THE RIGHT TO LEAVE
- 8-1 Introduction
- 8-2 Pentecostalists
- 8-3 Those who Have Left
- 8-4 The Jewish movement
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INTRODUCTION
Recently those refused an exit visa have been required to renew all their documents every six months for a review of their case.
Since the middle of July 1977 people applying for an exit visa in Odessa have once again been required to supply a testimonial from their job. There too, the authorities have started to demand the written permission of adult brothers and sisters as well as permission from parents. Permission from relatives is now being checked not in the house management committee, but at their place of work.
Children over 14 need a document saying that they were not in the Komsomol and have never been expelled from it.
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NINE ENTRIES
[1]
VOIKHANSKAYA AND SON
In 1975 the psychiatrist Marina Voikhanskaya (CCE 36.10 [13], CCE 45.19-2 [12]) emigrated to England.
Her son Misha, at that time 10 years old, remained in Leningrad, as her former husband E. Voikhansky would not give his consent to Misha’s departure.
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However, he promised to let his son go as soon as Marina had found herself a job abroad.
All this time Misha has been living with his grandmother (Marina’s mother). Although the condition made by E. Voikhansky has been fulfilled, although he himself once wrote to his former wife that he wanted to give their son to her “even if only for egotistical considerations”, he continues to refuse permission for his departure. In the autumn of this year Misha, after several unanswered addresses to the authorities requesting them to let him go to his mother, wrote a letter to the Moscow Helsinki Group:
“I beseech you to help me go to my mother!
“She left in April 1975 after my father firmly promised that he would let me go in August 1975, but he deceived us and is deceiving us to this day. I think he is a very bad man. I hate him!
“Help me leave! I love my mother very much! What an injustice it is if a son is not allowed to live with his mother!”
In November 1977 the Helsinki Group and the Working Commission [1] published a statement on the fate of Misha Voikhansky, addressed to the heads of the governments which participated in the Helsinki Conference (Document 25).
The statement explains that the refusal of E. Voikhansky to let his son go is no doubt caused by his fears of losing his job and results from the pressure of the authorities.
“… The Soviet authorities are taking their revenge on a courageous woman by holding her small son as a hostage.
“Marina Voikhanskaya, a psychiatrist, is an active participant in the movement for human rights in the USSR. While still in the USSR she protested against the psychiatric persecution of dissenters, and in the West she has devoted all her efforts to helping the victims of psychiatric repression. The material collected by her, together with other testimonies, convinced the Congress of Psychiatrists in Honolulu to adopt an uncompromising resolution condemning the use of psychiatry for political ends.
“Voikhanskaya is also a foreign representative of the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes . …
“Familiar with all the details of Misha’s fate, we state with full responsibility that the forcible separation of a child from his mother — a tragedy lasting years — is a violation not only of the Helsinki Agreements but also of all the principles of humanism, the motive being disreputable political considerations.
“We call on the representatives of the States which are participating in the Belgrade Conference to intervene on behalf of the child and to assist the reunification of the Voikhansky family. This is not an internal affair of the USSR — for the violation of the rights of a person, the right of a child to be with his mother, cannot be an internal affair of one country.“
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[2]
NEKIPELOV
On 12 September 1977 Major Ilyukhin, the deputy head of the Vladimir Department of Visas & Registration (OVIR), informed Victor Nekipelov (CCE 46.6) that he had been refused an exit visa.
“We consider that you have no reason to go to the state of Israel, you have nothing to do there,” Ilyukhin explained.
On 22 September Nekipelov again sent the President of the USSR Supreme Soviet a “Statement about my Refusal” (//CCE 46.6 [2]); together with the ‘Statement’ he sent back his passport (ID document). In an accompanying letter Nekipelov demanded permission to leave.
“… In the event of it being impossible to leave for Israel, I request you to let me go to the United States or any other so-called capitalist country.” … .
At the same time he sent statements of similar content to the head of OVIR at the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and to the head of the passport section at the Vladimir Region Department of Internal Affairs (UVD).
In one of them he writes:
“I emphasise that my rejection of Soviet citizenship stems from the impossibility of acting otherwise: not only a psychological, but an almost physical impossibility of co-existing further with a State which has become alien.”
