
“If you hadn’t brought this mob here, we’d have let you go straight away”.
(Some 186 people had come to see the Khavkins off.)
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They were refused tickets for the flight of 30 September, on the grounds that “the Vienna flight on 30 September is for foreign-currency passengers”.
On 1 October, after a five-minute customs inspection, the Khavkins flew to Vienna.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 