Speech #530132419

It is only with the constant reminder of cases such as the Leningrad trials that we can have any hope of pressuring the Soviet Government to improve human rights conditions. The plight of the Leningrad Eleven. a group of nine Soviet Jews and two nonJews. is symbolic of the fate of many Soviet people that find themselves so disillusioned and frustrated with the repression of the Soviet regime that they can no longer bear to live there. For this reason. they risk their wellbeing and their livelihoods in publicly declaring their desire to emigrate from the Soviet Union to lands free of persecution and repression. They seek basic human rightsthe freedom to practice their religious and cultural traditions. to speak their conscience. and to exercise the fundamental human rights accorded to every individual. Their wish to flee the Soviet Union for countries that are free of this sort of repression is so fervant that they have the courage to face the ostracism that inevitably follows once an individual declares his frustration with the Soviet regime and requests permission to leave.