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On 4 November 1977 Nekipelov sent a statement to the Rome session of the Sakharov Hearings:
“… I request the 2nd session of the International Sakharov Hearings in Rome to publicise this statement at its meetings, and to regard the refusal to me of permission to leave the USSR as proof of yet another violation by this country of the obligation it has taken on itself.
“I request you to help me and my family to implement our right to leave the USSR.”
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[3]
POLIKANOV
In 1975 a corresponding-member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and Lenin-Prize laureate Sergei Mikhailovich POLIKANOV (b. 1926) received an invitation from the director of CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, Professor van Hove (a Belgian physicist), to go to Geneva to take part in joint research.
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In 1962 Polikanov took part in a discovery which changed ideas about the process of splitting atomic particles. The research being carried out in Geneva is directed towards checking these ideas.
In a letter addressed to Professor van Hove Polikanov writes:
“Until recently I was one of the people who can be called ‘passable’. This means that from time to time I was able to go abroad, including to capitalist countries. In my biography there are, or, more precisely, there were, no aggravating circumstances:
- “I am not Jewish, but Russian;
- “I have no relatives abroad;
- “I was not on territory occupied by the Germans during the war;
- “I have not landed up in sobering-up stations, etc.
“I have been in capitalist countries several time, I even spent a year and a half in Denmark with my family, and therefore, when the question arose of an official trip to Switzerland for me and my family for a year, I was convinced that everything would be fine, i.e. they would let me go.
“Everything began to look completely different, however, when they informed me that I could work for a lengthy period in Switzerland but had to go there on my own. It would be extremely painful for me to spend long months in Switzerland without my family, and I refused the official trip under the conditions of which it was offered to me.
“Deeply convinced of the necessity of taking part in the planned research project, I addressed a letter to secretary of the Party Central Committee M.A. Suslov, requesting him to send me and my family on an official trip to Switzerland, but this did not resolve the question.
“Of course, I now know well the reason why I was not allowed to go to Geneva with my family.
“KGB officials do not wish my wife to go abroad. Is that not surprising? For she does not work and naturally does not know any State Secrets. The only thing which she could be accused of is that, like other women by the way, she does not express delight at the empty shelves in our shops.
“Probably some informer wrote a denunciation to the KGB and that was enough. A simple truth, isn’t it? And how disgusting!”
Polikanov writes further that a year later he appealed to Brezhnev to allow him to cooperate with Western scientists as a private individual.
“The past year has shown that my attempts to fight the administrative apparatus have put me on the ‘black list’. I realize that I will never be sent to a capitalist country even for a day, let alone for a year. Proof of this is the refusal to discuss with me the matter of a trip to Geneva for two weeks to discuss a joint article, and also to Copenhagen at the invitation of the Niels Bohr Institute.
“… People can also say to me that there are not a few scientists in our country who are not allowed trips to capitalist countries, even though they have invitations from Western scientists. 1 must note that 1 have always been amazed why none of these people protest against the discrimination in regard to them. Is it really fear of repression that silences everything? How sad that is …
“In the life of every man a moment may come sooner or later when he has to ask himself who he is, a free man or a dumb beast. On how he answers himself, and on whether he acts accordingly, much depends; or rather, the whole of his future fate depends.
“Give in, and you are guaranteed a wisp of straw in a stall, but if you stand up for what you believe it will be bad for you and your children, even very bad.
“What happened to me forced me to think deeply about the place of man in our society. Is a man really not free to dispose of his own fate? Is my wish to cooperate freely with Western scientists really criminal? Why do some people unknown to me, who are indifferent to my research, and, I think, to science as a whole, decide how 1 should live? And what then can I dare to decide? In the eyes of these ‘masters of life’ I am evidently an insignificant insect, who can be crushed if need be. And you can be assured that they will try to do this in the near future.
“For I did not consent with dumb submission to chew the wisp of straw offered to me, but dared to protest and even to ‘wash my dirty linen in public’, and this, as is well known, is a very grave sin.”
The deputy director of the Combined Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna where Polikanov works advised him to write to van Hove and tell him that he was ill. When he himself arrived in Geneva, he said this to van Hove. “Look at the man who is the first to have told me a lie in this office while looking me straight in the eye,” was van Hove’s response.
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[4]
DROZDOVA
In June 1976 Lydia Alexandrovna DROZDOVA (Minsk, 52 Lander Street, flat 329), a teacher at the Belorussian Polytechnical Institute, asked for permission to go abroad.
She received no answer from the MVD but was dismissed from the institute.
In July 1976, in a statement to the President of the USSR Supreme Soviet N.V. Podgorny, L.A. Drozdova renounced her Soviet citizenship. Since then she has been trying persistently to obtain permission to leave. In July 1977, after six unanswered statements, Drozdova wrote a letter to the new President of the USSR Supreme Soviet, L.I. Brezhnev [2].
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Two weeks later she was invited to visit Podlessky, an Instructor [3] at the Minsk Regional Committee of the Belorussian Communist Party. Podlessky said the Central Committee of the Belorussian Party had commissioned him to investigate her letter to Brezhnev.
In the course of the conversation Podlessky asked:
“Do you have relatives abroad? We allow exit from the USSR only on the invitation of relatives. Who will receive you there?”
D. “I want to leave the USSR not to go to relatives but because of my disagreement with the system existing in the USSR. 1 wrote to Brezhnev about this. Many countries receive political emigrants. I am not connected with secret work, I have no children who are minors. Are there really any reasons for refusing to let me emigrate?”
P. “There are no such reasons, When did you first conceive the idea of leaving the USSR?”
D. “In childhood, while I was still at school. But it was only after the Helsinki Agreements that I was able to declare this. I was a witness of the Stalinist terror, of persecution and illegal acts against many people.”
During a second conversation between Podlessky and Drozdova a ‘stranger’ was present. He said to Drozdova:
“You have a sister. Why didn’t you inform her that you want to leave the USSR? You should have done this.”
“I’ll inform her when I find it necessary,” she replied.
At the end of the conversation Podlessky said that in order to process the documents for an exit visa it was necessary to undergo a medical examination, and suggested to Drozdova that she begin the medical examination with a psychiatrist. Drozdova requested Podlessky to ask for a certificate from the psychiatric clinic.
P. “No, I can’t do this. You have to go there yourself. Are you really afraid that you will be locked up in a madhouse?”
D. “Yes, I think that this is precisely the goal you are pursuing by sending me to psychiatrists. In any event, I cannot risk it.”
P. “In that case our conversation is over. We will not review your statement.”
On 12 November 1977 Drozdova appealed to the Helsinki Group for help.
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[5]
On 21 October 1977 Liliya Schastlivaya (Moscow 16, 55 Parkovaya Street, building 2, flat 73) appealed to the Moscow Helsinki Group for help.
In February 1975 she handed in her documents for an exit visa but in July 1975 received a refusal on the basis of the ‘secret nature’ of her former work. Schastlivaya worked as an interpreter in the service bureau of the Rossiya Hotel in central Moscow. Her successor, A. Poladyan, who began to work in her place after Schastlivaya was dismissed, handed in her own documents for an exit visa in January 1977: in June Poladyan had already left the USSR.
After Schastlivaya handed in her documents for an exit visa, her son Sergei Schastlivy (b. 1955) was expelled from his institute. In September 1976 he, too, handed in documents for an exit visa, but in December 1976 received a refusal without any reason being given.
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[6]
The German family Lange who live in the Kirgiz SSR (722191, Alamedinsky district, Alamedin village, 1 Mayakovsky Street), has been trying to obtain permission to leave for Germany since 1960.
In October 1977 they sent a letter to the Human Rights Committee, requesting help.
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[7]
The following people have requested the Lithuanian Helsinki Group to help them leave the USSR: Irena-Anna Staniene (b. 1938), Alfredas Peteraitis (b, 1943) and former political prisoners Stepas Bubulas (b. 1917), Povilas Peciulaitis (b. 1923) and Enn Tarto (b. 1938).
- The mother and sister of Staniene (Klaipeda, 3 Ushakov Street, flat 1) have already left for West Germany. Staniene herself also has German citizenship. She has already been refused an exit visa several times.
- Peteraitis (Klaipeda, 33 Daukanto Street, flat 2) has been trying since 1974 to obtain an exit visa for West Germany — to join his father.
- Bubulas served 15 years (1947-1962) under Article 58 (1924 RSFSR Criminal Code).[4]
- Peciulaitis served 20 years (1952-1972) under Article 58 (see Note 3) and one year (1975-1976) for “violating the residence regulations” (CCE 36.10 [17], CCE 37.7 [2]).
- Tarto was imprisoned from 1956 to 1962.
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[8]
In September 1977 former political prisoners Ivan Ovchinnikov (b. 1929), Vyacheslav Repnikov (b. 1935), Yury Grimm (b. 1935), Victor Semyonov (b. 1939), Romas-Juozanas Giedra (b. 1944), Birute Pasiliene (b. 1928) and her son Aleksis-Alfonsas Pasilis (b. 1949) addressed a request to L.I. Brezhnev to allow them to leave the USSR, and a request to Jimmy Carter to allow them to enter the USA [correction CCE 48.25].
- Ovchinnikov (601600, Vladimir Region, Alexandrov, 3 Krasnoroginskaya Street, flat 2) was imprisoned in a Mordovian camp from 1958 to 1965 under Article 64 (RSFSR Criminal Code), and in the Urals from 1966-1969 for failing to report on the attempt of his friend to escape abroad.
- Repnikov (601601 Vladimir Region, Strunino, Street, Osipenko 17) spent 1953-1955 in the Leningrad special psychiatric hospital, and 1959-1969 in Mordovia (“betrayal of the motherland”).
- Grimm (113054, Moscow, 9a Tatarskaya Street, flat 74) was in Mordovia from 1964-1966 (Article 70, RSFSR Criminal Code). See the report on him in CCE 46.6.
- Semyonov (357371, Stavropol Region (Krai), Predgorny district, Podkumok village, 48 Essentuki Street) spent 1959-1969 in Mordovia for attempting to leave the USSR illegally.
- Giedra (235780, Lithuanian SSR, Palanga, 3 Ju. Janonio Street, flat 1) was in Mordovia in 1962-1967 for attempting to leave the USSR illegally.
- Pasiliene (Lithuanian SSR, Klaipeda, 20 Vasorotoiu Street) was in prison from 1946-1949 for links with the Lithuanian underground movement.
- Pasilis (same address) spent 1970-1974 in Mordovia: “anti-Soviet Agitation & Propaganda”.
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[9]
SEITMURATOVA
Activist of the Crimean Tatar movement Ayse Seitmuratova (CCE 23.7 [1], CCE 34.11, CCE 49.12) submitted her documents [5] for an exit visa in December 1976 “at the summons of a relative from Israel”. At the beginning of 1977 she was refused.
Ayse Seitmuratova (b. 1937)
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In a statement to Brezhnev of 25 September 1977, referring to the “Convention against Discrimination in Education” and the Final Act of the European Conference, Seitmuratova requested permission to leave.
“Furthermore, I do not wish to live in Uzbekistan, where I have been sent for life-long exile … If there is no place for me in my native land, the Crimea, then I myself shall choose a foreign country.”
On 4 October Seitmuratova appealed to the Belgrade Conference. She writes:
“I am deprived of freedom of movement on the territory of the USSR. In 1976 on 5 September … , after physical force was applied, I was thrown out of the Crimea. In April 1977 I was threatened in Moscow — then thrown out! In Uzbekistan I am under systematic open and secret surveillance. … The persecution to which I am being subjected up to the present day is not a personal matter but a specific example of the persecution of the Crimean Tatar people …
“Deprived of civil and national rights in the USSR, and of the means of subsistence, 1 was compelled to apply to OVIR to travel beyond the boundaries of the USSR, in order to complete my education and to do historical research, since I have been deprived of this possibility in my own country. But OVIR and the Uzbek KGB have put a veto on this right of mine too — the right to leave. Threats, intimidation and persecution have intensified since I handed in my visa application to OVIR.
“I am not even guaranteed against physical punishment.”
Seitmuratova requests the participants of the Conference to defend her rights and to help her leave the USSR.
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NOTES
- The “Group for Monitoring Observation of the Final Accords” (Helsinki Group) was set up in October 1976; the “Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes”, was established by the Helsinki Group in January 1977. See Guided Search for such abbreviations.
↩︎ - In June 1977 Nikolai Podgorny was replaced as President of the USSR Supreme Soviet by Leonid Brezhnev, Secretary-General of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU).
↩︎ - ‘Instructors’ were the lowest-ranking officials of the Communist Party in the USSR.
↩︎ - Article 58 (“counter-revolutionary crimes”) was added to the RSFSR Criminal Code in 1926.
↩︎ - On Seitmuratova, see CCE 23.7 [1], CCE 34.11, CCE 49.12 and Name Index.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 